Poster and Publication Assistance. Thoughts on Developing and Printing Research Posters. Prepared by: Ken Cothran

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1 Poster and Publication Assistance Thoughts on Developing and Printing Research Posters Prepared by: Ken Cothran Center for Research and Collaborative Activities College of Health, Education, and Human Development Clemson University January, 2009

2 Introduction The presentation Poster Design Guidance, which is available on our web site in PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat formats, provides a thorough overview of concepts influencing research poster design. Although that material is not duplicated in this publication, the chart describing the sequence of steps in the designproduction process is included here for your convenience. As you begin composing your poster, please be cognizant of the information contained in that presentation. Poster Development Sequence Planning Production Proofing and Refining Payoff Purpose Content/ Context Imposed Constraints Design Construction Review/ Revision Printing Review/ Revision Presentation The online PowerPoint template provided on our site is designed to provide you with one design possibility for your research poster presentation, as well as to provide you with tips for poster preparation. You can highlight the various text elements in the template (titles, authors, section headings, body text, and bulleted or numbered lists) and replace that content with text of your own choosing. Alternatively, you can import text into the template using copy and paste commands, and then format the text using the pre-formatted template text as a guide. If you have access to other software capable of producing larger page dimension documents (including Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher, the no-longersupported Freehand (my favorite), or Apple Pages or Keynote, the design tips included will also be of assistance to you. In each case, the key is to decide at the beginning of the process what page dimensions you wish and what the poster will be displayed on, and design accordingly. There are many ways to create a research poster. The online template, and my accompanying suggestions, are based on my reading and experience; as well as that of many faculty, staff, and students with whom I have worked. However, your own needs and/or tastes may lead you to try different approaches. I commend you for doing so, but be sure to have your work reviewed by other people in order to check that what you intend to communicate does indeed communicate. Frankly, we all can use second or third opinions. Design Considerations Notice the layout ideas in this template. You have a title section, containing the title, as well as the authors and institutions in smaller print than the title. In this case, the color of the text is reversed using white text on a colored ground for visual impact. Use a good foreground/background contrast for readability. Be 2

3 especially careful if you use text of one color on a background of another. Often the colors do not contrast enough to be easily readable. In the template s top left corner, there is a visual identity element (the CRCA logo). There is a lefthand column containing an introduction and other information. The center section contains the meat and potatoes of the design, including data, pictures, tables, graphs, and other similar items. I used two columns in top center section but one column in the lower center section for variety. Feel free to re-arrange this center section to suit your presentation and your taste. Its layout simply needs to make sense visually. Consider carefully how the reader will read that section, and what impact it will make on them. On the right hand side is a column containing findings, references, implications, and other summary information. Contact information can be located at the bottom of the poster, or at the bottom of the right hand column. Another possibility for design is to use three more or less equally wide sections, with the title bar extending the entire width of the top of the page. If you have a long title and/or many contributors, consider using this option, and include the logo at the bottom of the poster or in the ends of the title bar if there is room. Sometimes having the logo prominently visible in the center just below the title bar is a good visual idea. A collage of project-related data or pictures is also good for this central area of the poster to draw the eye into the work. Text The online template uses the Arial font for titles and headings, and Times New Roman for body text. You may use any fonts you want for title or body text, but be consistent. I suggest using a font like Arial for headings, which doesn t have the little serifs that stick off the sides of the letters; and a font like Times A Arial font. Notice strokes are same width, and straight ends to strokes New Roman for the body text, which has serifs and helps the eye to travel along as you read. I suggest a font size no less than 28 or 30 point to make reading at a normal presentation distance easier. You can use a larger font size if you wish, though I d not go much above 40 points for body text. Look for a balance between readability and text fit to the available space. Paragraphs in the template have a little bit of space inserted after them. If you choose the paragraph item from the Home tab in PowerPoint, you can set spacing and indents for one or more paragraphs. You must select the paragraphs to be edited before applying formatting. The idea is to separate paragraphs using a little spacing in order to help with readability. ATimes Roman font. Note different weight strokes, and ornamentation on ends of some lines. These are serifs. Avoid using too much text on a page. The poster is an advertisement for your research, not a re-creation of your book or article. Use some bulleted or numbered statements instead of long paragraphs when this fits the content. Cut the verbiage as much as possible while still telling your story. If you look at the first poster illustration on the previous page, it should be apparent that there is too much text in the left column. 3

4 Avoid setting a text color and its background color that are too close in value. You want a dark color text and a light color background, or vice-versa. This can get tricky. Red text on a green background is a bad idea. The values of red and green are too close. It is difficult to read text if there is not a rather high foreground-background contrast. Likewise, if you intend to position text in front of a picture, be certain that the text is easily readable against the picture background. Even if you set the picture as a watermark (a very ABC light image that acts as a kind of texture), check it carefully for readability. The design may look good conceptually, but it needs to be checked for readability. Sometimes, with experimentation, you can find ways to improve readability. Graphics The CRCA logo is at the top left of the sample poster template. You can insert another logo, a picture, or even a quotation there in place of our logo to suit your needs. PowerPoint supports many graphic types (formats). Remember: if you are using a.tif,.gif,.jpg, or.png file (one of the various picture format file types), the file should be of decent quality and have a high enough resolution to avoid the jaggies (pixilation) if you stretch the picture on the page. Higher resolution files (300 dots per inch, for example) can be stretched to 4 times their original size. File resolution is a little technical, but you can use files of lower resolution if they were of decent quality to begin with, and if you remember not to re-size them beyond their ability to be stretched. Hold down the shift key while stretching a file (making it bigger) to make sure that the file expands by the same amount both vertically and horizontally. Otherwise, your image will be grossly distorted. Speaking of file quality, files that end in.jpg (called J-Peg ) are very useful, but you must be careful with them. They use an algorithm to compress the data, which is set when the file is created. If the file is compressed too much, you begin to lose image detail and data. That is one source of the little colored squares and blotchiness that you see on some.jpg files. You can safely use a file that is a 7 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 meaning no compression is used. A 6 or 5 sometimes can be used, but you begin to see deterioration in some instances. Many programs, including PowerPoint, offer ways to alter the way a picture is displayed. You can crop images (hide parts of them in order to adjust size and what is seen), lighten or darken them, adjust the color scheme, etc.. Experiment with these options in order to get the results you want. It s fun! Tables, Charts, and Graphs Illustrations including tables, charts, and graphs are a vital part of posers. They provide a visual element which invites discussion and conclusions. Most software capable of producing a poster also provides tools for designing or importing illustrations. PowerPoint has some nice formatting features for making illustrations look professional. Remember, in designing illustrations, to focus the design to communicate that which will present your research, and cull out unnecessary elements. Double-check your work to make sure your data is accurate and presented properly. It may be easier for you to create your own tables, charts, and graphs within PowerPoint or other programs rather than importing them from other programs. Sometimes it is really tricky to move formatted data files between programs. As you are moving to a larger format, sometimes it is tricky or even impossible to re-format specialty files to work in a larger poster format. Additionally, having to enter data into a new table or graph might just encourage you to simplify and focus your illustration, which should improve its ability to communicate your point. If you want to import charts or tables from a program and simply can t get it to work, you can do a screen print (using the print screen button on your keyboard), then paste this into PowerPoint or another program, and then crop it to show only what you want to see. It s best if you paste the screen image into a picture editor, and then crop and save it. On a Mac, use the Grab utility, use the capture selection command, and then save it in Grab and import into your presentation. 4

5 PowerPoint Quirks PowerPoint is not designed to serve as a design and layout program in the way that InDesign or Publisher are. However, the newest versions for Mac and Windows are quite capable Although the new versions (07 for Windows, 08 for Mac) have improvements, they still lack the flexibility of true design programs. Be aware that if you are zoomed in to the screen and do certain edits, the view can jerk around to a place where you don t want to be. Some of the functions, like working with guides, are hidden in the entrails of the interface. Still, it is a very powerful and useful tool if you spend the time it takes to master it. There are some cool innovations in the new PowerPoint of which you should be aware: The formatting pop-up: If you highlight text with your mouse, you should notice a pop-up contextsensitive tool bar that ghosts into existence. The bar also is available if you right-mouse click selected text or objects. If you don t release your mouse button, but move the pointer over the bar, you can select some formatting items there like font type, font size, alignment, bullets, colors, etc.. This is very helpful. If you choose bulleted list though, you will have to adjust the indents elsewhere. This can be done on the ruler at the page top if you know how. I will be glad to talk you through this if you wish. You can, if careful with the mouse, make multiple format adjustments with the pop-up tool bar. These pop-ups are context sensitive also, giving different options depending on what is selected. It also pops up along with a menu when you right-click a selection. You can now have multiple text format types within text boxes. This makes having longer text boxes easy, making formatting a breeze. PowerPoint supports.eps files (encapsulated postscript). This makes using professional level graphics much easier. Building a Poster From Scratch Open your software program (PowerPoint, InDesign, Corel Draw, Illustrator, Publisher, etc). In PowerPoint for Windows, a blank slide is created on the screen automatically. If not, create a new file by whatever means your program and operating system requires. In some programs, there is a feature in the new file dialogue that lets you set the page size. If not, in PowerPoint 2007, click the Design tab, and then the Page Setup button. A dialogue box like the one in the illustration at right will appear on your screen. Click the landscape option under slide in the right hand portion of the dialogue, then enter numerical values for the height and width of the page. In landscape mode, the page you design is wider than it is tall. Consider that a typical photograph of a landscape is wide to capture the landscape, whereas a portrait is taller because people are taller than they are wide. What numbers do you enter? This depends on how large you wish your poster design to be. You should consider the amount of display space your conference provides you, the size of your available poster support (the mounting board or whatever you are putting the poster on for display), and the size paper your printer can print. Avoid 5

6 making the poster so small that it looks lost in the display setting. Avoid making the poster so large that it becomes difficult to handle. If you are using a tri-fold board, measure each panel of your display, and then either create three slides that are the dimensions of each of the display board s panels, OR create one slide whose layout provides natural place to clip or bend it to fit the display. Tri-folds require more planning than flat displays, but can be beautiful for presentations. The template pictured earlier in this publication is 34 inches tall, and 46 inches long. These dimensions were selected to print correctly on Clemson s Plot03 or Plot36. Here is why. Printers typically have a 1 inch margin all the way around the poster. You MUST leave an inch or so on all sides in order for the plotter not to clip your layout. You can do this one of two ways: Set your page setup dimensions 2 inches smaller than you will set your print dimensions. Set your poster page setup to the same dimensions as you intend to set your print dimensions, but purposefully leave an inch of white on all 4 sides of your document. It is up to you to decide which of these strategies you wish to use. Be certain, though, which approach you choose to use, and stick with it. Once you set up your poster page, you put your stuff on it. These decisions should be made during the planning process, but often you may change your mind regarding what to place on the poster as you place information and manipulate its appearance and placement. Be flexible and adapt your content as you work. There are a number of sample posters on the Center for Research and Collaborative Activities web site which may give you ideas regarding how to present your materials. Remember to make sure your materials are logically organized and professionally presented. In producing a poster, remember that often less is better. Take it as a challenge to tell your story as briefly and succinctly as possible. What content do you really need? What points will help the viewer understand, and what points are not necessary? Where might a chart, table, or picture add to the understanding and enjoyment of your work? Content can be created in your layout program, or it can be brought in from another program. Although importing, or copying and pasting from an outside program like a word processor, is convenient; consider if it is easier to simply summarize information for this poster by typing it in directly in PowerPoint or whatever you are using. Sometimes, when bringing text in, it can be confusing to have to scale the text up in size and then re-set tabs and indents. Do whatever is most convenient for you. I recommend creating tables and charts in your layout program unless you are comfortable with importing and formatting existing charts or graphics. How do you get things to line up? Most programs have grids and/or guides that you can use to align items. Use the page rulers as well. Things don t necessarily have to be mathematically precise, but alignment is one factor that can make your poster look very good or very sloppy. Try putting your content into the poster, and then adjusting it for visual impact. Once everything is on the page, you will be better able to see how it all fits together, and where there is a need for adjustment. When adjusting your layout, try to see the poster both from your viewpoint what do you want to communicate; and from the viewpoint of your audience. Remember to do one thing above all others: SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN! Programs crash periodically. Power fluctuates. You might accidentally close the program or make a mistake. Saving the file provides you protection from disaster. It is good, as well, to have a back-up copy of your work just in case. This is particularly true if you transport your files on a thumb drive or other mobile (and losable) storage device. 6

7 Printing It is best to think of how you will print your poster from its inception. Create the poster from the beginning to be the correct size to allow for proper printing. If the printing process is too confusing, get someone to help you with it. We are fortunate at Clemson to have free access to large format printing, but it s an expensive resource. We owe it to the university community and other supporters to be good stewards of the resource. While you can re-print posters to fix problems, try not to repeatedly send posters to print. Work out as much of the editing as you can on the computer screen. Use images that are of a high enough resolution to print well at the larger size of a poster. If your image is 1 inch by 1 inch, and is 72 dpi, it will not enlarge to 5 or 10 inches without looking distorted (blocky). If you have a picture which is, say, 3 or 4 inches and is 300 dpi, it can be enlarged to 4 times its original size without distorting (the 72 rule ). Thus, a 3 inch square picture that is 300 dpi can safely be stretched to 12 inches square without distortion taking place (4 x 72 = 288, allowing the image to be re-sized to 4 times its original dimensions 4 x 3 inches = 12 inches). When you set your print dimensions, be certain to follow the instructions on the CCIT web page or in my poster how to guide available on the CRCA web site. Set the dimensions in the print dialogue to 36 inches x 48 inches (landscape/wide) for this poster. This provides sufficient margin all around, which also provides a white border around the poster. You can, of course, trim the printed copy down to 34 x 46 if you wish. Be sure to read the printing FAQs on CCIT s printing web site. From the time you send your poster to print, CCIT guarantees it will be available in no more than 24 hours. In general, they are much prompter than that. We provide a number of links to CCIT printing information pages on our web site. Although you may wish to review your printout to fix errors or improve design, please try to print as few copies as possible to get a usable final. Color printing is very expensive and uses a great deal of resources. We are fortunate to have access to output of this quality, so it is incumbent upon us to be good stewards of this resource. If you need multiple copies of a poster for a reason, CCIT is helpful in providing these. Please see their FAQ pages to learn more. Mounting and Display This poster template is designed to be displayed using a flat mounting board. If you wish to use a poster with a tri-fold mounting support, design the poster in such a way that it is divided into three columns that match the dimensions of the panels of the support. If you mount a poster designed for a flat board onto a tri-fold support, it will look unprofessional. Get the dimensions of your support panels before beginning your design, and construct the poster to fit those panels. Some people like to laminate posters. It does improve the look, but is an expensive process. Consider whether or not your poster will be re-used sufficiently to justify the cost of lamination or professional mounting. I am not a fan of gluing a poster to foam core at least not the cheaper white variety. Foam core can be easily damaged, and is difficult to transport long distances. Some conferences provide their own backing material. If not, you will need to plan accordingly. Solicit the advice of experienced colleagues if you need to. Some Final Thoughts When it comes to design, there are many ways to do posters. Feel free to enjoy the process, to experiment, to perhaps take risks in design, and otherwise let this be a fun learning experience for you as well as for your audience. If you choose, designing your poster can provide you with opportunities for innovative 7

8 design and communication experiences. Such experiences are why I engage in this sort of work (other than for a pay check), and I commend it to you for the same reasons. Here are some final suggestions: Ask for help if you need it. Balance initiative and individual effort with taking advantage of the resources, expertise, and people around you. Have fun with the design process. This is a chance to advertise your research. You can tell your research story in a report fashion. You can use a collage of images and results. Or, you can come up with another approach. Use your imagination, but get others to tell you what they see as a check that you are saying what you want to say. Creativity is good. However, remember that your audience has to get it. Don t produce a poster that will make you look bad. Do NOT try to cram your entire research report onto one poster. No one can read something like that, nor will they. Use carefully selected pictures, graphs, illustrations, and short statements to communicate your research. Take the time to clean up your work so it works professional. Sloppy posters reflect badly on you in front of LOTS of watching eyes. If you want to share more detailed information, provide handouts that people can take with them. Have fun! 8