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How to Design a Winning Poster Presentation: Quick Guide with Examples & Templates

How are research posters like High School science fair projects? Quite similar, in fact.

Both are visual representations of a research project shared with peers, colleagues and academic faculty. But there’s a big difference: it’s all in professionalism and attention to detail. You can be sure that the students that thrived in science fairs are now creating fantastic research posters, but what is that extra element most people miss when designing a poster presentation?

This guide will teach tips and tricks for creating poster presentations for conferences, symposia, and more. Learn in-depth poster structure and design techniques to help create academic posters that have a lasting impact.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• What is a Research Poster?

Why are Poster Presentations important?

Overall dimensions and orientation, separation into columns and sections, scientific, academic, or something else, a handout with supplemental and contact information, cohesiveness, design and readability, storytelling.

• Font Characteristics
• Color Pairing
• Data Visualization Dimensions
• Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Scientific/Academic Conference Poster Presentation

Digital research poster presentations, slidemodel poster presentation templates, how to make a research poster presentation step-by-step, considerations for printing poster presentations, how to present a research poster presentation, final words, what is a research poster .

Research posters are visual overviews of the most relevant information extracted from a research paper or analysis.   They are essential communication formats for sharing findings with peers and interested people in the field. Research posters can also effectively present material for other areas besides the sciences and STEM—for example, business and law.

You’ll be creating research posters regularly as an academic researcher, scientist, or grad student. You’ll have to present them at numerous functions and events. For example:

• Conference presentations
• Informational events
• Community centers

The research poster presentation is a comprehensive way to share data, information, and research results. Before the pandemic, the majority of research events were in person. During lockdown and beyond, virtual conferences and summits became the norm. Many researchers now create poster presentations that work in printed and digital formats.

Let’s look at why it’s crucial to spend time creating poster presentations for your research projects, research, analysis, and study papers.

Research posters represent you and your sponsor’s research 

Research papers and accompanying poster presentations are potent tools for representation and communication in your field of study. Well-performing poster presentations help scientists, researchers, and analysts grow their careers through grants and sponsorships.

When presenting a poster presentation for a sponsored research project, you’re representing the company that sponsored you. Your professionalism, demeanor, and capacity for creating impactful poster presentations call attention to other interested sponsors, spreading your impact in the field.

Research posters demonstrate expertise and growth

Presenting research posters at conferences, summits, and graduate grading events shows your expertise and knowledge in your field of study. The way your poster presentation looks and delivers, plus your performance while presenting the work, is judged by your viewers regardless of whether it’s an officially judged panel.

Recurring visitors to research conferences and symposia will see you and your poster presentations evolve. Improve your impact by creating a great poster presentation every time by paying attention to detail in the poster design and in your oral presentation. Practice your public speaking skills alongside the design techniques for even more impact.

Poster presentations create and maintain collaborations

Every time you participate in a research poster conference, you create meaningful connections with people in your field, industry or community. Not only do research posters showcase information about current data in different areas, but they also bring people together with similar interests. Countless collaboration projects between different research teams started after discussing poster details during coffee breaks.

An effective research poster template deepens your peer’s understanding of a topic by highlighting research, data, and conclusions. This information can help other researchers and analysts with their work. As a research poster presenter, you’re given the opportunity for both teaching and learning while sharing ideas with peers and colleagues.

Anatomy of a Winning Poster Presentation

Do you want your research poster to perform well?  Following the standard layout and adding a few personal touches will help attendees know how to read your poster and get the most out of your information. 

The overall size of your research poster ultimately depends on the dimensions of the provided space at the conference or research poster gallery. The poster orientation can be horizontal or vertical, with horizontal being the most common.  In general, research posters measure 48 x 36 inches or are an A0 paper size.

A virtual poster can be the same proportions as the printed research poster, but you have more leeway regarding the dimensions. Virtual research posters should fit on a screen with no need to scroll, with 1080p resolution as a standard these days. A horizontal presentation size is ideal for that.

A research poster presentation has a standard layout of 2–5 columns with 2–3 sections each. Typical structures say to separate the content into four sections; 1. A horizontal header 2. Introduction column, 3. Research/Work/Data column, and 4. Conclusion column. Each unit includes topics that relate to your poster’s objective.  Here’s a generalized outline for a poster presentation:

• Condensed Abstract 
• Objectives/Purpose
• Methodology
• Recommendations
• Implications
• Acknowledgments
• Contact Information 

The overview content you include in the units depends on your poster presentations’ theme, topic, industry, or field of research. A scientific or academic poster will include sections like hypothesis, methodology, and materials. A marketing analysis poster will include performance metrics and competitor analysis results.

There’s no way a poster can hold all the information included in your research paper or analysis report. The poster is an overview that invites the audience to want to find out more. That’s where supplement material comes in. Create a printed PDF handout or card with a QR code (created using a QR code generator ). Send the audience to the best online location for reading or downloading the complete paper.

What Makes a Poster Presentation Good and Effective? 

For your poster presentation to be effective and well-received, it needs to cover all the bases and be inviting to find out more. Stick to the standard layout suggestions and give it a unique look and feel. We’ve put together some of the most critical research poster-creation tips in the list below. Your poster presentation will perform as long as you check all the boxes.

The information you choose to include in the sections of your poster presentation needs to be cohesive. Train your editing eye and do a few revisions before presenting. The best way to look at it is to think of The Big Picture. Don’t get stuck on the details; your attendees won’t always know the background behind your research topic or why it’s important.

Be cohesive in how you word the titles, the length of the sections, the highlighting of the most important data, and how your oral presentation complements the printed—or virtual—poster.

The most important characteristic of your poster presentation is its readability and clarity. You need a poster presentation with a balanced design that’s easy to read at a distance of 1.5 meters or 4 feet. The font size and spacing must be clear and neat. All the content must suggest a visual flow for the viewer to follow.

That said, you don’t need to be a designer to add something special to your poster presentation. Once you have the standard—and recognized—columns and sections, add your special touch. These can be anything from colorful boxes for the section titles to an interesting but subtle background, images that catch the eye, and charts that inspire a more extended look. 

Storytelling is a presenting technique involving writing techniques to make information flow. Firstly, storytelling helps give your poster presentation a great introduction and an impactful conclusion. 

Think of storytelling as the invitation to listen or read more, as the glue that connects sections, making them flow from one to another. Storytelling is using stories in the oral presentation, for example, what your lab partner said when you discovered something interesting. If it makes your audience smile and nod, you’ve hit the mark. Storytelling is like giving a research presentation a dose of your personality, and it can help turning your data into opening stories .

Design Tips For Creating an Effective Research Poster Presentation

The section above briefly mentioned how important design is to your poster presentation’s effectiveness. We’ll look deeper into what you need to know when designing a poster presentation.

1. Font Characteristics

The typeface and size you choose are of great importance. Not only does the text need to be readable from two meters away, but it also needs to look and sit well on the poster. Stay away from calligraphic script typefaces, novelty typefaces, or typefaces with uniquely shaped letters.

Stick to the classics like a sans serif Helvetica, Lato, Open Sans, or Verdana. Avoid serif typefaces as they can be difficult to read from far away. Here are some standard text sizes to have on hand.

• Title: 85 pt
• Authors: 65 pt
• Headings: 36 pt
• Body Text: 24 pt
• Captions: 18 pt

If you feel too prone to use serif typefaces, work with a font pairing tool that helps you find a suitable solution – and intend those serif fonts for heading sections only. As a rule, never use more than 3 different typefaces in your design. To make it more dynamic, you can work with the same font using light, bold, and italic weights to put emphasis on the required areas.

2. Color Pairing

Using colors in your poster presentation design is a great way to grab the viewer’s attention. A color’s purpose is to help the viewer follow the data flow in your presentation, not distract. Don’t let the color take more importance than the information on your poster.

Choose one main color for the title and headlines and a similar color for the data visualizations. If you want to use more than one color, don’t create too much contrast between them. Try different tonalities of the same color and keep things balanced visually. Your color palette should have at most one main color and two accent colors.

Black text over a white background is standard practice for printed poster presentations, but for virtual presentations, try a very light gray instead of white and a very dark gray instead of black. Additionally, use variations of light color backgrounds and dark color text. Make sure it’s easy to read from two meters away or on a screen, depending on the context. We recommend ditching full white or full black tone usage as it hurts eyesight in the long term due to its intense contrast difference with the light ambiance.

3. Data Visualization Dimensions

Just like the text, your charts, graphs, and data visualizations must be easy to read and understand. Generally, if a person is interested in your research and has already read some of the text from two meters away, they’ll come closer to look at the charts and graphs. 

Fit data visualizations inside columns or let them span over two columns. Remove any unnecessary borders, lines, or labels to make them easier to read at a glance. Use a flat design without shadows or 3D characteristics. The text in legends and captions should stay within the chart size and not overflow into the margins. Use a unified text size of 18px for all your data visualizations.

4. Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Finally, the last design tip for creating an impressive and memorable poster presentation is to be mindful of the layout’s alignment, margins, and white space. Create text boxes to help keep everything aligned. They allow you to resize, adapt, and align the content along a margin or grid.

Take advantage of the white space created by borders and margins between sections. Don’t crowd them with a busy background or unattractive color.

Calculate margins considering a print format. It is a good practice in case the poster presentation ends up becoming in physical format, as you won’t need to downscale your entire design (affecting text readability in the process) to preserve information.

There are different tools that you can use to make a poster presentation. Presenters who are familiar with Microsoft Office prefer to use PowerPoint. You can learn how to make a poster in PowerPoint here.

Poster Presentation Examples

Before you start creating a poster presentation, look at some examples of real research posters. Get inspired and get creative.

Research poster presentations printed and mounted on a board look like the one in the image below. The presenter stands to the side, ready to share the information with visitors as they walk up to the panels.

With more and more conferences staying virtual or hybrid, the digital poster presentation is here to stay. Take a look at examples from a poster session at the OHSU School of Medicine .

Use SlideModel templates to help you create a winning poster presentation with PowerPoint and Google Slides. These poster PPT templates will get you off on the right foot. Mix and match tables and data visualizations from other poster slide templates to create your ideal layout according to the standard guidelines.

If you need a quick method to create a presentation deck to talk about your research poster at conferences, check out our Slides AI presentation maker. A tool in which you add the topic, curate the outline, select a design, and let AI do the work for you.

1. One-pager Scientific Poster Template for PowerPoint

A PowerPoint template tailored to make your poster presentations an easy-to-craft process. Meet our One-Pager Scientific Poster Slide Template, entirely editable to your preferences and with ample room to accommodate graphs, data charts, and much more.

Use This Template

2. Eisenhower Matrix Slides Template for PowerPoint

An Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool to represent priorities, classifying work according to urgency and importance. Presenters can use this 2×2 matrix in poster presentations to expose the effort required for the research process, as it also helps to communicate strategy planning.

3. OSMG Framework PowerPoint Template

Finally, we recommend presenters check our OSMG Framework PowerPoint template, as it is an ideal tool for representing a business plan: its goals, strategies, and measures for success. Expose complex processes in a simplified manner by adding this template to your poster presentation.

Remember these three words when making your research poster presentation: develop, design, and present. These are the three main actions toward a successful poster presentation. 

The section below will take you on a step-by-step journey to create your next poster presentation.

Step 1: Define the purpose and audience of your poster presentation

Before making a poster presentation design, you’ll need to plan first. Here are some questions to answer at this point:

• Are they in your field? 
• Do they know about your research topic? 
• What can they get from your research?
• Will you print it?
• Is it for a virtual conference?

Step 2: Make an outline

With a clear purpose and strategy, it’s time to collect the most important information from your research paper, analysis, or documentation. Make a content dump and then select the most interesting information. Use the content to draft an outline.

Outlines help formulate the overall structure better than going straight into designing the poster. Mimic the standard poster structure in your outline using section headlines as separators. Go further and separate the content into the columns they’ll be placed in.

Step 3: Write the content

Write or rewrite the content for the sections in your poster presentation. Use the text in your research paper as a base, but summarize it to be more succinct in what you share. 

Don’t forget to write a catchy title that presents the problem and your findings in a clear way. Likewise, craft the headlines for the sections in a similar tone as the title, creating consistency in the message. Include subtle transitions between sections to help follow the flow of information in order.

Avoid copying/pasting entire sections of the research paper on which the poster is based. Opt for the storytelling approach, so the delivered message results are interesting for your audience. 

Step 4: Put it all together visually

This entire guide on how to design a research poster presentation is the perfect resource to help you with this step. Follow all the tips and guidelines and have an unforgettable poster presentation.

Moving on, here’s how to design a research poster presentation with PowerPoint Templates . Open a new project and size it to the standard 48 x 36 inches. Using the outline, map out the sections on the empty canvas. Add a text box for each title, headline, and body text. Piece by piece, add the content into their corresponding text box.

Transform the text information visually, make bullet points, and place the content in tables and timelines. Make your text visual to avoid chunky text blocks that no one will have time to read. Make sure all text sizes are coherent for all headings, body texts, image captions, etc. Double-check for spacing and text box formatting.

Next, add or create data visualizations, images, or diagrams. Align everything into columns and sections, making sure there’s no overflow. Add captions and legends to the visualizations, and check the color contrast with colleagues and friends. Ask for feedback and progress to the last step.

Step 5: Last touches

Time to check the final touches on your poster presentation design. Here’s a checklist to help finalize your research poster before sending it to printers or the virtual summit rep.

• Check the resolution of all visual elements in your poster design. Zoom to 100 or 200% to see if the images pixelate. Avoid this problem by using vector design elements and high-resolution images.
• Ensure that charts and graphs are easy to read and don’t look crowded.
• Analyze the visual hierarchy. Is there a visual flow through the title, introduction, data, and conclusion?
• Take a step back and check if it’s legible from a distance. Is there enough white space for the content to breathe?
• Does the design look inviting and interesting?

An often neglected topic arises when we need to print our designs for any exhibition purpose. Since A0 is a hard-to-manage format for most printers, these poster presentations result in heftier charges for the user. Instead, you can opt to work your design in two A1 sheets, which also becomes more manageable for transportation. Create seamless borders for the section on which the poster sheets should meet, or work with a white background.

Paper weight options should be over 200 gsm to avoid unwanted damage during the printing process due to heavy ink usage. If possible, laminate your print or stick it to photographic paper – this shall protect your work from spills.

Finally, always run a test print. Gray tints may not be printed as clearly as you see them on screen (this is due to the RGB to CMYK conversion process). Other differences can be appreciated when working with ink jet plotters vs. laser printers. Give yourself enough room to maneuver last-minute design changes.

Presenting a research poster is a big step in the poster presentation cycle. Your poster presentation might or might not be judged by faculty or peers. But knowing what judges look for will help you prepare for the design and oral presentation, regardless of whether you receive a grade for your work or if it’s business related. Likewise, the same principles apply when presenting at an in-person or virtual summit.

The opening statement

Part of presenting a research poster is welcoming the viewer to your small personal area in the sea of poster presentations. You’ll need an opening statement to pitch your research poster and get the viewers’ attention.

Draft a 2 to 3-sentence pitch that covers the most important points:

• What the research is
• Why was it conducted
• What the results say

From that opening statement, you’re ready to continue with the oral presentation for the benefit of your attendees.

The oral presentation

During the oral presentation, share the information on the poster while conversing with the interested public. Practice many times before the event. Structure the oral presentation as conversation points, and use the poster’s visual flow as support. Make eye contact with your audience as you speak, but don’t make them uncomfortable.

Pro Tip: In a conference or summit, if people show up to your poster area after you’ve started presenting it to another group, finish and then address the new visitors.

QA Sessions 

When you’ve finished the oral presentation, offer the audience a chance to ask questions. You can tell them before starting the presentation that you’ll be holding a QA session at the end. Doing so will prevent interruptions as you’re speaking.

If presenting to one or two people, be flexible and answer questions as you review all the sections on your poster.

Supplemental Material

If your audience is interested in learning more, you can offer another content type, further imprinting the information in their minds. Some ideas include; printed copies of your research paper, links to a website, a digital experience of your poster, a thesis PDF, or data spreadsheets.

Your audience will want to contact you for further conversations; include contact details in your supplemental material. If you don’t offer anything else, at least have business cards.

Even though conferences have changed, the research poster’s importance hasn’t diminished. Now, instead of simply creating a printed poster presentation, you can also make it for digital platforms. The final output will depend on the conference and its requirements.

This guide covered all the essential information you need to know for creating impactful poster presentations, from design, structure and layout tips to oral presentation techniques to engage your audience better . 

Before your next poster session, bookmark and review this guide to help you design a winning poster presentation every time. 

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Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides: Which Is Best?

Plex is shutting down its tidal integration, photo sphere is the best pixel camera mode google removed, quick links, define the poster dimensions, design your poster.

Microsoft PowerPoint isn't just for presentations---it also provides all of the creative tools you need to design a beautiful poster. Just set the dimensions, design the poster, and print it out. Here's how to make a poster using PowerPoint.

Posters come in all sizes, but the first thing you need to know is PowerPoint's slide limit is 56-inches x 56-inches, so you'll need to plan accordingly. It's also important to note that you want to set your poster dimensions before you start designing your poster. Otherwise, you might end up having to rework parts of your design due to the size change.

Related: How to Reduce the File Size of a PowerPoint Presentation

Here are some of the standard poster sizes to get you started:

• Small poster: 11" x 17"
• Medium poster: 18" x 24"
• Large posters: 24" x 36" or 27" x 39"

Once you've decided on your poster size, set the dimensions in PowerPoint. To do this, open PowerPoint and navigate to the "Design" tab.

In the "Customize" group, select "Slide Size."

Select "Custom Slide Size" from the dropdown menu.

The "Slide Size" window will appear. Input the width and height specifications to match your required size. Keep in mind that if your height is larger in size than your width, the orientation of the slide will automatically change to "Portrait."

When you're finished, select "OK."

Once selected, a new window will appear giving you two scaling options: Maximize or Ensure Fit. If your slide already has content on it, you'll want to select "Ensure Fit."

Your slide will now be resized.

Your poster design is going to depend completely on you. You'll want to pay attention to the background of the poster, text and image arrangement, font size and style, etc. Essentially, you should treat this part exactly as if you were just creating another slide for a presentation.

Because the design and process of this step is going to differ for everyone, we'd like to offer some of our previous guides to get you started in the design process:

• Insert a picture or other object.
• Use an image as a background.
• Insert an image inside text.
• Get a picture behind text.
• Make a border or frame.

Once your design is ready, all that's left to do is print it out and hang it up!

Related: How to Troubleshoot Printing Issues in Microsoft Word

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft PowerPoint

How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

What is a Research Poster?

Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their program.  Research posters summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. 

The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.

What Makes a Good Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

A Sample of a Well Designed Poster

View this poster example in a web browser .  

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected], via Penn State

Where do I begin?

Answer these three questions:.

• What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
• What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

What software can I use to make a poster?

A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. ( Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint ).

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign

Feature-rich professional software that is good for posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.  NYU Faculty, Staff, and Students can access and download the Adobe Creative Suite .

Open Source Alternatives 

• OpenOffice is the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its PowerPoint alternative).
• Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.
• For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts .
• A complete list of free graphics software .

A Sample of a Poorly Designed Poster

View this bad poster example in a browser.

Image Credit: Critique by Better Posters

• Next: Design Tips >>
• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 5:34 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

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How to Design an Poster in Microsoft PowerPoint in 7 Simple Steps

Last Updated: October 30, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Dillon . Hannah Dillon is a Technology Writer and Editor at wikiHow. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from North Dakota State University in 2013 and has since worked in the video game industry as well as a few newspapers. From a young age Hannah has cultivated a love for writing and technology, and hopes to use these passions in tandem to help others in the articles she writes for wikiHow. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 4,801 times. Learn more...

Do you need to make a poster for school or an event? PowerPoint can be a great tool to create a poster to accompany your project or advertise something. PowerPoint can create posters that are up to 56" by 56", and it's a convenient software choice if you already own Microsoft Office and don't want to learn Photoshop or InDesign. In this article, we'll teach you how to make a poster in PowerPoint easily and quickly.

Things You Should Know

• Make sure your images are high quality so they print clearly on the poster.
• Consider how your poster will look when printed, and make your text and images large enough to see.
• If you want to print a poster bigger than 11x17, you'll likely have to get the poster printed at a print shop.

• Make your own graphs or charts using PowerPoint . These assets can be resized while you're in the program so they print clearly on the poster.
• Collect images that are at least 150 dpi. You can check the DPI (dots per inch) of your image various ways , such as in the File Explorer or Paint.

• If you're planning to print at home, keep your poster size to 11"x17" or less. If your printer can print larger-format documents, size your poster accordingly. Otherwise, you'll need to get your poster printed at a print shop.

• Draw out your design before you make it. If you have an idea for your poster's design, sketch it out so you have an idea of where to start once you open up PowerPoint.
• Insert images directly into PowerPoint. Don't use copy and paste , as this may not import the highest-quality image.
• Make sure your text is big enough to read. Depending on your poster size, start with a headline font that is 100pt and a body font between 24 and 48pt. Make sure to select fonts that are easy to read, such as serif or sans-serif fonts.
• Remember contrast . Don't put dark text on a dark image or light text on a light image. If you selected a background with many different colors, consider adding a solid-colored box behind your text to make it legible.
• Arrange your content from top to bottom. Most people will read a poster from top to bottom, so put your initial or most important points near the top of the poster.

• Even if you're printing a small poster, you will have to go to a specialized print shop if you need your poster printed on a unique material like vinyl.
• At-home printers can usually print up to 11"x17" size paper and can generally handle paper thickness up to a sturdy cardstock. Some common paper sizes for at-home printers include 8.5"x11" (letter), 8.5"x14" (legal), and 11"x17".
• If you can't or don't want to go to a print shop, you can print large posters at home using the Rasterbator tool. Simply go to Rasterbator.net and follow the on-screen instructions to upload your poster file and split it into smaller pieces you can print at home. After printing, trim the margins from the papers and join them with tape or by gluing them to the poster board. While this won't create a professional-quality poster for a school or work project, it works when creating a rough draft or just making a poster for your wall at home.

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How to Create a Poster Presentation

Getting started, poster design best practices.

• Don't be too wordy! Keep text concise and clear.
• Organization is key. Think about what you want to say first and then carefully consider layout.
• Consider your audience. What will they have questions about? What do you want them to learn from your poster?
• Make sure your title is descriptive and large enough to be readable from far away.
• Think about image and font sizes so the poster is readable from 5-8 feet away.
• Use headings, bullets, and graphics to break up text.
• Make sure your images and graphics have contrast so they pop on the page.
• Think about including contact information for those who want more information.
• Remember, your poster will read left to right just like a page.

Example Posters (Click arrow to scroll through)

Award Categories

This year posters will be judged in two categories:

Most Visually Appealing Poster Description: A visually appealing poster can be judged based on the following criteria:

• Do visuals enhance poster content? Is it eye-catching?
• Are the components of the poster balanced across the space?
• Easy to read, pleasing-on-the-eye font/ color scheme choices? Is text error-free?
• Are photographs, graphs, tables, and other graphics creative?  

Best Articulation of Career Development Through Internship Description: In this category, we are looking for the poster to show how the internship impacted the student’s career path and development of career competencies.

• Poster provides clear description of the internship including student’s responsibilities/accomplishments
• Poster clearly identifies career readiness skills and how they were strengthened through internship
• Poster articulates student’s next steps and career goals
• Poster showcases internship in dynamic way such as “day-in-the-life”

Poster Template

This template will help you get started. Just download this and add your content to the boxes using PowerPoint. Be sure to keep the box sizes the same so that the poster will print properly.

Need Access to PowerPoint?

Because of the ease of importing images, formatting text boxes, and making slides with extra-large dimensions, many people use PowerPoint for creating posters. For this project, please use the PowerPoint template on this page for your poster. BC students can download PowerPoint for free . You are only allowed one download per computer. If you have received a new computer since your first download, you can re-download it on your new device. For any other technical assistance or if installation does not work, please connect directly with BC Information Technology Services by either calling (617-552-4357) or visiting the IT Help Desk located in O’Neill Library, 3rd floor. For those on or close to campus this summer, you can also use the Library computers that house all softwares.

Microsoft Office @ BC

• Last Updated: Feb 7, 2023 11:38 AM

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Blog on science communication

How to design a poster presentation that makes your research stand out

Presenting a poster at a conference is an amazing opportunity to showcase your research, get valuable feedback, advance your career and make lasting connections. But we often see boring posters filled with unclear graphs, crammed with too much text and uninspiring images.

Let us help you create a beautiful award-winning poster with this blog and our extensive Poster Guidelines.

What is the goal of your poster presentation?

A quick reminder: The main goal of a poster presentation is not to share your research results. If that were the case, you could just publish it, email it to colleagues in your field or hand out copies of your paper during conferences. Instead, the goal of standing next to your poster is to have interaction with other researchers in your field , learn from their critical questions, feedback, and suggestions, and make connections for future collaborations.

Your new goal is to present your work clearly and make sure that people stop to talk to you about your work. To achieve this goal, you and your poster need to STAND OUT. If you do it well, presenting your poster is an incredible learning opportunity.

Collect feedback with your poster

Viviam participated in our poster design workshop and decided that her main goal was to collect feedback since she was running into obstacles with her PhD. She was very clever to create a poster around these obstacles and ask visitors to put post-its up with their tips. With this approach she won two poster awards!

“It was an amazing experience and the outcome was exactly what I wanted, a lot of interaction with the public, feedback, questions, many post-it notes, lots of connections in LinkedIn and possibly new collaborations. Also, my supervisors are extremely proud and happy. I couldn’t ask for more! THANK YOU!”

See her poster in our Hall of Fame .

Read more about the goal of your poster and how to write a good pitch in our blog Define the goal & pitch for your poster presentation

Your title is your main message

The one thing all your poster visitors are looking for is your main message. That’s why we want your main message to be visible at a glance! So make it easy for people to find it and make sure the largest text on your poster is your main message. Usually your title will be the text that stands out the most. Usually your main message is your research conclusion. But it doesn’t have to be! You can decide what you think is your main message. Is it a recommendation, a warning or a method to use? You can choose what you think is most interesting about the research.

Whatever you do, do not copy the descriptive title of your paper to your poster. Descriptive titles are horrible: they only show the topic and do not give the main conclusion. Let’s have a look at this generic title from this article on air pollution as an example: “Urban Air Pollution and Greenness in Relation to Public Health”. If we read it, we still don’t know anything. In other words, you’re delaying communicating the main message.

The best format for your title a conclusive statement. This way, even if people only read your title, they have already seen the most important message. This is what a conclusive statement looks like:

CONCLUSIVE STATEMENT: Expanding green spaces and enforcing low-carbon policies can effectively combat health risks from air pollution in Addis Ababa.

Write a conclusive title, so people can read your main message at a glance!

If it’s hard to write a clear conclusive statement or you don’t have results yet, a question would be a good alternative for your title. What about “Mental health in hospitals: what can health professionals do to ease the pain?”. It’s the perfect start to a conversation. Imagine what the first question would be that you can ask a person approaching you. It does not tell the whole story but makes people curious enough to walk up to your poster to read the answer or have a discussion with you.

For more examples and tips on how to formulate your title, read our blog Write a compelling title about your research . Learn why descriptive titles are the worst for good science communication and try out different main messages to see which one works best for your research.

The 5-second science communication rule

In general, you only have a few seconds to grab attention with your poster. People will only stop at your poster if they are drawn in by an interesting title or a stunning design. When they decided to slow down and start reading more, it takes them about 30 seconds to read your poster. This is not reading in a traditional sense, but more skimming the titles. This means that if your titles are words such as Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion they will still have no idea what your research is about!

Reading your poster should not be a chore. Test it with some friends or colleagues. Show them your poster for 30 seconds, and ask them what they think is your main message, and what result/word/graph/design piqued their interest.

Write down your research as a story

In our workshops, we ask participants to write down their research in a single paragraph or a one-minute speech and then shorten it until you have a few sentences. Those sentences are then used to write the headings of your poster (we call them chapters). This way, your audience doesn’t have to read each the paragraphs to find what they’re looking for, but can scan the headings of your poster and immediately understand the core message from your research.

Answering the following questions help you get started:

Why are you doing your research? What is your ultimate goal?

What is the underlying problem? When your research is about urgent topics that people know about, like curing cancer or stopping climate change, you won’t have to elaborate on the topic in a lengthy introduction. Then you can just start with “We want to find a better way to diagnose breast cancer”.

e.g. We want to slow down Alzheimer’s disease / find a cure for small-cell carcinoma / find out which cells are responsible for skin cancer. | We want to improve patient care in hospitals. | We want to understand the environmental causes of obesity. | We aim to study the best way to lose weight. | We want to develop a new standard for research outcomes. (Just a few examples from our clients)

However, your research might be about a problem or observation people don’t know about yet. If that’s the case, you have to explain the problem AND the goal or solution to the problem with a longer sentence:

e.g. Crucian carp can survive in ice-covered lakes without oxygen for months. We want to know if DNA methylation acts as a switch to transition from summer to winter months.

What exactly are you looking at in your research? How are you executing your research?

e.g. you are studying human behavior, performing cell microscopy, literature research in the national archives, interviews in local communities.

e.g. you are doing epidemiology, meta-analysis, RCT, in-vitro cells, computer modeling, AI, fieldwork, (online) questionnaires.

What makes your research, approach, or team unique?

e.g. We’re doing the first multi-disciplinary research into obesity prevention / We have an international team with over 20 participating countries / We developed a unique new technique or methodology / We combine all available data to date / We have a specific breed of mice that might answer the question better / This is the first time anyone has ever looked at X or used method Y.

This would result in a sentence like this:

To find out how to slow down Alzheimer’s disease, we are using new metabolomic profiling techniques to find pathways to prevent beta-amyloid proteins from forming harmful plaques in the brain.

This can be the new subtitle or large quote of your poster! It’s the main summary of what you’re trying to achieve.

Example of a story-based poster

Let’s have a look at this poster example we created from a paper on microbes in the Antarctic. We’ve written out each section (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion) as a conclusive statement. This makes it easy to scan and read for your audience. You can add more details in the paragraph text or graphs. But don’t overcrowd your poster, if people want all the details, handing out your actual peer-reviewed journal article is a better way to show these.

Since most people are afraid that leaving out the traditional structure will be confusing, we’ve included them as eyebrow headings. Learn about eyebrow headings and text design in part 3 of our Poster Guidelines )

Learn how you can write an engaging research story for your poster in our blog How to write a story from your research for posters & infographics .

Poster prep-time!

• Think about what you want to get out of this poster presentation. Do you want to connect with at least 3 senior researchers? Do you want to get feedback on a specific result? Do you want to discuss your methods and ask others how they would do this?
• Prepare what you want to say when someone approaches your poster. Or better yet, what you want to ask them.
• Think about what critical questions people may have about your poster and prepare a short answer. Is your research about dairy and it is funded by the dairy industry? Expect some critical questions. Be grateful you get these questions, it’s what proper scientific discussion is all about!

Do not conform to “standards” imposed by the conference

We know that you often have to adhere to guidelines for your poster presentation. Maybe you have to abide by a standard template from your institution, or have huge logos from every single collaborator (and even pictures of their locations!) on it. We advise that you do NOT give in to these demands without a fight. Remember: these guidelines are not made by science communication experts, but often by the press officer with a desire for a uniform look or by more senior scientists who think design is something achieved by rainbow-colored text effects in Word. You get our frustration…

Of course, it’s good to adhere to the physical format of the poster mount and have large and legible text, but we’ll try to push you out of your comfort zone here a bit. You will not get punished by anyone for using different colors than your institution, use a different font, and use design in a way that makes your research pop. Remember: you can not stand out if your poster looks like all the other boring posters in the room!

TEXT: How to make sure your main message stands out

Don’t structure your presentation like a paper.

Ditch the abstract/introduction/results/conclusion/acknowledgments structure and create your own interesting titles. Instead: write conclusive titles that people can skim. This means that you should make sure that your titles (the largest texts on your poster) tell your story.

Turn headings into conclusions & quotes

Instead of the vague descriptive title “Costs of diabetes” you can turn it into the main conclusive message: “Total costs of diabetes have increased to $245 billion.” Which one do you prefer?

This means that you do NOT highlight the least interesting words on your paper, but let the MESSAGE stand out. We cringe when we see the words “Background” highlighted in huge bright blue text, and the main message obscured in smaller text.

An example: How to structure your research (based on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32023777 ).

Which behavioral and nutritional factors are targets for stomach cancer prevention programmes?

A meta-analysis and systematic review of 14 behavioral and nutritional factors in 52,916 studies.

Helicobacter pylori infection, smoking, alcohol, high salt intake were identified as the main factors contributing to stomach cancer.

These results may be utilized for ranking and prioritizing preventable risk factors to implement effective prevention programs.

As you can see, with the new structure, it’s already a short explanation of your entire research! Way to go!

TIP: Does your research show negative results? Shout it from the rooftops! Don’t be disappointed, your research is just as important as anyone else’s. Do not hide it, show it, so other people can learn from it.

Check out part 3 of our Poster Guideline for tips on structure, and writing texts:

DESIGN: Keep it clean and simple

How do you think you will come across if you use different backgrounds, colors and fonts for every slide? Does that really make you look creative and professional? We know it’s tempting, but don’t use every tool PowerPoint has given you to design with. Don’t use gradients, drop-shadows, text effects if you don’t know how to use them.

The design of your poster should support your story, provide structure, and make your presentation more effective. Design can also help distinguish between the main message and supporting information. By using different designs for your main thread and quotes, anecdotes, or examples you make sure people don’t lose sight of your most important messages.

We love to show bad examples, so check out this poster presentation dissection:

Get inspired by creative posters in our Poster Hall of Fame

We’re so proud of our workshops participants when they create a beautiful poster or win a poster award! So we created a hall of fame to showcase great posters. As you will see, there is no one standard, you can create any type of poster and still attract attention. Each poster is made under different circumstances and conference requirements.

Only use bullet points for actual lists

If there is one piece of advice we would love for you to remember from this post: do NOT use bullet points for sentences! It transforms them into weird short sentences and doesn’t make your messages any clearer. Please, only use bullet points for actual lists. Like countries or disease outcomes you are measuring. Disregard your instinct to put bullets before sentences and just write a nice readable paragraph instead. People will love you for it! If you’re feeling creative you can always ask yourself the question of whether there are better ways to visualize your bullet points. Showing the countries you’ve gathered data from in an actual map is MUCH more informative than a list (anybody knows where Kyrgyzstan is located exactly?). We often use https://mapchart.net/world.html for creating maps.

COLOR: When in doubt, start with white and grey, and add a single pop of color.

We’re not going to explain color theory here. And don’t be afraid to use ANY color you want. Just make sure to check whether it has enough contrast with the background to be legible (with the WebAIM contrast checker ). Don’t waste your time on this. When in doubt, choose 1 single color (or shades of the same color) and combine it with black for text and white and light grey for backgrounds, boxes, and borders. Add a single pop of color to create focus where you want the audience to look, e.g. important keywords, arrows, and your main message. We have added some color scheme examples in our Poster Presentation Template (see below).

Check out part 5 of our Poster Guideline for tips on the use of colors.

IMAGES: Only use images that contribute to your message

Text alone can be a bit uninspiring sometimes. We encourage the use of images but make sure they contribute to your message. Either use them to show which topic you are researching (e.g. plane aerodynamics, body fat distribution, or the history of women’s rights), or when they have intrinsic value and show something that you cannot point out in words (e.g. the location of an aorta stent, or the flow of information between low-orbit satellites). Don’t add cute images of people, landscapes, university buildings or flower patterns to spice up your poster. Check out our favorite resources for good free copyright-free images and design tools.

So please don’t use random useless stock photo’s like these in your presentation! #facepalm

GRAPHS: Make sure people can read a graph without having to consult a legend or description.

A graph is better than a table. It’s much easier to understand relationships in your data when presented visually in a graph than as numbers in a table. However, a conclusion drawn from the data, presented as a main conclusion with a single number (e.g. alcohol consumption is 23% higher in France than in Sweden) is better than your run-of-the-mill graph with a vague description of the two axes.

Write graph titles as a conclusion of your result.

Which title do you think is better?

Projected disease prevalence and mortality reduction over 20 years for the population aged 18 to 95 years in nine European countries with lower salt intake.

Lower salt intake reduced the prevalence of stroke in Poland by 13.5%

Don’t use separate legends in your graph (e.g. those boxes on the side of the graph). If possible, put the text/label explaining what a line represents next to the line. This prevents people from having to go back and forth between the graph and legend to understand its message.

Check out part 5 of our Poster Guideline for tips on datavisualization.

• Do not copy your complex research paper title as the title on a poster. Create a short and snappy poster title that draws people in.
• Don’t include any text, graph, or image that does not contribute to your main points. If people can understand your main message without them, leave them out.
• Never apply chart junk in your graphs, remove all unnecessary lines/gradients/grids.
• Don’t use high-contrast boxes with rounded corners: this creates weird arrows between boxes that draw your eye to the area in between text.
• Avoid unclear QR codes, people will have no idea what happens after they scan it and it’s often being used for fraudulent purposes.
• Rewrite the title into an intriguing question or statement, so people know what to talk to you about.
• Your main purpose/unique proposition/interesting result should be the largest text on the poster. You should be able to read it from five meters away.
• Ensure that everything on the poster is self-explanatory. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.
• Make sure it’s clear from the poster who you are. Highlight one of the authors, or add a (recent, professional) portrait, so people can also find you later if they visited the poster when you were away.
• White. Space. Scientists seem to think that white space is wasted space that needs more text crammed in. The opposite is true. More white space makes your poster seem less daunting, and easier to approach.
• Have a call to action on your poster. Who do you want people to contact, and what would you want to talk about in future communications? Include your Twitter, LinkedIn, email if possible.
• When in doubt about the colors: choose white and light grey and add a single pop of color. It’s the safest bet!
• Avoid jargon. You can get into jargon and details AFTER people have approached you and your poster.
• Use enough contrast between the background and letters so people can actually read it. You can check your contrast at: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

Creative ideas for those who are ready to conquer the world with their research:

• Laminate your poster and give people a whiteboard marker to write things on it or highlight sections they think are important. This is not only a nice gimmick that people will remember, but can be good for you as a reminder of the feedback you were given. As an added bonus it gives visitors a chance to interact with each other.
• Bring a prop related to your research to the stand. Do you research fat cells? Bring a pound of lard with you. Do you research tooth health? Bring a plastic jaw with you that people can look at.

Tip: Print on textiles instead of paper. Easier to take with you on a plane without tearing or creasing. However, do this only when you are going to use the poster multiple times, it’s a waste of material otherwise.

To hand out or not to hand out?

A hand-out is a great way to get into depth without cramming every single detail into your poster. But you might just have printed 20 copies and nobody to hand it out to. Also, who reads all the things they collect when they get home? In other words: we do not advise you to bring hand-outs.

As useful as it may seem, we think that making the connection is more important than sharing the details of your research right then and there. So instead, give out your LinkedIn or ResearchGate details or your personal website URL, so you are instantly connected and they will see any new updates you post in their timeline. If they are still interested in the details, you have their contact information to send them your paper when it’s published!

POSTER PRESENTATION – A CASE STUDY

Have you read all our tips but still don’t know how to implement them in your poster? Don’t worry, we will go over a case study of an existing poster presentation.

For this case study, we worked together with Joseph Diab , a PhD candidate in bioanalytical chemistry at The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) doing research into Ulcerative Colitis. He wanted to update his poster for his next poster presentation and volunteered with us to make it better.

The BEFORE poster

The poster he made was a typical poster, not bad at all actually, we’ve seen much, much worse… But there was plenty to improve. Let’s go over the poster to find out what could be improved.

The good thing about the poster was that the main title was written in big text, and he even emphasized the most important words. This is a great way to have it stand out more. He did not fall into the trap of having his paper title as the main title, and put it in smaller text below. He was right to make the conclusion bigger as well.

However, there is room for improvement. When you look at the poster while squinting your eyes, only the main title jumps out at you. There is not much larger text to scan to get a feel for what he’s trying to tell us. We’re also missing the reason he is doing this research. Why is it important to reveal the metabolomic signature? If the urgency is missing, people might walk past your poster.

So, to make his poster better we’ve given Joseph some homework questions about his research. These are his answers:

What do you want to get out of this poster presentation?  Joseph: I want to get feedback on how to proceed and validate these finding, and how to unravel the role of microbiota in IBD (Inflammatory bowel disease).

Can you tell me in your own words what the main purpose of your research is? Joseph: IBD is an untreatable nasty disease. The only available treatment just makes the patients go from active inflammation into remission. Most of these patients will develop inflammation again. Moreover, 20-30% of the patients develop very severe outcomes and need surgery, and they might die from complications or from cancer (caused by the treatment failure). In my research, we aim to find a biomarker to predict the outcome from the moments the patient gets the diagnosis.

Why is your research unique? Joseph: This is the first study to determine the full proteomic and transcriptomic profile in treatment-naïve and deep-remission UC patients.

What is the relevance of your results in the real world? Joseph: We are using metabolomics to improve the patient’s stratification in IBD.

We love it when researchers explain something in their own words, it’s so much clearer than when written as a paper! Here are the steps we took to improve his poster:

Step 1: Create an engaging main message.

We’ve rewritten the main message of his poster to include the main goal of his research (to improve IBD treatment) and made it a bit more interesting by adding part of his research results stating that he has found the “first clue”. This is a great way of showing that each research project is just one small step towards final answers, and this can make your audience a bit more curious. Who doesn’t like to figure out clues? This way the title also gives away a part of the results, which makes it easier for people to understand what you’ve accomplished.

Before: Ulcerative Colitis is characterized by altered tryptophan and fatty acid metabolism.

After: Finding biomarkers to improve the personalized treatment of Ulcerative Colitis. Altered tryptophan and fatty acid metabolism provide the first clue.

Step 2: Put the most important messages first.

In Joseph’s poster, like in so many, the conclusion is hidden away at the end of the poster. We’ve moved it up next to the title. In addition, we’ve moved the author affiliations to the bottom of the poster. They were taking up too much prime real estate, and it’s not very relevant for your audience.

Step 3: Create an effective design

We were lucky that Joseph was doing research in a field that is easy to visualize. Ulcerative Colitis is a disease of the large intestines, so we used an illustration of one to enhance the design. This was not just to “make it pretty”, but also to visually show the topic and draw your eye towards the most important message: the conclusion. People recognize an intestine much faster than reading the text.

We stayed away from the boring academic blue. Everybody is using it, which is a good reason to not use it yourself (the easiest way to stand out!). In this case the best choice was to just use the colors from the image. With this bright pink as an accent color, and whites and greys as main colors, you generate a nice cohesive color scheme in a snap!

TIP : If you can find a relevant image for your poster, always use that color in your color scheme! PowerPoint now has an eyedropper tool that enables you to pick any color from an image and use it in texts or boxes.

We wanted to separate the different paragraphs, but not draw too much attention to it by using dark backgrounds, thick borders or lots of contrast, so we used subtle shadow which divides the main sections but does not distract.

Step 4: Emphasize your most important messages

Our advice is to de-emphasize words such as methods and background . However, this might be a bit scary, since it deviates so much from what posters have looked like for years. So we decided to keep it, but use a smaller font size. We used the pink color to emphasize the most important sentences and draw your eyes towards them. If you squint and just read the larger pink text, you should be able to understand the research. We wanted to make it stand out more and make it bigger, but there was not enough space on the poster to increase the font size. An important lesson in working with limitations!

Step 5: Make it engaging and easy to understand for your audience

To make sure the answers to Joseph’s homework were included in the poster, we came up with the “What’s new” section. Just reading this section gives you a very good grasp of the main goal and why the research is unique.

The “How can you help?” section prompts the visitor to have a conversation and invites them to share their ideas about this topic. This is the conversation starter you need for a successful poster presentation.

Step 6: Kill your darlings

There is never enough space on a poster, so we needed to scrap some of the texts and graphs. For each graph, we asked whether it was really necessary to include. Did this graph really contribute to the main message, or could anyone at the conference understand the research perfectly fine without it?

As you can see, we ditched one of the two almost similar multivariate analysis graphs. They showed almost the same thing. We also removed the Venn diagram. It contained some very detailed information that was not essential for the main message and therefore took up too much valuable space.

We also wrote new titles for the graphs in the results section. Instead of a descriptive title (Pathway analysis), we wrote a concluding title (Integrated pathway analysis provides a unique and detailed snapshot of the metabolic changes in the onset of UC.). You want to give away your conclusion from the graph, not have people spend 5 minutes trying to figure it out themselves from looking at the dots.

In the graphs we made the outlying pathways more prominent with the dark blue background, so you can immediately find these pathways without having to read all of them.

Step 7: Background information & call to action

There is always some boring information you have to include, or your supervisors won’t be happy. Logos of your institutions, affiliations, the title of your paper. We put them where they belong: on the bottom of the page in smaller font. Very few people will be interested in this at first glance.

We do want to show who the person is behind the poster, so we kept the headshot of Joseph and added a call to action: Connect with Joseph Diab for more details and a discussion of this paper.

This lowers the threshold for people to connect with Joseph later. After all: he invited them to email him already! Since Joseph is active on Twitter we included his Twitter handle as well as his email address. This is very important. If you want to keep in touch with people who pass by, you have to give them your contact information.

A QR code might sound very hip, but we advise against using it. For starters, it’s not really telling anyone where you will end up. Are you linking to the paper, to Joseph’s personal website, his Twitter account, or his University’s website? People might not even have a smartphone or QR reader. The best thing is to ask people on the spot to connect with you on LinkedIn, Twitter, or send you an email, so you’re sure they will keep in touch.

The result:

Check out Joseph attracting attention with his new poster at the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) 2020 annual congress:

A poster presentation template to not take too seriously

Want to get a head-start on designing your poster? We’ve developed a simple template for your poster to get you ahead of the curve. But don’t take this template too seriously! In fact, we usually advise against using templates, if everybody starts using them, nobody will stand out. It’s your job to make it interesting and fit your needs and limitations.

Check out our extensive Poster Design Guidelines

The ultimate guide for good poster presentation design. Use it to create a well-designed poster that stands out and effectively communicates your research. We’ve created this together with conference organizers, scientists and universities. It’s based over a decade of experience with (visual) science communication.

Submit your poster design

Are you proud of your poster, did you win an award, or do you think it can serve as inspiration for others? Send over your poster, with a quote, your name and a link to your LinkedIn page. An we might just feature it! Send your poster with a short description and link your your LinkedIn profile to me at [email protected] .

Want to learn how to create amazing posters? Check out our workshop on Poster presentation & Infographic design .

About the Author: Liesbeth Smit

Search for more scicomm tips:, read more about science communication:.

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How to write a story from your research: structure for posters & infographics

Tool to create your own data visualisation with icons

Increase the visibility of your research project website and reach your target audience

Find inspiration for your design & create a unique style for your research website

Define the goal & pitch for your poster presentation

Become a pro science communicator with our workshops.

Impact through creative science communication

Do you want to have a positive effect on the world? We'll make you think about your goal, audience, and message and ensure you know what it takes to create impact! Also available as a keynote lecture.

Basics of science communication, pitch your research to any audience

By understanding your audience and aligning your message to their needs, you can really get your point across. In this workshop you’ll create a short pitch or article to practice just that.

Design effective posters, graphical abstracts & infographics about your research

Create beautiful and effective infographics, posters and graphical abstracts. You will learn the best practices in design to make sure your work gets noticed and is easier to understand.

Science and journalism: how to pursue and navigate media attention

Do you want to be more confident around journalists or the media? Or do you want to take advantage of the opportunities that social media offer for scientists? We'll get you started!

Contact us to find out what we can do for you!

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• Powerpoint Tutorials

How to Create a Poster in PowerPoint

Posters are a fantastic way to showcase information in a clear, concise, and visually appealing way. Whether you’re presenting research findings, promoting an event, or simply sharing a cool infographic, PowerPoint can be a surprisingly powerful tool to bring your poster to life. Now, you might be wondering, “Isn’t PowerPoint mainly utilized for presentations?” Well, you’d be right! But PowerPoint’s ability to structure content, incorporate visuals, and finesse formatting makes it perfectly adaptable for crafting impactful posters. This guide will equip you with the knowledge to craft compelling posters that will stop viewers in their tracks.

Before We Begin: A Glimpse into Google Slides

For those more comfortable with web-based tools, we have a dedicated blog outlining the steps to creating stunning posters using Google Slides . Check it out if that’s your preferred platform.

Choosing the Right Canvas Size

PowerPoint slides are designed for presentations, not posters. The default size won’t do justice to your grand vision. Here’s how to adjust the canvas size for your masterpiece:

• Go to the Design tab.
• Click on Slide Size .
• Select Custom Slide Size .
• In the Width and Height boxes, enter the desired dimensions of your poster. Common poster sizes include A1 (33.11 x 23.39 inches) and A2 (46.81 x 16.54 inches). You can also choose a landscape or portrait orientation based on your content.

Planning the Layout

Before diving headfirst into design elements, take a moment to plan your poster’s layout. This helps ensure all the information is organized logically and easy for viewers to navigate. Here are some tips:

• Identify Key Sections: Think about the information you want to convey and group it into sections like title, introduction, methodology (for research posters), results, conclusion, and contact details.
• Visual Hierarchy: Prioritize the sections based on their importance. The title and key findings should be more prominent.
• Balance is Key: Aim for a balanced layout that’s pleasing to the eye. Sketch a rough layout on paper or digitally to visualize the arrangement.

Adding Visuals and Text

With the foundation laid, it’s time to bring your poster to life with visuals and text. Here’s how:

• Background: Choose a background color or image that complements your content and doesn’t overpower it. Solid colors often work well for research posters, while thematic images can add visual interest to event posters.
• Captivating Images: Images are powerful tools for grabbing attention and illustrating your points. Use high-resolution images that are relevant to your subject matter.
• Headlines that Hook: Craft a clear and concise title that piques viewers’ interest. Use large, easy-to-read fonts for the title and headings.
• Body Text: Keep the body text clear, concise, and easy to understand. Use bullet points and short sentences to break up the text and improve readability. Consider using a slightly smaller font size compared to headings.

Formatting and Design Tools

PowerPoint offers a wealth of tools to enhance your poster’s design. Here are some handy features to explore:

• Adding Images and Graphics: Images can breathe life into your poster and help convey your message more effectively. PowerPoint allows you to easily insert images from your computer or online sources. Simply click on the “Insert” tab, select “Pictures,” and choose the image you want to add. You can also add shapes, icons, and other graphics to spice up your design.
• Playing with Fonts and Colors: Font choice and color scheme play a crucial role in poster design. Maintain consistency and readability by limiting to two or three complementary fonts. Experiment with different font sizes and styles to create hierarchy and emphasis. When it comes to colors, opt for a cohesive palette that aligns with your message and branding.
• Shapes and Lines: Use shapes and lines to create sections, highlight key points, or add visual interest. Experiment with different shapes, sizes, and colors to create visually appealing divisions that draw attention to key points. By strategically placing lines throughout your poster, you can guide the viewer’s eye and create a sense of flow and cohesion in your design.
• SmartArt: SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint is a powerful tool for visualizing complex information in a simple and engaging way. Utilize SmartArt to create charts, diagrams, and process flows that effectively communicate your message. With customizable colors, styles, and layouts, you can tailor your SmartArt graphics to match the tone and theme of your poster, adding depth and clarity to your presentation.
• Alignment and Grouping: Ensure a clean and organized look by aligning text and image elements. Grouping related elements together allows you to manage them as a single unit, making it easier to move and manipulate them as needed. Whether you’re aligning text boxes, images, or shapes, taking the time to properly align and group elements will elevate the overall aesthetic of your poster.

Beyond the Basics

Interested in elevating your poster design quickly? Look no further than Slide Egg, a website packed with professional PowerPoint templates and design tips. From sleek modern layouts to scientific-themed templates, Slide Egg has something for every poster type.

The Final Touches: Proofreading and Exporting

Before hitting print (or saving digitally), take a step back and proofread your poster meticulously. Double-check for typos, grammatical errors, and factual accuracy. Once you’re confident everything is perfect, export your poster as a high-resolution PDF for printing or share it digitally.

Conclusion: Your Poster Awaits!

Creating a poster in PowerPoint is easier than you think. With the right tools and a bit of creativity, you can design eye-catching posters that leave a lasting impression. With a little planning and these handy tips, you’re well on your way to crafting a poster. Follow the steps outlined in this guide, and don’t hesitate to experiment with different layouts and designs. So, fire up PowerPoint, deliver your creativity, and get ready to showcase your work with confidence!

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Arockia Mary Amutha

Arockia Mary Amutha is a seasoned senior content writer at SlideEgg, bringing over four years of dedicated experience to the field. Her expertise in presentation tools like PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Canva shines through in her clear, concise, and professional writing style. With a passion for crafting engaging and insightful content, she specializes in creating detailed how-to guides, tutorials, and tips on presentation design that resonate with and empower readers.

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• A Complete Guide on Mastering Poster Presentations

Introduction to Poster Presentations

Understanding Poster Presentation Essentials

Aayush Jain

The history and evolution of poster presentations.

Poster presentations have become a cornerstone in academic, scientific, and professional communities, offering a unique platform for the succinct and visual dissemination of research, ideas, and projects. Originating from the need to share scholarly work in an accessible and engaging format, the evolution of the art of poster presentations reflects broader changes in communication, technology, and educational practices. By blending textual information with visual aids, posters serve not only as a method of presenting complex ideas but also as an art form in itself, balancing aesthetic appeal with informational clarity.

Tracing the Origins

The history of poster presentations can be traced back to the 19th century, when the advent of mass printing technologies made it possible to produce posters in large quantities. Initially used for advertising and public announcements, the potential of posters to attract attention and convey messages quickly became apparent. The academic adoption of posters for presentations began in earnest in the mid-20th century, as conferences and symposiums sought more interactive and dynamic formats for sharing research findings. This period marked a significant shift from traditional oral presentations to a more inclusive and visually engaging method of scholarly communication.

Real-world Evolution and Impact

Throughout the decades, poster presentations have undergone significant transformations, influenced by advances in digital technology and changing academic landscapes. The introduction of digital design tools and software has expanded the possibilities for creativity and precision in poster design, allowing researchers to incorporate multimedia elements and interactive content. Moreover, the global push towards interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement has elevated the role of poster presentations in facilitating conversations across diverse fields and audiences. Notable examples include the use of poster sessions at international conferences to foster global dialogue on pressing issues such as climate change, public health, and technological innovation.

Supporting Evidence

The significance and evolution of poster presentations are well-documented in academic literature and historical analyses. For instance, studies published in Educational Researcher highlight the increasing adoption of poster sessions in academic conferences as a means to enhance participant engagement and knowledge exchange. Similarly, a review in The Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine emphasizes the role of visual aesthetics and advertising in improving the effectiveness of scientific posters. These sources underscore the dual function of posters as both educational tools and objects of visual interest, validating their continued relevance in the academic, classroom, and professional discourse.

Defining the Purpose of Poster Presentations

Exploring the Core Objectives

At its heart, the purpose of a poster presentation extends beyond merely displaying information on a large sheet. It is a strategic communication tool designed to capture the essence of research or a project in a manner that is both accessible and engaging to a diverse audience. Poster presentations serve a multifaceted role: they facilitate the concise summary of complex ideas, foster interactive dialogue between the presenter and the audience, and promote networking opportunities within the academic and professional communities. This unique format allows for the visual representation of data, theories, and conclusions, making abstract concepts more tangible and understandable.

Historical and Educational Context

The educational foundation of poster presentations is deeply rooted in the principles of active learning and visual literacy. By compelling presenters to distill their work into the most essential elements, poster presentations encourage clarity of thought and the ability to prioritize information effectively. Historically, this format has enabled a more democratized form of knowledge sharing, where students, researchers, and professionals, regardless of their stage in their career, can contribute their findings and insights to a wider discourse. The educational benefits of engaging with poster presentations are well-documented, highlighting improvements in critical thinking, design skills, and public speaking.

Real-world Applications and Benefits

In practice, poster presentations have proven invaluable across a multitude of disciplines—from science and engineering to humanities and arts. They offer a platform for early-career researchers to showcase their work, for interdisciplinary teams to present collaborative projects, and for seasoned academics to share their findings with peers and the public alike. Notable real-world applications include poster sessions at major international conferences, where cutting-edge research is introduced, sparking discussions that can lead to new collaborations, funding opportunities, and advancements in the field.

Academic and Professional Endorsements

The effectiveness and importance of poster presentations are reinforced by numerous studies and professional guidelines. For instance, The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasizes the role of poster presentations in enhancing scholarly communication and professional development. Additionally, guidelines published by leading academic institutions offer comprehensive advice on designing impactful posters, underscoring the importance of visual elements, concise content, and a clear message. These resources not only validate the significance of poster presentations within the academic community but also provide practical insights into maximizing their potential.

Different Formats and Styles of Poster Presentations

A Diverse Landscape of Presentation Formats

The realm of poster presentations is characterized by a rich diversity of formats and styles, each tailored to suit the specific needs of the subject matter and the audience . From traditional print posters to interactive digital displays, the evolution of technology and design principles has expanded the possibilities for presenting research and projects. This adaptability not only enhances the visual appeal of posters but also broadens their accessibility and potential for engagement. Understanding the variety of available formats is crucial for presenters aiming to convey their message effectively and captivate their audience.

Historical Evolution and Trends

Traditionally, university poster presentations were predominantly print-based, utilizing paper or fabric as the medium. These printed posters relied heavily on graphic design principles to organize text and images in a visually pleasing manner. However, the advent of digital technology has introduced new formats, such as electronic posters (e-posters) and interactive displays, which allow for dynamic content, including animations, video clips, and hyperlinks. This shift reflects broader trends in digital communication and multimedia, offering presenters innovative ways to illustrate their findings and engage with viewers.

Illustrating Through Examples

The impact of diverse formats and styles can be seen in various fields. For instance, in scientific conferences, e-posters have become increasingly popular, facilitating more in-depth discussions through embedded data visualizations and interactive elements. In the arts and humanities, posters often incorporate a blend of textual analysis and visual artistry, showcasing creative approaches to design and page layout. Examples of standout poster presentations can be found in academic journals and online platforms, where award-winning designs are shared as inspiration for future presenters.

Guidance from Experts

The choice of format and style should be guided by the content of the presentation and the context in which it will be displayed. Experts in visual communication and academic presentation, such as Edward Tufte and Nancy Duarte, offer valuable insights into effective design principles. Additionally, scholarly articles in journals like The Design Journal and websites dedicated to academic poster design provide practical advice, emphasizing the importance of clarity, coherence, and visual impact. These resources underscore the critical role of format and style in enhancing the effectiveness of poster presentations.

Essential Components of a Poster

Crafting a Compelling Visual Narrative

The effectiveness of a poster presentation hinges on its ability to communicate a complex narrative through a blend of visual and textual elements. Identifying and integrating the essential components of a poster are critical steps in crafting a presentation that not only captures attention but also conveys the intended message clearly and succinctly. These components typically include the title, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, conclusions, references, and acknowledgments. Each element plays a pivotal role in the poster's overall narrative, guiding the viewer through the research journey in a logical and engaging manner.

Building on a Solid Foundation

The foundation of a successful poster presentation lies in its structure and content organization. The title should be concise yet descriptive, offering a clear indication of the poster's focus. The abstract provides a brief overview of the study, inviting further exploration. Introduction sections set the stage, outlining the research question and its significance, while the methodology and results sections detail the research process and findings. Conclusions highlight the implications of the study, and the references and acknowledgments sections give credit to the sources and contributors. This structured approach ensures that viewers can easily navigate the poster and grasp the key takeaways.

Real-world Examples and Design Strategies

Examining real-world examples of effective poster presentations reveals common design strategies that enhance readability and viewer engagement. These strategies include the use of bullet points for concise information delivery, graphical abstracts to summarize findings visually, and the strategic placement of visuals to complement the text. For instance, a poster in the field of environmental science might use infographics to illustrate the impact of pollution on ecosystems, while a medical research poster might include charts and graphs to display clinical trial results.

Expert Insights and Resources

The importance of these essential components and design strategies is echoed in literature and resources aimed at guiding poster designers and creators. Edward Tufte's principles of information design emphasize the balance between visual and textual elements, advocating for clarity, precision, and efficiency. Similarly, resources like The Craft of Scientific Posters provide practical advice on selecting and organizing poster components to maximize impact. Peer-reviewed articles in academic journals also offer case studies and analyses of successful posters, serving as valuable references for those looking to create their own.

The Lifecycle of a Poster Presentation

From Concept to Display: Navigating the Journey

The lifecycle of a poster presentation encompasses a series of stages, from the initial concept to the final display and beyond. This journey begins with the identification of a research question or project theme, followed by the meticulous planning and design of the poster. Key milestones include the development of the poster's layout, the selection of visual elements, and the refinement of textual content. The culmination of this process is the presentation itself, where the poster is displayed to an audience, serving as a visual anchor for discussion and engagement. Understanding each phase of this lifecycle is crucial for presenters aiming to maximize the impact of their work.

Foundational Steps and Planning

The early stages of a poster's lifecycle are marked by brainstorming sessions, where ideas are generated and objectives are set. This phase involves extensive research and gathering of information, laying the groundwork for the poster's content. Decisions regarding the poster's format, style, and essential components are made, informed by the presenter's goals and the expectations of the target audience. Effective planning at this stage ensures a coherent structure and a focused message, setting the stage for a successful presentation .

Design, Development, and Delivery

The design and development phase is where the poster takes shape. Presenters employ various software and tools to create visual representations of their data and ideas, paying close attention to layout, typography, and color schemes. This phase is iterative, often involving multiple revisions to fine-tune the poster's aesthetic and informational elements. Once the design is finalized, the poster is produced—either printed or prepared as a digital display—and readied for presentation. The delivery stage is a critical opportunity for presenters to engage with their audience, field questions, and gain feedback, adding a dynamic dimension to the poster's lifecycle.

Post-Presentation Impact and Archival

After the presentation, the poster's lifecycle continues through the dissemination of its content in digital repositories, academic websites, or social media platforms, reaching a wider audience and extending its life beyond the initial event. This phase may also involve reflecting on feedback, making adjustments, and repurposing the content for future presentations or publications. Proper archival and sharing practices ensure that the knowledge and insights conveyed through the poster remain accessible and continue to contribute to scholarly dialogue and public discourse.

Incorporating Expert Guidance and Best Practices

Throughout the lifecycle of a poster presentation, adherence to best practices and expert guidance is paramount. Resources such as The Effective Scientist's Guide to Poster Design and academic blogs on presentation skills offer a wealth of tips and strategies for each stage of the process. These resources stress the importance of clarity, engagement, and adaptability, advising presenters to anticipate audience questions and be prepared to discuss their work in-depth. By navigating the lifecycle with intention and expertise, presenters can significantly enhance the visibility and impact of their research.

Selecting the Right Software and Tools

Charting the Digital Landscape for Poster Creation

In the era of digital communication, selecting the right software and tools is a pivotal decision in the lifecycle of a poster presentation. This choice can significantly influence the design process , the effectiveness of the final product, and the ease with which information is conveyed. From graphic design software to specialized scientific visualization tools, the range of available options caters to the diverse needs and skill levels of presenters. Navigating this digital landscape requires an understanding of the functionalities and features that best complement the objectives of the poster, ensuring that the chosen tools enhance rather than hinder the creative process.

The Foundation of Effective Design

The foundation of an effective poster design lies in the seamless integration of text, images, and data visualizations. Software such as Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, and Canva offers a spectrum of design capabilities, from basic layout and typography to advanced graphic elements and illustrations. For presenters focused on data-rich subjects, tools like Tableau or R with ggplot2 provide sophisticated options for creating compelling data visualizations. The selection process should consider factors such as user-friendliness, compatibility with other platforms, and the specific requirements of the presentation format, whether it be print or digital.

Real-World Applications and Choices

In real-world scenarios, the choice of software often reflects the discipline and objectives of the poster presentation. For instance, researchers in the sciences may gravitate towards tools that offer precision in data representation, such as MATLAB or Python for generating plots. In contrast, professionals in the arts and humanities might prioritize software with strong typographic and layout capabilities, such as Adobe InDesign. Notable examples of well-designed posters, often shared in online forums and design communities, illustrate the impact of software choice on the effectiveness of visual communication.

Guidance from Experts and the Community

For those navigating the selection of software and tools, guidance from experienced designers and presenters can be invaluable. Online tutorials, user forums, and academic workshops provide platforms for sharing insights and tips on maximizing the potential of different software. Additionally, reviews and comparisons in design publications and blogs offer an overview of the latest features and capabilities, helping presenters make informed decisions. Leveraging these resources can demystify the digital tools landscape, empowering creators to produce posters that are not only visually appealing but also rich in content and easy to understand.

Timeline Planning for Your Presentation

Setting the Stage for Success

Effective timeline planning is essential for ensuring the success of a poster presentation. This process involves allocating sufficient time for each phase of the poster's lifecycle, from initial research and design to printing and practice for the presentation itself. Establishing a detailed timeline helps in managing tasks efficiently, avoiding last-minute rushes, and ensuring a polished final product. By breaking down the project into manageable milestones, presenters can maintain a steady pace of progress, allowing for creativity to flourish within a structured framework.

Understanding the Key Milestones

The key milestones in the timeline of a poster presentation typically include the conceptualization of the idea, in-depth research, initial design drafts, feedback collection, final revisions, and printing or digital preparation. Additionally, presenters and event organizers should factor in time for rehearsing their explanation of the poster, as this verbal component is crucial for engaging with the audience during the presentation. Each of these stages requires careful consideration and allocation of time, taking into account the complexity of the topic, the availability of resources, and potential challenges that may arise.

Learning from Examples and Best Practices

Examining successful poster presentations provides valuable insights into effective timeline planning. For example, a presenter who begins the design process several weeks in advance can incorporate feedback from peers and mentors, ensuring a more refined and impactful poster. Academic journals and conference websites often feature timelines and planning guides, illustrating best practices for managing time efficiently. These resources highlight the importance of flexibility within the timeline, allowing for adjustments based on feedback and iterative improvements.

Expert Advice and Strategic Approaches

Experts in academic and professional presentation emphasize the importance of starting early and setting realistic deadlines. Resources like The Chronicle of Higher Education and Nature's guide to scientific posters recommend backward planning—starting from the presentation date and working backward to determine when each task should be completed. This approach ensures that all aspects of the poster, from content accuracy to design aesthetics, are given due attention. Additionally, leveraging project management tools and software can aid in tracking progress and maintaining focus on the ultimate goal: delivering a compelling and informative poster presentation.

Understanding Poster Size and Orientation

Navigating Dimensions and Design Impacts

The size and orientation of a poster presentation are critical factors that significantly influence its design, readability, and overall impact. Choosing the right dimensions requires a balance between the amount of information to be presented, the visual appeal of the poster, and the practical considerations of the venue where it will be displayed. Orientation—whether portrait or landscape—also plays a key role in how content is organized and perceived. Understanding these aspects is essential for creating a poster that effectively communicates the intended message while being visually engaging and easy to navigate.

Historical Context and Evolving Standards

Historically, the standard sizes for academic posters have evolved, influenced by printing capabilities, conference requirements, and disciplinary conventions. Common sizes range from A0 (33.1 x 46.8 inches) to A3 (11.7 x 16.5 inches), with variations based on specific event guidelines. The choice between portrait and landscape orientation has traditionally been guided by the nature of the content and the aesthetic preferences of the designer. As digital displays become more prevalent, new standards are emerging, accommodating a wider range of sizes and formats, and offering greater flexibility in poster design.

Real-World Considerations and Decisions

In practical terms, by contrast, the decision on poster size and orientation often depends on the venue's space constraints, the expected audience flow, and the method of presentation (e.g., hanging, digital screens, or stands). For instance, a larger poster in landscape orientation or standing might be more suitable for detailed data visualizations that require a wider format, while a portrait orientation could be preferred for posters that aim to communicate findings in a more linear, straightforward manner. Successful examples from various fields demonstrate how these decisions are integral to enhancing the poster's readability and audience engagement.

Expert Guidelines and Resources

Design experts and academic guidelines offer valuable advice on selecting the appropriate size and orientation for poster presentations. Recommendations typically emphasize the importance of clarity, audience engagement, and the effective use of space. Resources such as the American Psychological Association and The Royal Society of Chemistry provide specific guidelines on poster dimensions, aligning with the standard practices of academic conferences. Additionally, design software often includes templates and tools specifically tailored for poster creation, helping presenters visualize and plan their layouts in accordance with these dimensions.

Print vs. Digital Posters: A Comparative Analysis

Exploring the Mediums' Unique Advantages

The choice between print and digital posters presents a crucial decision for presenters, each medium offering distinct advantages and considerations. Print posters, traditional staples of academic conferences and public spaces, excel in delivering a tactile, permanent visual experience. Their physical presence allows for easy viewing in various settings, from gallery walks to outdoor displays. Digital posters, on the other hand, leverage technology to offer dynamic, interactive elements such as animations, videos, and hyperlinks, enhancing the engagement and accessibility of the content. This comparative analysis explores how both mediums cater to different presentation goals and audience expectations.

The Evolution of Poster Presentations

The evolution from print to digital posters mirrors broader technological advancements and shifts in communication preferences. Initially, the poster's role in disseminating information was predominantly served by print formats, favored for their simplicity and wide reach. However, the digital era introduced new possibilities for interaction and information sharing, challenging the traditional poster model. Today, digital posters can be easily updated, shared online, and integrated into virtual conferences, extending their reach beyond physical boundaries. This transition highlights the adaptability of poster presentations to changing technological and societal trends.

Practical Implications and Considerations

Choosing between print and digital formats involves practical implications regarding production, distribution, and presentation. Print posters require consideration of printing costs, materials, and logistics, particularly for large-scale or high-quality prints. Digital posters, while eliminating printing costs, may necessitate access to screens or devices for viewing and interactive features that require specific software or platforms. The decision often depends on the context of the presentation, the target audience, and the desired level of interaction and engagement. Real-world examples illustrate how presenters navigate these decisions, opting for the medium that best aligns with their objectives and the capabilities of their venue.

Expert Perspectives and Future Directions

Experts in visual communication and educational technology offer insights into the strengths and limitations of both print and digital posters. Studies and articles in academic journals, such as The Journal of Digital Learning, suggest that digital posters may enhance learning outcomes and audience engagement through interactive elements. Conversely, advocates for print posters highlight the value of a tangible, distraction-free medium that encourages in-depth, focused interaction. The future of poster presentations likely involves a hybrid approach, leveraging the advantages of both mediums to meet diverse needs and preferences.

Checklist for Poster Presentation Preparation

Crafting a Comprehensive Preparation Strategy

A well-organized checklist is indispensable for preparing an effective poster presentation , serving as a roadmap that guides presenters through each critical step of the process. From initial research and design to the final touches before presentation, a thorough checklist ensures no important detail is overlooked. This tool not only aids in structuring the preparation timeline but also helps in maintaining quality and coherence throughout the poster. Incorporating key tasks such as defining the poster's objectives, selecting appropriate software and tools, and practicing the presentation can significantly enhance the poster's impact.

Essential Checklist Components

The cornerstone of a poster presentation preparation checklist includes tasks such as:

Identifying the main message and target audience.

Researching and gathering relevant data and literature.

Selecting the right software and tools for design.

Drafting the layout and organizing content effectively.

Incorporating visual elements (graphs, images, charts) to complement the text.

Revising and refining the content for clarity and impact.

Ensuring adherence to the specific size and orientation requirements.

Printing or finalizing the digital version of the poster.

Preparing to create a concise and engaging oral synopsis for interaction with the audience.

Scheduling rehearsals to refine delivery and anticipate answers to questions.

Leveraging Real-World Examples

Examining real-world examples of successful poster presentations can provide valuable insights into effective preparation strategies. For instance, award-winning posters often demonstrate meticulous attention to detail, innovative use of visual aids, and clear communication of complex ideas. Academic institutions and professional conferences frequently share such examples, offering a practical glimpse into the preparation process that led to their success. These cases underline the importance of thorough planning and the impact of a well-prepared presentation.

Guidance from Experienced Presenters and Educators

Experienced presenters and educators emphasize the significance of early and thorough preparation. Resources like The Effective Poster Presentation Guide and The Academic's Handbook to Presentations offer comprehensive checklists and tips, covering every aspect of poster design and presentation. These resources advocate for a proactive approach, suggesting that presenters seek feedback during the preparation process and adapt their posters based on constructive criticism. Following a detailed checklist not only facilitates a smoother preparation experience but also increases confidence, ensuring presenters are well-equipped to engage their audience effectively.

Thanks for reading and be sure to share this guide if you enjoyed it!

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FAQs on Poster Presentations

What is a poster presentation format.

A poster presentation format involves a visual and textual summary of research or a project displayed on a large poster. This format is designed to facilitate interactive discussions between the presenter and the audience, often in an academic or professional conference setting. Key components include the title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions, strategically arranged for readability and impact.

What are the rules of poster presentation?

The fundamental rules include clarity in design and content, succinctness in text, effective use of visuals (such as graphs, charts, and images), adherence to specified size and orientation guidelines, humor and preparedness for an engaging discussion with the audience. Additionally, respecting copyright laws and citing sources accurately is essential.

How to prepare a poster?

Preparing a poster involves identifying the main message, gathering and organizing content, designing the layout using appropriate software, incorporating visual elements to support the text, and revising content for clarity. Following a detailed checklist can ensure a comprehensive preparation process.

How do I make my poster presentation stand out?

To make a poster stand out, focus on creating an eye-catching design, concise and impactful content, high-quality visuals, and a clear, logical flow of information. Interactive elements, such as QR codes for digital posters, can also enhance engagement. Practicing your pitch to communicate and sell your message effectively during the poster session will further distinguish your presentation.

What is the definition of a poster?

A poster is a visual tool used to communicate information concisely and attractively, combining text and graphical elements. It serves various purposes, including advertising, education, and information dissemination in both public spaces and specialized settings for events like academic conferences.

What is the purpose of a poster?

The purpose of a poster is to present information in a way that is accessible and engaging to a wide audience. In academic and professional contexts, for example, posters aim to summarize research findings or project details, facilitating discussion and knowledge exchange.

What makes a good poster?

A good poster effectively communicates its message through a clear, coherent design, concise content, impactful visuals, and a viewer-friendly layout. It engages and interests the audience, encourages interaction, and conveys the essence of the research or project succinctly.

How do you write a poster?

Writing a poster involves drafting text that is clear, concise, and focused on the key messages. Use bullet points for easy reading, integrate visuals to explain complex ideas, and ensure the content is organized logically, with distinct sections for the introduction, motivation, methodology, results, and conclusions.

What do you mean by poster presentation?

A poster presentation refers to the process of summarizing research or a project on a poster and presenting it to an audience, typically at academic, scientific, or related professional events. It allows for direct interaction with viewers, offering opportunities for feedback and discussion.

How do I make a poster presentation?

Making and selling a poster presentation involves several steps: selecting the right content and visuals, designing the poster layout, printing or preparing the digital display, and finally rehearsing an engaging synopsis of your work for presentation to the audience.

Discover how we can create magic in your communication

Creating a Poster Presentation Template

Methodically Creating a Poster Template

Establishing a Flexible Template Structure Introduction: Foundations of Versatility Creating a flexible poster template structure is essential for adapting to various content needs and presentation contexts. This adaptability allows users to customize their presentations while maintaining a coherent and professional design aesthetic. Background: The Importance of Flexibility In the realm

The Future of Poster Presentations

Predicting Emerging Trends in Poster Design

The Impact of New Technologies on Poster Design Introduction: Revolutionizing Visual Communication The landscape of poster design is undergoing a radical transformation, driven by the advent of new technologies. These innovations not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of posters but also extend their functionality, making them more interactive and impactful.

Poster Presentations in Virtual Environments

Adapting Posters in Virtual Environments

Best Practices for Virtual Poster Presentations Introduction: Mastering the Art of Virtual Presentation Virtual, poster boards and presentations have become a staple in the academic and professional landscape, offering a unique platform to showcase research and ideas remotely. Mastering this format requires understanding best practices that cater to digital environments.

How to Make a Poster in PowerPoint: 10 Simple Steps

In addition to creating presentations, did you know you can use PowerPoint to design other elements such as posters? Today, we’re walking you through exactly how to make a poster in PowerPoint.

While not everyone thinks about making a poster design in PowerPoint, it’s pretty easy—and is a viable option if you need something quickly, or don’t have other design software available. (Posters made in PowerPoint are frequently used in academic settings for assignments and event promotion on college campuses.) Today, we’re going to take you through the steps of how to make a poster in PowerPoint.

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Explore Poster Templates

1. Collect Poster Materials

Before starting on a PowerPoint poster design, sit down and figure out what is going on in the poster. Write out a plan for the design and collect all materials in a folder on your desktop – text, charts or data, and photos or other graphics.

2. Launch Software

Navigate to PowerPoint on your computer and open the software. Start with a blank template. It does not matter which version of PowerPoint you use to create a poster design. (Here, we are using 365, but the steps and locations of menus are similar in all modern versions of the software.)

3. Set Dimensions and Poster Size

Pick a size for your poster design. Design the PowerPoint poster at the maximum size it will be printed.

PowerPoint has a maximum slide side of 52 inches wide and tall, so keep that in mind when planning your design. Common poster sizes include:

• Large, movie-style poster: 24 inches by 36 inches
• Medium, for windows and general hanging: 18 inches by 24 inches
• Small, for posting on billboards, etc.: 11 inches by 17 inches
• A4, for poster handouts: 8.5 inches by 11 inches

Set the dimensions in the Design menu, then navigate to Slide Size. Click the drop-down and select Page Setup. (The two default options are for presentation slides on screens.)

Enter your page size. Note that most posters use portrait orientation (taller than wide). If your slides already contain some content, scale up when given the option. This will ensure that the text is large enough for the new size. (In older versions of PowerPoint, these options are located in the File menu.)

4. Add Text

Once you have the layout set, add all text elements to the poster design.

Remember to keep the goal of the design in mind and keep text limited to only what’s necessary, such as an event name, time, date, and location.

Don’t worry about placement yet. But you can think about the fonts you want to use and how large text elements should be, as you create a hierarchy for how people should follow the text on the poster.

When it comes to type size, start with a headline of 75 to 100 points and body size of 24 to 48 points; adjust the rest of your type hierarchy accordingly.

5. Add Images

Bring images and other design elements you want to use into the poster design. Drag and drop each image from your folder into the poster design.

This is also the time to import or create any charts you might want to use.

The goal is to get everything you might include visually in the poster design on the screen. When it comes to making a poster design in PowerPoint, it’s a lot easier to put it all together if all the elements are on the canvas so you can see what you have to work with.

Make sure that all of your images are large enough to print as well. As a general rule, look for image elements that are 150 dpi or higher at the size it will be used. Images pulled from websites are often not large enough to use for printed elements and will look blurry or pixelated.

6. Adjust Colors and Design Elements

Once you have all your design elements available to work with, make adjustments so that every element is in the right location. You can adjust font color and size, positioning, and even colors on text boxes to ensure that every element is easy to see and understand.

Remember that when it comes to poster design, you want elements to be large enough to read at a distance. Avoid tiny text or design elements.

7. Move Elements on the Poster Canvas

Play with where elements are located on the poster canvas and move them around so that the poster design is easy to read and understand.

Most people will read a poster from top to bottom. Stack your information in such a way that makes this type of reading easy. Commonly the headline or biggest text will be at the top and smaller elements will be in the lower part of the design.

8. Use a Preset Template (Optional)

If you are lacking design elements for your poster, consider using one of the predefined templates in PowerPoint to add some visual flair.

Templates are available in the Design menu and include high-color options that will fit the canvas size you have selected.

9. Export for Printing

Once the PowerPoint poster design is ready, export the file for printing. The most common (and generally accepted format) is PDF.

After saving your file, navigate to the Acrobat menu (or File menu in older versions) and select Create PDF. The software will do the rest.

10. Print and Distribute

Put your PDF on a drive to take to the printer (or email it) and once the design is printed, you can distribute your poster made in PowerPoint.

While PowerPoint might not be the ideal solution for creating a poster design for everyone, it is a viable solution if that’s the only software you have available. One of the biggest constraints can be that PowerPoint files do have a limited size, so make sure that is appropriate for your design.

One benefit of creating a poster in PowerPoint is that you can reuse design elements for a presentation later if you are creating connected elements. You can also import elements or images that you had made in other software, in formats, such as JPEG or PNG.

PowerPoint is a versatile tool and learning how to make a poster is just one more tool to add to your design kit.

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How to Make a Poster: Beginner’s Design Guide (& Templates)

Written by: Mahnoor Sheikh

Posters are excellent marketing tools that can be used to advertise movies, events, fundraisers, sales, businesses and more.

If you’re looking for an easy way to make a poster online, you’re in the right place.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a poster in 7 simple steps.

We’ve also handpicked 25 stunning poster templates for various purposes that you can edit and download right now.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What are the dimensions of a poster, 7-step process for making an eye-catching poster, bonus: make your digital poster interactive, 25 poster templates to help you get started, poster faqs.

• A poster is a printed or digital design that promotes business-related activities like events, grand openings, special promotions, etc.
• Posters have a set of standard sizes, but it’s best to check with your printing service or home printer first before starting on the design.
• The poster-making process includes identifying its purpose, choosing a template, adding text and visuals, customizing colors and fonts, adding a call to action or online form, and sharing with your audience.
• Poster design for beginners is easy when you have Visme as your content creation tool. Not only can you design using professional poster template s, but you can also create a myriad of client-facing and branded content.
• If you're running short on time and need to create eye-catching posters quickly, try out our AI poster generator !

When designing a poster, there are no set rules for the poster size or dimensions.

However, some printing companies use the same, consistent poster sizes, so it’s always a good idea to ensure your poster fits those dimensions.

Here’s an infographic summarizing the standard poster sizes used by printing companies worldwide. Keep reading for a brief explanation about each poster size.

• A4 Paper: 8.5” x 11” (21 x 29.7 cm). These posters are ideal for printing at home or at your local printing shop for personal use or for sticking on your shop window.
• Small Poster: 11” x 17” (28 x 43 cm). These posters are normally used as flyers or for sticking on street lights and bulletin boards. You can also use these posters for decorating offices, as they don’t take up a lot of space.
• Medium Poster: 18” x 24” (46 x 61 cm). These posters are mostly used in places like clinics, offices, shop windows and university walls. They can hold more information than small posters, but you should still keep the text minimal.
• Large Poster: 24” x 36” (61 x 91 cm). These posters are used by organizations for advertising businesses, films, events, fundraisers and promotions. You can usually find these posters outside malls, events and clubs.

The poster size that’s best for you will depend on your poster’s purpose and how you plan to use it. Make sure you ask your printer about the sizes and formats before designing one.

If you’re creating a digital poster that you plan to share online on social media or your website, you can check out this blog post on the best image sizes for different social media platforms .

Now, let’s get to the fun part: creating a poster!

Follow this poster making tutorial in order or jump ahead to a section of your interest.

Step #1: Identify the Purpose of Your Poster

Step #2: choose a poster template, step #3: add in your text content, step #4: add photos and graphics, step #5: customize colors and fonts, step #6: include a call-to-action, step #7: share and download your poster.

The first step of making a poster is to identify its purpose.

Answer the following questions before moving on to poster design:

• What’s the goal of your poster?
• Who is the audience?
• Where do you plan to share your poster?

Addressing these questions will help you determine the right poster size, draft appropriate poster content and find the right poster template.

For example, if you’re designing a poster to advertise an event, you need to understand what you want your audience to do after they see it.

Do you want them to register online? Do you want them to go to a physical place to buy tickets? Do you want them to scan a QR code ?

Knowing this will help you pick a poster size that fits in all the important information without looking cluttered or difficult to read.

If your audience is female students, for example, you’d want to start with a poster template with colors and a design style that appeals to them.

This leads us to the next step.

Once you’ve identified the purpose and audience of your poster, it’s time to choose a template that best fits your needs.

The first thing you need to do is log in to your Visme account. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one for free here .

Inside your dashboard, click on Create New . In the drop down menu, select Project then Printables .

This will open up the templates library. Click on Posters to browse through the various options and designs that appear below. When you find a poster template you like, hover on it and click on Edit to open it in the Visme editor and start customizing it.

Poster Templates

Music Quote Poster

Social Distancing Poster

Life is Like Riding a Bicycle Quote Poster

Elephants Poster

Live for Today Albert Einstein Quote Poster

Yellow Blue Motivational Quote Poster

Create your poster View more templates

Alternatively, you can also search for relevant templates by typing in a keyword in the search bar at the top, such as “university poster” or “art poster.”

You can also browse through other template categories, such as flyers and social graphics, to find a design you like and customize the dimensions.

If you don’t want to move forward with a pre-designed template, you can also start from scratch by clicking on Custom Size at the right side of the screen. Then, simply add in your size requirements to open a blank canvas in the editor.

If you don’t want to move forward with a pre-designed template, you can also start from scratch by clicking on Create from Blank at the left side of the screen, above Generate with AI. Then, input content boxes, design elements and images.

And if you’re short on time, another option for creating your poster is to use the Visme AI Poster Generator . This AI-powered tool can design a visual poster from a single text prompt. In the template library, click on Generate with AI and a chatbot will open. Write your prompt in the text box, select one of the suggested styles and let AI do its magic.

Now, it’s time to customize your poster.

The first thing you need to edit in your poster template is the text.

Visme has realistic placeholder content written by professionals in almost all of the templates, and you can use it to inspire your own content.

For example, this minimal template already has a title and subtitle. You can replace this text with your own, and even add more text boxes.

If you’ve already written the content for your poster separately, you should add it to your poster in this step.

Double-click on any text box to edit it, and copy and paste your content. To add more text, click on the Header & Text in the left sidebar to choose from pre-designed text blocks.

Make sure you use separate text boxes for different parts of your content so you can move them around and so your content doesn’t end up looking like one big block of text.

Don’t forget to add details like event timing, contact information, location and more depending on the nature and purpose of your poster.

A part of the poster-making process is ensuring that the text is not too long or has any grammar mistakes. If you need some help, use the AI Writer to help you finesse your poster text by editing and proofreading it. Additionally, craft headlines that really grab the attention of your audience.

Once you have all your text content in place, it’s time to add some visuals.

This is the fun part! Make your poster speak volumes with eye-catching visuals.

Whether it’s a meaningful photograph, an illustration that sets the mood, an AI generated graphic, or bright and colorful icons that balance out the text — visuals can bring your poster to life.

In Visme, you have several options to add photos and graphics to your poster design:

• Browse millions of free stock photos in the built-in image library. Search for relevant keywords and scroll to look for options. When you find an image you like, drag and drop it onto your poster.
• Upload your own images by clicking on Photos and then on Upload. Your images will be saved in your Content library.
• Use the AI Edit Tools that help you unblur and upscale legacy photos, and remove pesky backgrounds or unwanted objects from photos.
• Generate unique, branded images and graphics with Visme AI Image Generator . Choose from the suggested output styles: photos, illustrations, paintings, and more.
• Add free vector icons, illustrations, shapes and more by browsing through the graphics library inside the editor.

Regardless of how you add visuals into your poster, you can edit them using Visme’s photo editor .

Resize your photos and graphics, crop them into shapes, apply filters, color overlays and borders, tweak the opacity settings and more.

When you’re happy with the text and visual content of your poster, it’s time to adjust the design style to pull everything together.

Great, your poster is almost ready.

All you need to do now is adjust the colors and fonts in the template so they are aligned with your brand style, theme, topic or vision.

If you have set design guidelines to stick to, you can easily set up your Brand Kit in Visme — upload your logo, color palette and fonts to use in your poster and any other Visme design project.

If you’re designing a poster for personal purposes, or if you don’t have any brand guidelines in place, you can always choose from the preset color themes that come built-in with the editor.

Simply click through the themes to change the entire color scheme of the poster in one go. Pick the color theme that works best with your poster topic, mood and visuals.

You can also use the color picker tool to adjust the colors of the background and each individual object.

The next thing to pay attention to are your fonts. Make sure you keep font pairing best practices in mind when designing your poster.

You don’t want to use a font style that clashes with your poster idea. Also, you want the font to be clear and easy-to-read, depending on where you plan to use the poster.

Woah — you’re almost done with your poster design! This takes us to the last step, adding a call-to-action. This ensures your poster is as effective as it’s good-looking.

For business and advertising purposes, adding a call-to-action (CTA) to your poster is one of the most crucial parts of poster design.

Before adding a CTA, go back to the first step and think about the goals and purpose of your poster. What do you want your audience to do when they see it?

Do you want them to register for an event, buy tickets for a movie, or visit your website or store in person? Whatever it is, articulate it into concise and compelling copy, and place the CTA where it’s prominent and doesn’t interfere with the design.

That’s it! You’re done with your poster design. When you’re happy with the result, it’s time to get your poster ready for printing or publish it online and share it with the world.

Finally, with Visme, you can share or download your poster in multiple formats, including high-quality JPG, PNG, PDF, HTML5 or social media posts.

The format you choose will depend on your printing and distributing needs. It’s better to ask your printer what format they prefer to use. They will typically accept a PDF file, which you can download from Visme with or without bleed marks.

If you’re planning to share your poster digitally, you can also download it as an HTML5 file (offline web), or share it via a live URL or embed code.

Additionally, when you share your poster as a live link , you have the ability to track its performance thanks to Visme's analytics dashboard . View data about who opened the file, saw the poster, from where, for how long and more.

And finally, from inside the Visme editor, you can also share your poster as a social media post. Use the integrated content calendar to schedule your poster design for your favorite social media platform.

If you’re working on a digital poster rather than a printed one, we’ve got great news for you — Visme lets you make your posters animated and interactive!

Other than photos, you can also add audio clips, video clips, animated backgrounds, animated illustrations and characters, animated icons, special effects and more from the built-in library.

You can also enable hover effects and pop ups on click, and add links into your poster to make it interactive.

For example, if you’ve added a CTA to register for an event in your digital poster, you can link it to your registration page to direct the viewer!

Furthermore, you can include a form on your poster, turning it into lead generation content . Use Visme Forms to create branded sign up forms you can then embed on posters; as well as websites, newsletters and more.

It’s easy to share your animated or interactive poster in Visme by generating an embed code and adding it to a web page or sharing it via a public or private URL.

Now that you know how to create a poster in Visme, let’s look at some beautiful poster templates to give you a head start.

Create beautiful posters in minutes with Visme!

• Choose from our fully customizable templates
• Customize fonts and colors to match your theme
• Access built-in photos and graphics that tell your story

Visme comes packed with dozens of pre-designed, customizable poster templates that you can edit and download right away.

Just pick a template that works best with your topic, industry or design style, and click on the button below it to start editing it in Visme.

Alternatively, create your poster with AI using our AI Poster Generator . In the template gallery, click on Generate with AI and input your text prompt into the chatbot window. This tool doesn’t just for creating posters, it also helps you make first draft versions of plenty of other documents and printable designs.

Template #1: Social Distancing Poster

This social distancing poster is informative and attractive.

It can be used by doctors, health organizations, nonprofits, schools, universities and anyone who wants to communicate guidelines, best practices and important information to the public.

Customize this social distancing poster with your own information or use it as it is to spread awareness about the pandemic and prevention measures.

Template #2: Real Estate Poster

This real estate poster is ideal for advertising property listings of all kinds, such as offices, apartments, villas, shops and commercial land. Put the features of your property front and center and showcase them in an attractive way.

Make this poster template your own by changing the image, editing the text and color scheme, customizing the fonts and adding more information.

Save time before every open house and reuse templates for new real estate listings. Make them even more practical by adding dynamic links for the realtor’s name or the home’s address. With this feature, you can edit multiple templates without messing with the design.

Template #3: Conference Poster

The professional conference poster will make everyone want to attend your business events. With an eye-catching color scheme and a modern layout, this poster design puts focus on the things that matter — the topic, the speakers and the dates.

Personalize this template with your own text, colors, fonts, images and more. Swap the icons for other, relevant ones from Visme’s built-in icon library.

If you’re planning to share this poster online, you can even add animations and interactive links to take your audience immediately to the event registration page.

After you’ve finished the poster, complete the marketing stack and start working on your conference flyer using the same fonts, colors and information.

Template #4: Fashion Sale Poster

A trendy, colorful picture and the word “Sale” in big, bold letters is everything you need to catch your shoppers’ attention.

With this poster template, you have the perfect layout and design ready-to-go — all you need to do is plug in your own content and download your poster in high-quality for printing.

Template #5: Inspirational Education Poster

Inspire students and teachers alike with this quote poster with a saying by Malcom Forbes. Use icons and design elements to create a composition with the text and make it more memorable.

Change the colors of this poster template using Visme’s preset themes or upload your own brand colors. Personalize each and every detail so your poster is unique and engaging.

Template #6: We’re Hiring Poster

Get applications pouring in from the right candidates with this hard-to-miss we’re hiring poster template. If you have a job opening at your company, you need to ensure as many potential candidates know about it as possible.

Customize this poster with your own brand colors and fonts, add your logo, edit the text, and share it on social media or print it out and stick it in areas where your audience spends their time.

Template #7: Garage Sale Poster

Announce a garage sale with style using this poster template. The clean and modern layout puts all the important information front and center, and you can always move things around, remove elements or add more content to personalize this poster.

Make this poster your own by swapping the image with one from our stock library or by uploading from your computer. Change the color scheme, modify the fonts and do much more in Visme’s powerful drag-and-drop editor.

Template #8: Business Poster

Create a sleek and professional poster for your business with this customizable template. A poster like this is ideal for businesses of all sizes, and you can get it printed in large, medium, small and even A4 sizes, depending on how you plan to use it.

Personalize this poster with a photo of your own business, products or office building. Change the text, colors, icons and more in minutes using the drag-and-drop poster editor. Download it in high-quality image or PDF format when you’re done.

Template #9: Brand Promotion Poster

This conceptual geometry poster is a great pick for architectural firms or other business organizations with an eye for design. The photos in the triangles are easily replaced with another from your media library, or generated with AI.

Use shapes and frames to emphasize the visual aspect of your poster. You can also customize this poster template with your own colors, text, fonts, images and more.

Template #10: Yoga Class Poster

Spread the word about your yoga, meditation and fitness classes with this sophisticated poster template. This poster has a serene, calming design that can work for any topic related to health and wellness.

You can also customize it extensively to fit practically any theme. Change colors, fonts, photos, icons and more in a flash with Visme’s drag-and-drop editor. Download your finished poster in JPG or PNG format, or save it as a PDF to send off for printing.

Template #11: Fitness Gym Poster

Motivate your audience to join your gym and meet their fitness goals with this clean and modern poster template. This poster works as both an advertising tool and as an aesthetically pleasing addition to your gym’s exterior.

Customize this template with your own colors, fonts, text and photos. Add more information and text boxes by dragging and dropping from the left sidebar. Emphasize key points and visualize contact details with vector icons.

Template #12: Social Studies Research Poster

Get more eyes on your research with this social studies research poster. Use this design to share your findings with students and members of the faculty.

This poster template is super easy to customize with your own data. You can even animate the charts and add interactive links to it if you plan on sharing the poster digitally. Download your poster in high-quality to get printed in virtually any size.

Template #13: Restaurant Poster

A classy restaurant deserves a classy poster. And that’s exactly what you get with this restaurant or cafe poster template.

Personalize this template with your own images, food photos, text, colors, fonts and more. Drag and drop icons, cutouts and more onto your poster from the built-in editing panel.

Template #14: Poverty Foundation Poster

This poverty poster is thought-provoking and can easily be used by nonprofits to raise awareness for their campaigns. Even for-profit organizations looking to draw attention towards their social projects can take advantage of this template.

This poster is fully customizable, so make it your own by adding your own brand’s images, logos, fonts, colors and more.

Template #15: Elephants Poster

This inspiring poster is a great pick for all individuals, professionals and nonprofits looking to raise awareness and funds for their social campaigns.

It comes with stylish fonts that go well with the high-resolution stock photo in the background. Use this poster template as is or customize it by adding your own logos and fonts.

Template #16: Class Rules Poster

This fun-looking class rules poster can work well in most educational settings. It includes basic etiquette and manners expected from students in the class and promotes positive behavior.

It can easily be used as is by educators, or customized with different content and for other purposes, such as for employee rules in organizations.

Template #17: Music Workshop Poster

The music workshop poster template immediately draws attention and encourages the audience to read further, thanks to the colorful graphic and eye-catching fonts.

It can easily be used by all kinds of musicians, schools, community centers and more looking to promote their events or music classes.

Template #18: Scientific Research Poster

Looking for the perfect science poster to present at your next symposium? This scientific research poster is just what you need. This poster design is ideal for medical research purposes, but you can also customize it for any other health industry. Edit the text, colors, fonts, images and more in minutes using Visme’s drag-and-drop poster maker.

Template #19: Motivational Graffiti Poster

Looking for a fun, artistic poster to inspire students or colleagues? This poster template might be just what you’re looking for. Customize this motivational quote poster with your own colored font, background image and bold design elements.

In the template the background is of a man walking in front of captivating graffiti, but you can easily swap it for another image by uploading from your computer or choosing one from our free stock library.

Template #20: Photography Art Exhibition Poster

Advertise your art and photography events with this beautiful, clean and modern poster template. The best part about this template is it’s so versatile, you can use it for practically anything.

Get started with this template by customizing it with your own brand colors, logo, fonts and images. No brand assets? Choose from our preset color themes, built-in premium fonts and millions of free stock photos.

Template #21: Psychology Study Research Poster

This sleek and sophisticated poster template is ideal for presenting a research project on the rise of depression in New York City. But you can use for any type of research by customizing it in Visme’s drag-and-drop editor

Change the colors, fonts, images, icons and any other elements used in this poster template. You can also add animation and interactivity if you plan to share your poster digitally.

Template #22: Learning Quote Poster

If you’re looking for a quote poster to motivate your students, employees and any other audience, your search has come to an end. This quote poster is highly engaging, colorful and versatile — it will look just as good with any quote of your choice!

Customize this poster template with your own colors, fonts, text and more. You can also add an image in the background if you want to give this poster a thematic look.

Template #23: Political Finance Research Poster

This political research poster template is a great choice for you if you’re working with financial research and fundraising statistics. Likewise, it’s the ideal template for presenting any type of research that needs visualizing.

The design of this poster is minimal and versatile, and you can replace the charts easily from within the chart and graphs settings. Choose from bar graphs, line graphs, histograms and more.

Template #24: Farmer’s Market Poster

This colorful farmer’s market poster is an excellent pick for anyone looking to organize a local community event, such as one for local grocers and farmers to sell fresh fruits and vegetables.

The delightful font selection and color scheme of this poster immediately attracts the reader’s attention. Stick to the existing design or customize it extensively in Visme’s drag-and-drop editor with ease.

Template #25: Education is Essential Poster

If you're looking for a modern poster template with beautiful colors, fonts and icons, then get started with this education poster template.

This poster template is ideal for private organizations and nonprofits looking to promote a cause they believe in, and even for schools and colleges aiming to raise awareness for education for all.

Curious about other poster making topics? Here, these FAQs might help.

What Is the Best Tool to Make a Poster?

The best tool to make posters is Visme, the all-in-one content authoring tool. Not only can you use Visme to design a poster, you can also manage brand assets, collaborate with team members and create content for internal and external communications effortlessly.

Alternatively, you can use any of these other poster making tools like Canva but you can imagine which one we’re partial to.

Can I Print Posters Myself?

Yes, you can print your own posters. All you need is:

• A Visme account
• A computer, tablet or phone
• A printer with ink
• Poster paper

If you don’t have a printer at home, you can take your Visme designed poster in a USB stick to a printing shop or send it to them via messaging service or email. Finally, you can take your design to a self-service printing store like FedEx Office and print them there.

Can You Turn a Picture Into a Poster?

Yes, you can turn a picture into a poster. But first, make sure you have permission to use said image. When you create posters with Visme, you can use any of the millions of high resolution and royalty-free stock photos without worrying about licensing rights. Another option is to use photos you’ve taken yourself or that you’ve got the rights to use. Simply upload those to Visme and create your poster.

What Paper Do I Need to Make a Poster?

Depending on your needs, you can print a poster on glossy paper, matte paper, satin paper or vinyl paper.

• Glossy is shiny and is ideal for images and graphics.
• Matte is best suited for text heavy posters
• Satin is a combination between glossy and matte.
• Vinyl is durable and ideal for outdoor use.

How to Make Posters at Home?

Poster making at home is straightforward if you have a Visme account, and optionally, a printer. With Visme, you can make a poster at home in no time. All you need is a template and your ready-to-use information .

Now Over to You

Congratulations! You’re ready to create your own poster!

Whether you’re making a poster for personal purposes, business advertising, sticking on your shop window or sharing digitally on social media, Visme has what you’re looking for.

You can find the perfect poster template in the dozens of ready-to-go options in the template library.

Access design tools like preset color themes, built-in stock photos, icons, shapes and graphics, premium fonts, resize, cropping and editing tools, AI-powered tools and much more to create your poster in minutes — no design skills needed!

Sign up for a free Visme account today and start creating your stunning poster.

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About the Author

Mahnoor Sheikh is the content marketing manager at Visme. She has years of experience in content strategy and execution, SEO copywriting and graphic design. She is also the founder of MASH Content and is passionate about tea, kittens and traveling with her husband. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn .

104: How to Give a Perfect Poster Presentation

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It’s a tragic fact: many jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and heart-pounding research results never makes an impact on the scientific community.

And it’s partly your fault.

By “your,” of course,  I mean all of us.  Because when we waste the opportunity to share our results in their best light at a scientific conference or poster session, our viewers may overlook this valuable insight.

But we can do better!  With a little planning, collaboration, and hard work, we can make even a humble poster presentation a vehicle for inspiring the next discovery and building our scientific network.

Let’s get started!

Poster Perfect

A poster session is a unique opportunity for a young scientist.

As a viewer, you get the chance to engage in a casual conversation with other scientists, often one-on-one, about a topic that interests you.  It’s an opportunity to ask for clarity, pose a question, or offer ideas without an audience of 200 staring at the back of your head.

As a presenter, you get all of those benefits, as well as an opportunity to build your network and identify collaborators.  You also get many chances to practice your ‘pitch’ as new visitors step up every few minutes.  It will sharpen both your skill as a communicator and your research plan.

And while there are probably some guidelines for being a good poster-viewer, in this episode, we focused our discussion on the best ways to prepare and present a poster.

Before You Begin

As with any presentation, answering a few questions before you get started will save you hours in front of the computer.

Know Your Audience

If you are presenting to the Microbiology Conference, you may want to include more detailed background information than if you’re presenting to other experts in your sub-field at a Malaria Symposium.  Space is limited, and thinking ahead about what your audience may, or may not, know will help you prepare for the proper range of visitor experience.

Start Early

You may be a wizard of poster creation and can put off your design until the night before you fly to the conference, but that’s a bad idea.  Instead, leave extra time before printing share your file with collaborators for review.  They need time to look over your work and offer feedback before it’s committed to (gigantic) paper.

Practice, Practice, Practice

You’ll also need time to practice presenting the poster.  More on this later, but sometimes the act of presentation lets us see where we have gaps or mistakes in the logic or design.  It’s a good idea to practice with people from outside your lab because if they are already familiar with your work, they won’t notice when you skip steps or fail to explain a concept clearly.

Find Your Story

It may sound odd, but poster presentation is a form of story-telling.  The best posters make that story clear and concise.

Even if you have multiple projects in the lab, choose ONE to present in your poster.  Start by jotting down a central question you’re trying to answer, or a hypothesis your lab is testing.  Keeping this key idea in mind as you prepare the presentation will give you a firm structure on which to hang the other elements.

Making a Poster

There are a couple of broad guidelines to keep in mind as you create your poster.

First, remember that the poster is a visual form, and space is limited.  That means you should avoid printing long paragraphs of text.  Instead, use the space to display graphs, images, and figures, with a few bullet points or figure legends to help the viewer track the story.

Second, stick with a ‘standard’ layout.  Your viewers have been trained for years to look for titles at the top and conclusions on the bottom right.  You make viewing your poster harder by moving these elements around.

Third, maintain consistency within your poster.  Stick with one or two fonts, and be sure that headings, bullets, and figures are matched in style, weight, and size.

Finally, give your work some breathing room.  White-space is important, and will make the poster more readable.

Poster Pieces

Manuscript titles are often formulaic and a bit dull as they describe the basic findings of the research paper, but your poster title can be more creative.  The goal is to catch a viewer’s attention while also letting them know what they’ll see when they visit.

Again, remembering your audience, include enough information to help them understand your main question or hypothesis.  Avoid paragraphs, and include a figure or diagram if you can.

Hypothesis / Main Question

This section is an absolute must, so don’t forget it!  It lets the viewer instantly understand what the poster is about and what they can expect to learn if they follow you through to the conclusion.

Again, a diagram or figure works great here.  Use this section to help the viewer understand your experimental approach to the question.  You don’t need to detail every last step – save that for the paper you publish!

This is where the action is.  Remember – you don’t need to include every experiment you’ve ever done.  Just describe the results that help address the main question/hypothesis.

Use descriptive figure titles that help the viewer understand your conclusion.  “Gel of Protein X” doesn’t help anyone, but “Protein X is Up-Regulated After Drug Treatment” tells them what they should expect to see in the scan. 

Cut out extraneous information or parts of the image, and use arrows or boxes to help direct attention to the relevant parts.

Double check this section for readability – axes and labels can often be too small to read from a four-foot distance.

Conclusions

Another chance to draw a diagram!  Or use 2-3 bullet points to help summarize what you’ve found.

Other Sections

Some posters include acknowledgements or future directions.  These are optional and might make sense on a case-by-case basis.

Every poster should include the author’s contact info, though!  This allows people to reach out even if you’ve stepped away from the poster, and helps collaborators keep in touch after the meeting.

Presenting a Poster

Crafting the perfect poster is only half the battle, now it’s time to describe that work from start to finish.

Timing is Everything

Walking a viewer through your presentation should take roughly five to seven minutes.  That doesn’t seem like a long time, but it’s an important target.  Many presenters take too long to share the poster, leaving the audience bored, uncomfortable, and searching for a way out.

By telling your story in five minutes, you let the audience guide the conversation.  If they’re satisfied with your description, or bored out of their minds, they can move on to another poster.

If they’re excited and want to learn more, they can ask questions or probe the results more deeply.

Act Like an Actor

As you present, remember that you mustn’t turn your back on your audience!  You’ll be tempted to turn to look at the poster yourself, closing off the conversation.  Instead, keep an open stance and point out relevant sections off to your side.

Also, check your enthusiasm.  Too many poster presenters seem bored, tired, or listless.  If they don’t think their work is exciting, why should their audience?! 

Stop a moment to notice your energy level, and try to step it up as you present.  Make eye contact, welcome new viewers as the approach, and modulate your voice. 

Your enthusiasm for your work can be contagious.

Tailor Made

Because most poster presentations occur one-on-one, it’s imperative that you actively tailor your pitch to the person standing in front of you.

When they step up, you can briefly ask about their background or interest in the subject.  If they’re a neophyte, you’ll want to avoid jargon and check that they’ve understood each section before moving on. If they’re an expert, they may want to skip straight to the results!

Be aware of their cues and body language, and let them help steer the conversation.

That’s it! Now you’re a poster-presenting-pro!  Go make a splash at your next poster session, and be sure to share YOUR tips and ideas for poster presentation in the comments below.

For more information on attending conferences, check out Episode  097: Conference Like the Pros – How to Plan, Network, and Win

I’m Getting Seasick

This week, we sample a very special ethanol that has probably traveled farther than we have. 

Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon  spends its time in a barrel bobbing around on a research ship as it sails around the world!  Supposedly, all of that rocking, equatorial heat, and sea spray mimics the way bourbon tasted when it was shipped back from the New World.  

Best part: you get to read the Captain’s Log of each batch’s journey!

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Creating a Poster

What exactly is a poster presentation.

A poster presentation combines text and graphics to present your project in a way that is visually interesting and accessible. It allows you to display your work to a large group of other scholars and to talk to and receive feedback from interested viewers.

Poster sessions have been very common in the sciences for some time, and they have recently become more popular as forums for the presentation of research in other disciplines like the social sciences, service learning, the humanities, and the arts.

Poster presentation formats differ from discipline to discipline, but in every case, a poster should clearly articulate what you did, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What goals should I keep in mind as I construct my poster?

• Clarity of content. You will need to decide on a small number of key points that you want your viewers to take away from your presentation, and you will need to articulate those ideas clearly and concisely.
• Visual interest and accessibility. You want viewers to notice and take interest in your poster so that they will pause to learn more about your project, and you will need the poster’s design to present your research in a way that is easy for those viewers to make sense of it.

Who will be viewing my poster?

The answer to this question depends upon the context in which you will be presenting your poster. If you are presenting at a conference in your field, your audience will likely contain mostly people who will be familiar with the basic concepts you’re working with, field-specific terminology, and the main debates facing your field and informing your research. This type of audience will probably most interested in clear, specific accounts of the what and the how of your project.

If you are presenting in a setting where some audience members may not be as familiar with your area of study, you will need to explain more about the specific debates that are current in your field and to define any technical terms you use. This audience will be less interested in the specific details and more interested in the what and why of your project—that is, your broader motivations for the project and its impact on their own lives.

How do I narrow my project and choose what to put on my poster?

Probably less than you would like! One of the biggest pitfalls of poster presentations is filling your poster with so much text that it overwhelms your viewers and makes it difficult for them to tell which points are the most important. Viewers should be able to skim the poster from several feet away and easily make out the most significant points.

The point of a poster is not to list every detail of your project. Rather, it should explain the value of your research project. To do this effectively, you will need to determine your take-home message. What is the single most important thing you want your audience to understand, believe, accept, or do after they see your poster?

Once you have an idea about what that take-home message is, support it by adding some details about what you did as part of your research, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What kind of information should I include about what I did?

This is the raw material of your research: your research questions, a succinct statement of your project’s main argument (what you are trying to prove), and the evidence that supports that argument. In the sciences, the what of a project is often divided into its hypothesis and its data or results. In other disciplines, the what is made up of a claim or thesis statement and the evidence used to back it up.

Remember that your viewers won’t be able to process too much detailed evidence; it’s your job to narrow down this evidence so that you’re providing the big picture. Choose a few key pieces of evidence that most clearly illustrate your take-home message. Often a chart, graph, table, photo, or other figure can help you distill this information and communicate it quickly and easily.

What kind of information should I include about how I did it?

Include information about the process you followed as you conducted your project. Viewers will not have time to wade through too many technical details, so only your general approach is needed. Interested viewers can ask you for details.

What kind of information should I include about why I did it?

Give your audience an idea about your motivation for this project. What real-world problems or questions prompted you to undertake this project? What field-specific issues or debates influenced your thinking? What information is essential for your audience to be able to understand your project and its significance? In some disciplines, this information appears in the background or rationale section of a paper.

What kind of information should I include about its contribution ?

Help your audience to see what your project means for you and for them. How do your findings impact scholars in your field and members of the broader intellectual community? In the sciences, this information appears in the discussion section of a paper.

How will the wording of my ideas on my poster be different from my research paper?

In general, you will need to simplify your wording. Long, complex sentences are difficult for viewers to absorb and may cause them to move on to the next poster. Poster verbiage must be concise, precise, and straightforward. And it must avoid jargon. Here is an example:

Wording in a paper: This project sought to establish the ideal specifications for clinically useful wheelchair pressure mapping systems, and to use these specifications to influence the design of an innovative wheelchair pressure mapping system.

Wording on a poster:

Aims of study

• Define the ideal wheelchair pressure mapping system
• Design a new system to meet these specifications

Once I have decided what to include, how do I actually design my poster?

The effectiveness of your poster depends on how quickly and easily your audience can read and interpret it, so it’s best to make your poster visually striking. You only have a few seconds to grab attention as people wander past your poster; make the most of those seconds!

How are posters usually laid out?

In general, people expect information to flow left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Viewers are best able to absorb information from a poster with several columns that progress from left to right.

Even within these columns, however, there are certain places where viewers’ eyes naturally fall first and where they expect to find information.

Imagine your poster with an upside-down triangle centered from the top to the bottom. It is in this general area that people tend to look first and is often used for the title, results, and conclusions. Secondary and supporting information tend to fall to the sides, with the lower right having the more minor information such as acknowledgements (including funding), and personal contact information.

• Main Focus Area Location of research fundamentals: Title, Authors, Institution, Abstract, Results, Conclusion
• Secondary Emphasis Location of important info: Intro, Results or Findings, Summary
• Supporting Area Location of supporting info: Methods, Discussion
• Final Info Area Location of supplemental info: References, Acknowledgments

How much space should I devote to each section?

This will depend on the specifics of your project. In general, remember that how much space you devote to each idea suggests how important that section is. Make sure that you allot the most space to your most important points.

How much white space should I leave on my poster?

White space is helpful to your viewers; it delineates different sections, leads the eye from one point to the next, and keeps the poster from being visually overwhelming. In general, leave 10—30% of your poster as white space.

Should I use graphics?

Absolutely! Visual aids are one of the most effective ways to make your poster visually striking, and they are often a great way to communicate complex information straightforwardly and succinctly. If your project deals with lots of empirical data, your best bet will be a chart, graph, or table summarizing that data and illustrating how that data confirms your hypothesis.

If you don’t have empirical data, you may be able to incorporate photographs, illustrations, annotations, or other items that will pique your viewers’ interest, communicate your motivation, demonstrate why your project is particularly interesting or unique.

Don’t incorporate visual aids just for the sake of having a pretty picture on your poster. The visual aids should contribute to your overall message and convey some piece of information that your viewers wouldn’t otherwise get just from reading your poster’s text.

How can I make my poster easy to read?

There are a number of tricks you can use to aid readability and emphasize crucial ideas. In general:

• Use a large font. Don’t make the text smaller in order to fit more onto the poster. Make sure that 95% of the text on your poster can be read from 4 feet away. If viewers can’t make out the text from a distance, they’re likely to walk away.
• Choose a sans-serif font like Helvetica or Verdana, not a serif font, like Times New Roman. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read because they don’t have extraneous hooks on every letter. Here is an example of a sans-serif and a serif font:
• Once you have chosen a font, be consistent in its usage. Use just one font.
• Don’t single-space your text. Use 1.5- or double-spacing to make the text easier to read.

For main points:

• Use bold, italicized, or colored fonts, or enclose text in boxes. Save this kind of emphasis for only a few key words, phrases, or sentences. Too much emphasized text makes it harder, not easier, to locate important points.
• AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, WHICH CAN BE HARD TO READ.
• Make your main points easy to find by setting them off with bullets or numbers.

What is my role as the presenter of my poster?

When you are standing in front of your poster, you—and what you choose to say—are as important as the actual poster. Be ready to talk about your project, answer viewers’ questions, provide additional details about your project, and so on.

How should I prepare for my presentation?

Once your poster is finished, you should re-familiarize yourself with the larger project you’re presenting. Remind yourself about those details you ended up having to leave out of the poster, so that you will be able to bring them up in discussions with viewers. Then, practice, practice, practice!

Show your poster to advisors, professors, friends, and classmates before the day of the symposium to get a feel for how viewers might respond. Prepare a four- to five-minute overview of the project, where you walk these pre-viewers through the poster, drawing their attention to the most critical points and filling in interesting details as needed. Make note of the kinds of questions these pre-viewers have, and be ready to answer those questions. You might even consider making a supplemental handout that provides additional information or answers predictable questions.

How long should I let audience members look at the poster before engaging them in discussion?

Don’t feel as if you have to start talking to viewers the minute they stop in front of your poster. Give them a few moments to read and process the information. Once viewers have had time to acquaint themselves with your project, offer to guide them through the poster. Say something like “Hello. Thanks for stopping to view my poster. Would you like a guided tour of my project?” This kind of greeting often works better than simply asking “Do you have any questions?” because after only a few moments, viewers might not have had time to come up with questions, even though they are interested in hearing more about your project.

Should I read from my poster?

No! Make sure you are familiar enough with your poster that you can talk about it without looking at it. Use the poster as a visual aid, pointing to it when you need to draw viewers’ attention to a chart, photograph, or particularly interesting point.

Sample Posters

Click on the links below to open a PDF of each sample poster.

“Quantitative Analysis of Artifacts in Volumetric DSA: The Relative Contributions of Beam Hardening and Scatter to Vessel Dropout Behind Highly Attenuating Structures”  James R. Hermus, Timothy P. Szczykutowicz, Charles M. Strother, and Charles Mistretta

Departments of Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Self-Care Interventions for the Management of Mouth Sores in Hematology Patients Receiving Chemotherapy” Stephanie L. Dinse and Catherine Cherwin

School of Nursing: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Enhancing the Fluorescence of Wisconsin Infrared Phytofluor: Wi-Phy for Potential Use in Infrared Imaging”  Jerad J. Simmons and Katrina T. Forest

Department of Bacteriology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics

Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

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Blog Data Visualization 12 Scientific Poster Examples [And How To Create One]

12 Scientific Poster Examples [And How To Create One]

Written by: Ivonna Cabrera Jul 02, 2023

Truth be told, scientific posters are effective at piquing interest. It’s incredible how graphics and presentation style can attract audiences.

Want to make a scientific poster but don’t know how? Well, you no longer need to be a design guru if you use Venngage’s Poster Maker .

You can speed up the process even more by using our scientific poster templates.

Before I dive right into scientific poster examples, let’s discuss what scientific posters are in the first place.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a scientific poster?

Best examples of scientific posters, how to create a scientific poster, what makes a good scientific poster.

• What you need to make a scientific poster
• What’s the purpose of a scientific or research poster?

A scientific poster is a visual presentation of research findings or scientific information shared with audiences at conferences, symposiums, and academic events. Scientific posters generally provide information on topics their authors are currently discussing.

Many scientists, researchers and medical experts use scientific posters to explain their findings in a simple and easy-to-understand format.

Of course, text isn’t the best way to show how scientific posters work.

So, I’ll let these examples do the talking.

Academic scientific poster examples

An academic scientific poster presents complicated information in a visually appealing manner.

Choosing the right poster layout is important here. Generally, sections such as an introduction, use, process, and takeaways allow students to understand a process or concept in a step-by-step method.

Here’s a great example of a scientific poster that discusses distillation:

Just so you know, some of our scientific poster templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign up is always free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor.

Often, it’s also important to separate information into categories and develop data in a clear and concise manner.

Is your scientific poster focused on environmental issues? Explore our gallery of environmental poster templates for inspiration and designs tailored to your topic.

Chemistry poster examples

Chemistry posters play a vital role in the scientific community by highlighting the importance of chemistry as a subject.

They also promote a deeper understanding of its principles and applications.

Here’s a great example:

A chemistry poster is usually organized in a logical and structured manner to effectively convey information.

Here are some common elements you can find in chemistry posters:

• Introduction

Here’s another example of a chemistry poster that displays only the abstract to hook the reader.

Lab poster examples

Lab posters are effective at sharing scientific knowledge, promoting discussion and collaboration, and disseminating research findings.

They provide a visual platform to showcase research efforts and contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in various fields of study.

In the lab poster below, the impact of overeating and binge drinking on the health of college students is presented in a format that anyone can understand the takeaway in a single glance.

Now that you know everything about scientific posters, it’s time to create your own.

Step 1 – Sign up for a free Venngage account

Start the process by  signing up  for Venngage with your email, Gmail or Facebook account.

Step 2 – Select a template from our library

Besides the examples above, you’ll find a sizeable collection of poster templates and specifically scientific posters to choose from.

There’s a template for every need, from a scientific poster for a case study review to templates focused on presenting complex data.

Step 3 – Edit your scientific poster with our editor

All our scientific poster templates can be edited using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Feel free to change the colors, text, icons, or illustrations to make the design your own or simply input your data to have an optimized scientific poster in minutes.

Step 4 – Bring your scientific poster to life with icons, illustrations and branding elements

Venngage offers 40,000 icons and illustrations to help you visualize and bring a scientific poster to life.

If you upgrade to a  Business  account, you can also enjoy  My Brand Kit  — the one-click branding kit that lets you upload your logo and apply brand colors and fonts to any design.

Step 5 – Share a link to your scientific poster or upgrade to download

Once you upgrade to a  Business  account, you can download your scientific poster as a PNG, PDF, or interactive PDF.

But you can always share your scientific poster online for free.

Searching for a tech poster template? Explore these tech poster designs for useful and innovative templates.

A good scientific poster is often an attractive and easy-to-read presentation of scientific research .

They may include images, diagrams, graphs and tables, and they often focus on one or two main points.

Combining data and design together makes it easy for readers to dissect information easily, thanks to an attention-grabbing layout, simplified language and easy-to-follow jargon explanations where necessary.

A lot of layouts allow you to prioritize information and separate it into circles or boxes, like in the template above.

This type of poster design allows the reader to consume less time when reading the full context of a situation.

What do you need to make a useful scientific poster?

This is the section you’ve been waiting for — the best way to make a scientific poster from scratch.

Read on to learn about the steps below, and they come with easy-to-follow examples, too.

Study good scientific or academic poster examples

Venngage has great scientific poster templates for your first scientific poster. You can customize these templates using Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor.

Let’s take a look at each of them below.

The sparse but surgically precise use of text here contrasts the lush use of plants to explain photosynthesis.

Short explanations can be accompanied by explainer text in corner resource boxes that discuss the other details of photosynthesis.

Good science poster examples are readable from 10 feet away

There are many reasons why posters should be readable from 10 feet away.

The main reason is to allow readers to fully understand the concept from where they stand or walk.

For example, in a school or office hall, bulletin boards are usually 5 to 10 feet away from potential viewers. A poster that can be viewed within this range entices the audience to come closer and read the details.

School posters effectively engage students by presenting visual content that reinforces learning objectives or communicates important information. Browse our collection of school poster templates for inspiration and ideas.

The second reason is to allow readers to quickly comprehend the poster.

People usually don’t have time to stop and read a poster. In a school or office, everyone’s walking to do something urgently.

Thus, you don’t want to take up too much of your time reading jargon and difficult concepts that even academic peers can take hours to read and interpret.

Being readable from 10 feet away makes it easy for readers to understand your research.

You can use varying font sizes to create great posters. For digital campaigns, make sure that your posters are suitable for modern browsers.

Venngage’s  My Brand Kit  feature allows you to create posters that help your audience understand valuable info.

This is a special tool for Business accounts that allows you to upload logos, choose fonts, and set color palettes to your scientific posters .

Use our real-time collaboration feature to invite team members and work together. You can also leave comments and get feedback instantly.

Alternatively, share your design online, on social media, or via email completely for free.

Make an attention-grabbing, short headline

Attention-grabbing headlines are easy for science articles and posters.

It’s always thrilling to find out about a new plant species or discoveries that debunk old theories.

It’s a good idea to use best practices in making attention-grabbing headlines, even if it is just casual scientific content for social media.

Titles that draw attention and engagement include:

• Trending topics Create headlines according to what is trending. For example, if your study discusses climate change , align your headline to this topic to engage readers.
• Controversial developments An old textbook fact being false is a controversial and surprising topic which you can easily sum up in a headline.
• Issues that address curiosity Humans are naturally curious, so tickling the audience’s curiosity is a great way to create a compelling and attention-grabbing headline.

Use bullets and numbering to make a list easier to read

Bullets, lists and clear language are all tools that improve readability.

Even without fancy graphics and poster backgrounds , a short-sentence, simple-worded post with bullets and lists makes it easy to understand any topic.

Bulleted lists make each subtopic of your scientific poster easy to read. Plus, it allows readers to jump from one subtopic to another without feeling like they missed information along the way.

Designers of scientific posters find it easier to design bulleted and list content because they can place every bullet in different sections, making the poster easy to read.

If you used bullets instead of boxes to explain each subtopic in this poster, you could still read it easily — just not from 10 feet away.

Ensure layout consistency

Layout consistency is the uniform appearance of elements within a design.

It is achieved by employing the same layout, color and typography throughout an entire design.

For example, if a web page uses a consistent layout, each page will be uniform in appearance but not necessarily in content.

Layout consistency is achieved by employing the same pattern, color and typography throughout an entire design. This uniform appearance helps readers navigate for better organization. 

Creating layout consistency is of crucial importance in scientific poster design because coherence creates a familiar mood and attachment for readers.

This template uses the same fonts and complementary colors that give the scientific poster its own coherent, attention-grabbing and informative personality

Related:  Stay ahead of graphic design trends that can help you with your scientific poster design!

Include acknowledgments, names and affiliations

Lastly, all scientific posters include their acknowledgments, researcher names and affiliations underneath the poster.

You can use a footnote to include these details or a resource box. Plus, if you used any links as references in your research, add them to this section.

If you were the researcher involved in this scientific poster , you could include all the information I’ve mentioned underneath the last paragraph using a line to indicate that they are acknowledgments and author information.

Searching for a research poster? Browse through our collection of research poster templates in to get started!

What is the purpose of a scientific poster?

Academics are the only ones who can read and understand a technical scientific paper.

To a normal reader, a research paper’s language and syntax are challenging. Scientific papers don’t prioritize reading flow in their outlines or exposition of data, methods and results.

But with a well-made and creative poster , reading a technical paper becomes easier.

For example, effective scientific posters include images that explain complicated terms.

At the same time, the poster layout makes data and text easy to read. Lastly, scientific posters use simple language that allows even young children to understand concepts.

FAQ about scientific posters

I know you’re all set to make your own designs, but you might want to have these questions answered too.

What should a scientific poster include?

A scientific poster should include an easy-to-follow layout, graphics and color schemes that don’t take away from the reading experience. Successful scientific posters also use short sentences, simple language and bullet points.

How do you write a good scientific poster?

Researchers must focus on the evidence behind the research. Afterward, they can concentrate on using simple language and short sentences to explain their point. Short text and simple words make it easier for graphic designers to create posters with an intuitive layout.

How do you write a scientific title for a poster?

Focus on aligning your title with human emotions and curiosity. Outside human emotions, you can align your titles toward controversial or trending issues. This article dedicates an entire section to writing a great scientific title for a poster, so you should head there to learn more!

Our  Poster Maker guarantees that you’ll make the most intuitive and well-designed scientific posters in a single session.

Make the best scientific posters within minutes today!

Now, you’re ready to make your own scientific posters for print or website use!

If you’re short on ideas, you can use Venngage’s scientific poster templates for inspiration. Besides access to scores of templates, you also get a free drag-and-drop web-based editor by signing up for a FREE Venngage account today. Register now!

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How to Make a Poster in Google Slides

To announce any event, from birthdays, concerts, or even a graduation ceremony, a poster with all the necessary information is the perfect solution, as it is original and will ensure that everyone who sees it retains the most important information of the event in question. In addition, it is a great decorative element for any place.

However, how can we create these creative designs? At Slidesgo , we have some A3 Google Slides and PowerPoint templates ready to be printed to get amazing posters. You can filter your search on our website so that the results you get are A3 or even A4.

However, if you want to create the design yourself from scratch or adapt another design to the desired format to create the poster, in this post we will explain how to make a poster using Google Slides . Here we go!

How to make a poster in Google Slides step by step

• Open a new presentation in Google Slides. By default, the format is 16:9. To adapt it to the size you want your poster to be, click on File > Page setup. A small tab will appear where we can configure the slide. From the drop-down, select Custom and set the size. In the example, we have used a vertical A3 format (29.7 x 42 cm)
• If you click on Theme, you can use one of the defaults themes Google Slides for your design, but if you need a more professional style, at Slidesgo we have a wide variety of templates, even with formats such as A3 and A4 already defined. Take a look!
• You can also adapt a 16:9 presentation to the size of your poster. Just follow the same procedure as above, except that instead of opening a new presentation, open a previously created one. In the example, we have set the slide in A3 horizontal format (42 x 29.7 cm).

• If you want to print your poster, just download the presentation to your computer. You can delete the slides you don't need or download the entire presentation as a PDF. To do this, select File > Download > PDF Document. If you need more information about this process, you can read our tutorial on how to export a Google Slides presentation as a PDF file .

And that's it! Now you can print your poster and place it wherever you want, but make sure everyone is able to see it! We're sure it's an amazing design!

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Research poster creation tutorials.

Is your poster the right size?

Free poster size checker.

Quickly confirm the measurements of your poster template. Make sure you start with right dimensions to achieve the correct poster size upon printing.

What size poster can I create?

Not sure what size poster you need for your presentation? This page offers simple instructions on how to get started.



Already have a template? Check its size now!

You received a poster template from a colleague, or maybe you have used this template in the past. Now is the time to confirm that it is the correct size for your upcoming presentation.

How to download your PowerPoint research poster template

See how to download the right PowerPoint poster template from the PosterPresentations.com website, and how to minimize sizing errors.

Overview of a research poster template

Overview of the PowerPoint poster templates, what’s on the templates and how it can make your design experience easier.

Adjusting font sizes

Are you wondering whether the fonts on the poster are too big or too small to read from a reasonable viewing distance? There is an easy way to find out.

How to zoom in and out in PowerPoint

Learn how to zoom in and out of the  template as you work on your poster presentation.

How to change the template's column configuration

Learn how to change the column configuration on the Slide Master.

How to prepare the content of your poster

Learn how to save time by preparing the content of your poster before you start working on your presentation.

How to add a title to your poster

Learn how to optimize the size of your poster's title bar.

How to add text to your poster

Learn how to add text to your poster with cop-and-paste or by creating a text box.

How to add pictures to the poster template

How to add pictures to your poster and what to avoid when sizing them.

How to delete the Quick Guide bars

The Quick Guides are outside the poster area and cannot be printed or be on your PDF but if you still want to remove them here is how.

How to convert our poster templates to Google Slides

If you want to use our poster templates but don't have access to PowerPoint, you can use Google Slides. Here is how to convert your PowerPoint template to Google Slides.

Typical research poster structure

The typical structure of a research poster can vary slightly depending on the specific requirements and guidelines of the conference or event where it will be presented, but it usually includes the following sections: Title: A concise and informative title that reflects the main topic or research question. (includes list of the study's authors, followed by institutional affiliations). Introduction: An introduction that provides background information on the topic, outlines the research question and highlights the significance and relevance of the study. Methods: A clear and concise description of the methods and techniques used in the study. Results: A summary of the main findings of the study, including any relevant statistical analyses. Discussion: Discuss the implications of the findings, their relevance to the field, and any limitations or areas for future research. Conclusion: A brief summary of the study's main findings and key takeaways. References: A list of the sources cited in the poster. In addition to these sections, a research poster should also include clear and visually appealing graphics, such as tables, charts, and images, to help illustrate the key points and findings of the study. The poster should be well-organized, easy to read, and visually engaging to capture viewers' attention and effectively communicate the research findings.

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How to design a great science poster in PowerPoint

On this page I'll explain how to use PowerPoint to get a great science poster design. Good to mention beforehand: this is a tutorial about using PowerPoint for your design. If you want to learn how to create a concept/idea for a science poster or visual, you can find this knowhow in the Science Poster Design Guide . After that, you can for example use a tool such as PowerPoint to create the final design. 

1. Create a poster file

• Open PowerPoint. In the top bar go to File > New Presentation.
• A new file opens. Delete all the content boxes on the blank page.
• Save your file as a regular PowerPoint file.

2. Resize to A0: 841 x 1189 mm

• Go to top bar 2 (the one with ‘Home, Insert, Draw’) > Design.
• Select Slide Size (image 1).
• Click Page Setup > Fill in: Width - 841 mm, Height: 1189 mm (image 2). Click OK. 

3. Add your colour palette

• Go to top bar 2 > Design.
• Go to Format Background (image 1).
• At Fill, select Solid fill (image 2).
• Click the icon next to Colour (in the Format Background menu).
• From the popup menu select 'More Colours'.
• From the new popup menu, select 'CMYK' Sliders in the dropdown box (image 3).
• Fill in the CMYK values of colour 1 of your colour palette. If you have a colour palette from for example coolors.co , they provide you with the CMYK values of each colour. If you don’t have the CMYK colours, you can get them through various tools, such as color-hex.com .
• Drag the colour in the left bottom corner to the empty colour rectangles (image 4). Repeat step 8 and 9 for all your colour palette colours.

4. Background colour (optional)

• If you want to give your background a colour, go to top bar 2 > Design > Format Background.
• At 'Fill' select 'Solid fill' (image 1).
• Click on the icon next to 'Colour'.
• In the popup window, select 'More Colours...'.
• In the new popup window, you see your colour palette, or you can select another (suitable) colour in the CMYK sliders (image 2).
• Select your colour and click 'OK'.

5. Add background shapes (optional)

• If you also use shapes as a background (such as a top bar or a rectangle with text in it), go to top bar 2 > Insert.
• Click the Shapes icon.
• Select your shape from the popup menu.
• In the poster draw the shape (by clicking on the poster and dragging).
• Give the shape the right size (by scaling with your mouse).
• Select the shape
• Go to top bar 2 > Shape Format
• Go to the Shape Fill icon and click on the dropdown button next to it.
• Select the colour.
• If you want to change the border colour (or don’t want to show a border), go to the icon next to Shape Fill, called Shape Outline.
• Click on the dropdown button next to it.
• Select No Outline or a colour.
• Select the shape. 
• Go to top bar 2 > Shape Format. 
• Go to the Edit Shape icon and click on it. Select Edit Points.

6. Add your texts

• Go to the top bar, select Insert > Text Box (image 1).
• Place the text box on the right place in the poster (image 2).
• Write or copy and paste your own text in it.
• Go to the lightgrey top bar (with font and font size, etc. in it).
• From the font dropdown box, select the font of your liking (image 3).
• From the font size dropdown box, select (or write) the font size of your liking (image 4).
• In the Font Colour dropdown box, select the colour you want for your text (image 5).
• For other texts on your poster: Select the text box of the previous steps, and copy and paste it, to create a new text box.
• Repeat step 2-7 for this text box. 
• Selecting your text box, go to the Line Space icon in top bar 2 (Home tab) (image 6).
• Click on Line Spacing Options In the popup menu.
• At Line Spacing, select Exactly (image 7).
• Next to ‘At:’, fill in the spacing. Experiment with different values. It always has to be a value that is larger then the font size used in the text box.
• Select text box.
• Go to top bar 2 > Home.
• Click on one of the text alignment icons: you can choose ‘Align to left’, ‘Centre text’, Align to right’ and ‘Justify text' (image 8).

7. Add and make your images

• Go to top bar 2 > Insert.
• Select the Insert Picture icon (image 1).
• Select your choice, mostly it will be ‘Picture from File'.
• Select your picture in the popup menu and click 'Insert'.
• If your images are vector images, you can adjust the color of it.
• Choose one of the following icons: Shapes, Icons, SmartArt (image 2).
• Choose your shape, icon or illustration and insert it in your poster. The colours are adjustable.

8. Draw your images (optional)

• If you want to draw your own images in PowerPoint, go to top bar 2 > Draw.
• Select one of the drawing pencils and start drawing (image 1).
• When you have drawn a shape or a line, you can go to top bar 2 > Shape Format, and adjust the colour (image 2).

9. Insert your charts

• If you use charts on your poster, go to top bar 2 > Insert.
• Select the Chart icon and choose a suitable chart design from the drop down menu (image 1).
• When selecting a chart, Excel automatically opens.
• Fill in the right values in Excel (image 2).
• Now it’s time to adjust the design of the chart. Go back to PowerPoint. By clicking on elements in the chart, you can adjust the design of it (image 3).
• Repeat the previous steps for all your charts.

10. Export to PDF (including bleed )

• PowerPoint does not have the bleed ability, so you have to integrate the bleed (most of the time 3 mm at each side) into the custom size. In top bar 2, go to Design.
• Select the icon Slide Size.
• Add 6 mm to both width and height (image 1).
• The popup window asks you if you want to scale the content, choose 'Don’t Scale'.
• Check if there are elements on the poster that you need to make larger (because they don’t cover the bleed area). If applicable: make them larger
• Go in the top bar to File > Export.
• Choose PDF.
• Click 'Save'.

You are done, congratulations with your science poster!

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Preparing the Perfect Poster Presentation

Last Updated on June 23, 2022 by Laura Turner

Poster presentations are to medical school as book reports are to grade school. They are ubiquitous, yet nobody really knows how to do one well. At first they can be intimidating and mysterious; eventually they might become mundane and boring. No matter where you lie on that spectrum as a student researcher, one thing is certain: like it or not, there’s no avoiding them. You’d be hard-pressed to make it four years of medical school without doing a poster, and those diving into research will no doubt present many more.

The problem with posters is that the how-to manual for them really doesn’t exist. Most of us learn how to make and present posters via informal, opinion-based advice from an early mentor and stick to that formula from then on out. As a result, the habits we develop mirror those of the person who taught us. For better or worse, these habits can stick around for an entire career and then one day permeate the advice we eventually give out. Thus, the cycle continues.

This article will serve as a primer to the topic of research posters, giving newer presenters a solid foundation while pointing out often-overlooked details to the grizzled veterans. These tried and true tips, used in combination with the subjective guidance of your mentors and peers, will give you a leg up so that you can snag one of those coveted “Best Poster” awards at your next conference.

The 5 W’s of Poster Presentations

Posters are everywhere in medical school and science in general, but why is that? Have you ever stopped to ask why our preferred method of disseminating research findings is essentially a PowerPoint slide blown up to 36×48 inches? Before diving into how to make and deliver a poster presentation, let’s start with the who, what, where, why, when.

Who makes posters? Practically everybody in academia! As the most accessible form of research presentation, students make up the largest proportion, but you will still see plenty of residents and scientists at all stages of their careers manning the tack boards at any conference you visit.

What exactly is a poster? Essentially, a poster tells the story of a research finding or project in a visual, easily-digestible format. The traditional poster has the same sections as an abstract, such as background, methods, results, and conclusions. However, a poster can represent any type of project at any stage of completion, so you will see these components change from poster to poster and depending on the type of conference you’re at. For example, a poster reporting typical basic science findings will look a lot different than one proposing an innovate new idea in medical education.

Where are posters presented? At nearly all conferences, a poster session is included to help attendees share their ideas and findings. The three major levels of conference are local, regional, and national. Your medical school’s annual student research day would be considered a local conference, while regional meetings are often put on by state chapters of national societies. The annual meeting of those large societies, such as the AMA, would be considered a national meeting. As you go up the hierarchy, the poster sessions get more competitive and thus carry more weight when you add them to your CV.

Why present a poster? This question will vary by the presenter’s level of training. For a student, posters start as a way to show research productivity on a CV and to practice key skills such as public speaking and scientific discourse. With experience, the focus may shift to soliciting critical feedback on a project in hopes of improving it or brainstorming new hypotheses. Once out of training, poster presentations become less frequent but might be most useful for networking with others in the field to spark a new collaborative project. Despite their simplicity, posters remain valuable no matter how far along you are in your training.

When is a poster presented? This will also vary, as it depends on what you hope to get out of it. Students will often be expected to do a poster at the end of a research experience, but there is no need to limit yourself to just this bookend role. If an exciting conference is coming up that you want to attend, consider submitting a poster as well. The opportunity to present will help you network and make the conference that much more productive. Hit a snag in your current work? Make a poster to get feedback and advice from those who stop by to view it. No matter what stage your research project is in, a poster can be a great opportunity to strengthen your science.

Preparing Your Poster

The actual process of making a poster can be anything from pleasant to mind-numbing depending on how much you enjoy the creative process and how skilled you are with PowerPoint. Scientists as a whole tend to prefer data to design, so most likely fall into the latter category. Still, if you want to knock it out of the park with a poster, it must be equally strong in both its science and its appearance. The sleekest poster doesn’t stand a chance if its contents are garbage, while the most impressive research project will simply be overlooked if it doesn’t catch the viewer’s eye.

Assuming your science is strong, design should be on your mind from the start, as it can make or break your poster’s performance at the conference. We’ll hit a few crucial tips below, but for a much more thorough walkthrough of nearly every detail involved in poster creation check out this guide from Dr. Colin Purrington’s blog . Full disclosure: I have no idea who he is. However, his guide is the best and most comprehensive one I’ve found online and took my own posters from meh to mesmerizing practically overnight.

When designing a poster, simple is better. Stick to one main color—two at maximum, just make sure they don’t clash—and leave plenty of white space instead of trying to fill up every inch. Big fonts and big images are a must, and try to minimize text. This isn’t the time to write a dissertation on your project, just stick to the absolute basics a person should know if they walked by and read it. The finer details can all be explained orally when you present it. Many people overlook this step, but once the poster is complete zoom in and make sure all the boxes, headings, and figures are nicely aligned with each other. It seems trivial, but attention to detail on your poster will convey to the viewer that you also have attention to detail in your research.

Most importantly, make sure you lay out the poster’s components in a way that flows naturally. Most people like to have the exposition at left, such as background and methods, with the results occupying the most important real estate at the center of the poster. Finally, the conclusions and future directions follow at stage right. Space should be dedicated in order of importance, with results taking up the majority of the poster while things like references and acknowledgements should be minimized (if included at all). Finally, once the poster is complete be sure to do a test print on regular paper to look for errors. Nothing feels worse than tacking up your poster at a conference only to feel all your hard work slipping away thanks to an overlooked typo or a graph that just didn’t print right.

The next time you make a poster, take an hour to just tweak the layout of a blank template before you add all your data into it. Coming up with a custom format like this will pay off in dividends, saving you time on future posters and ensuring they all follow a consistent, logical organization. Naturally, you will have to make adjustments on a project-by-project basis, but sticking to one solid template as a starting point is worlds better than beginning from scratch each time.

Pulling Off the Presentation

Once your poster is perfected and printed, it’s up to you to show everyone at the conference just how great your research really is. It’s easy to feel like your work is done as soon as the poster prints, but don’t let your guard down just yet! Flopping the presentation is all it takes for your hard work to go to waste. When it comes down to it, people will stop by your poster because it looks interesting but they would much rather hear you talk than stand there silently reading it. Design draws the crowds but an engaging speaker is what keeps them from wandering away.

The most important aspect of presenting a poster is having a short “elevator speech” lined up that you can rattle off at a moment’s notice. You only have a few seconds to catch a person’s interest, so start off with an attention-grabbing fact or question before diving into a chronological tour of the highlights of your poster from start to finish. The goal is to get the viewer to care about your poster right away, forcing them to stick around to hear what your final conclusions were. Have this speech prepared ahead of time and practice it before the conference. This will help you to work out the best way to succinctly present your content instead of blindly improvising and getting caught talking in circles on presentation day.

Once you run through things, expect difficult questions from your audience. This is especially true with judges, as your ability to field a question is often a major criterion of your score. Fear not though, as knowing the answer is often much less important than how you respond. Listen intently during the question, use tricks like restating to buy thinking time, and if you don’t have an answer prepared try to speculate based on what you do know. Don’t lie or make something up, but instead think aloud as you talk through the question. If all else fails, fall back on noting how great the question is and discussing how you might study that hypothesis in future experiments.

Lastly, remember that a poster is just as much about receiving as it is about sharing. Make sure you receive value from your presentation in the form of feedback, advice, and networking. Instead of standing quietly at your poster, smile to those who walk by and speak up to any whose eyes dart to your work or who stop even momentarily. Instead of offering to answer any questions and standing silent as they read, ask what field they work in and offer to jump into your elevator speech. Before they leave, ask for feedback on your work or your presenting skills and consider exchanging contact information if they might want to collaborate in the future.

Love them or hate them, posters are the gateway drug of presenting research in medical school. Take any chance you have to do one, as the work it requires is far outweighed by the skills and experiences accrued in the process. Before you know it, you’ll be cranking out posters in mere hours and delivering riveting presentations without breaking a sweat. With enough practice on the small stage, you’ll be in great shape to wow the audience when the time comes to give a high-profile podium presentation. Above all else, enjoy the process and have fun! Posters are a unique tradition, and skipping lecture to fly off to a conference with one is an excellent opportunity to recharge your batteries and mix up the mundane routine that medical school often becomes.

Welcome to “Research for the Rest of Us”, a column about navigating the complex intricacies of life in the lab. These articles aren’t for the superhuman Nature-publishing, Nobel Prize-winning MD/PhDs out there, but rather for the rest of us: the Average Joes simply trying to get our feet wet in research. Join us as we journey through this complex world of academic adventures, from picking a project to matching into your dream residency and everything in between. 

Trevor C. Hunt is a rising fourth-year medical student and a member of his school’s Research Distinction Track, currently completing a one-year research fellowship. He authors the SDN column “Research for the Rest of Us”, using his experience to help others navigate the precarious pitfalls of life in the lab. He enjoys reading and art, and when not in the hospital or conducting experiments can often be found on a golf course or a ski slope. Find him on Twitter: @TrevorHunt_ECU.

돋보이는 포스터를 만드는 방법: 원활한 포스터 프레젠테이션을 위한 팁

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학회 시즌이 찾아왔습니다. 주디는 처음으로 만든 포스터를 프레젠테이션할 생각에 잔뜩 들떠 있었습니다! 그녀는 이전에 다양한 포스터를 보았고, 포스터가 연구를 공유하기에 좋은 수단이라는 점을 잘 알고 있었습니다. 그러나 막상  연구 포스터 제작에 착수하자 주디는 이 작업이 결코 만만하지 않음을 깨닫게 되었습니다!

포스터 준비를 위한 사전 디자인에서 고려해야 할 사항

포스터가 연구 결과를 프레젠테이션하기 위한 것인지, 개념을 제안하기 위한 것인지, 진행 중인 작업을 요약하기 위한 것인지 그 목적을 명확히 합니다.

포스터를 보게 될 대상(예: 동료 연구자, 업계 전문가, 일반 대중)을 파악하고, 이들의 전문지식 수준에 맞추어 포스터의 내용과 디자인을 조정합니다.

3. 핵심 메시지 결정

포스터의 주요 내용을 결정하고 포스터의 모든 요소가 이러한 내용 전달이라는 목표를 뒷받침하고 있는지 확인합니다.

필요한 데이터, 결과, 그래프와 차트 같은 시각적 요소를 모두 수집합니다. 수집한 데이터를 바탕으로 하여 섹션별로 간결하고 명확한 텍스트 초안을 작성합니다. 청중이 해당 주제 전문가들이 아니라면 전문 용어는 피하는 것이 좋습니다.

5. 서식과 크기 선택

가이드라인에 명시된 크기와 방향(세로 또는 가로)을 준수합니다. 포스터에서 픽셀이 깨지는 현상이 발생하지 않도록 모든 이미지/그래픽의 해상도가 높은지 확인해 둡니다.

6.디자인 도구 선택 및 레이아웃 계획

포스터 디자인에 사용할 소프트웨어나 도구를 선택합니다. 대략적인 레이아웃을 스케치하여 섹션을 구성하고 정보의 흐름을 결정합니다.

주디는 포스터 제작의 사전 디자인 단계에서 어떤 사항을 고려해야 하는지 이해했습니다. 그러나 주디를 기다리고 있는 몇 가지 도전과제가 있었습니다.

포스터 제작의 도전과제

눈길을 사로잡으면서도 유익한 정보를 제공하는 포스터를 제작하기란 쉽지 않을 수 있습니다. 주디가 직면한 몇 가지 도전과제는 다음과 같습니다.

• 일관성과 통일성 유지
• 다양한 프레젠테이션 형식에 적용
• 콘텐츠와 비주얼의 균형 유지

포스터를 제작할 때 연구자들은 시간과 자원의 제약에 직면하게 될 때가 많습니다. 이러한 제약 때문에 훌륭한 포스터 디자인 제작에 충분한 노력을 기울이기 어렵습니다. 이 문제를 해결하기 위해, 주디는 인포그래픽을 참고하여 포스터 제작 시 ‘해야 할 일과 하지 말아야 할 일’을 살펴보았습니다.

포스터 제작 시 해야 할 일과 하지 말아야 할 일

• 전문 용어를 피하고 간결한 텍스트를 사용할 것
• 글꼴 스타일과 크기를 일관성 있게 사용할 것
• 고해상도 이미지를 사용할 것
• 일관된 구조를 따를 것
• 핵심 요점과 결과를 강조할 것
• 참고 문헌과 감사의 말을 제공할 것
• 내용을 꼼꼼히 교정하고 검토할 것
• 전문가에게 디자인 지원을 받는 것을 고려할 것
• 대상 청중과 프레젠테이션 형식을 무시하는 것
• 포스터에 텍스트나 이미지를 과도하게 사용하는 것
• 다양한 요소를 어수선하게 두는 것
• 단락을 길게 구성하는 것
• 중요한 섹션을 누락시키는 것
• 전문가답지 않거나 산만해 보이는 글꼴을 사용하는 것
• 요소의 정렬을 무시하는 것
• 연락처 정보 추가를 잊어버리는 것
• 피드백을 무시하는 것

프레젠테이션 모드가 가상인지 대면인지도 디자인 고려 사항에 영향을 미칩니다. 가상 프레젠테이션이라면 포스터가 명확하고 읽기 쉬운 텍스트와 시각자료를 사용하여 디지털 보기에 최적화되어 있도록 해야 합니다. 대면 프레젠테이션이라면 멀리서도 볼 수 있도록 글꼴 크기를 키우고 레이아웃은 단순하게 유지해야 합니다. 다음은 주디가 설득력 있는 구두 프리젠테이션을 하기 위해 참고한 몇 가지 팁입니다.

1. 포스터 파악하기

포스터의 모든 측면을 철저히 숙지합니다. 세부 사항을 설명하고 질문에 자신 있게 답변할 수 있도록 미리 준비하세요.

2. 간결하고 매력적인 소개 준비하기

간결하고 매력적인 서론으로 프레젠테이션을 시작하여 청중의 관심을 끌도록 합니다. 연구 주제와 그 중요성, 해결하고자 하는 주요 목표를 간략하게 소개하세요.

3.구두 프레젠테이션을 체계적으로 구성하기

포스터의 레이아웃을 반영하는 논리적 흐름을 따르도록 합니다. 여기에는 일반적으로 서론, 방법, 결과, 결론이 포함됩니다.

4.핵심 연구 결과와 시사점 강조하기

연구의 핵심 결과와 시사점을 명확히 전달합니다. 가장 중요한 결과를 집중 조명하고, 그 결과가 더 넓은 연구 분야나 응용 분야에 어떻게 기여하는지 설명하세요.

5. 시각 자료를 효과적으로 활용하기

구두 발표를 뒷받침할 때 포스터에 사용된 시각적 보조 자료를 활용합니다. 시각 자료가 명확하고 간결하며 구두 설명을 효과적으로 보완할 수 있는지 확인해 두세요.

6. 프레젠테이션 및 시간 관리 연습하기

자신감 있는 발표를 할 수 있도록 프레젠테이션 연습을 합니다. 속도, 어조, 바디랭귀지에 주의를 기울이세요. 효과적인 시간 관리가 매우 중요하므로, 주어진 시간 내에 발표를 마칠 수 있도록 연습하세요.

청중과 눈을 마주치고 상호작용을 적극 유도합니다. 질문을 하거나 의견을 말할 수 있도록 잠깐씩 멈추고 정중하게 답변할 준비를 하세요.

8. 명확한 답변 제공하기

질문이나 의견에 응답할 때는 명확하고 간결하며 명료하게 답변합니다. 필요한 경우 포스터나 메모를 참고하여 설명을 뒷받침하세요.

9. 강력한 요약으로 마무리하기

연구의 핵심 요점을 강화해 주는 강력한 요약으로 프레젠테이션을 마무리하도록 합니다. 포스터를 더 자세히 살펴보거나 추가 토론에 참여하도록 청중을 초대해 보세요.

10.비언어적 소통도 간과하지 않기

자세, 제스처, 표정 등 비언어적 소통에도 주의를 기울입니다. 프레젠테이션을 하는 내내 자신감 있고 매력적인 태도를 유지하세요.

주디는 훌륭한 포스터가 학회에서 깊은 인상을 남기는 데 도움이 된다는 사실을 잘 알고 있었습니다. 그러나 시간 제약이 있었기에 학회 요구 사항에 맞추어 템플릿을 조정해야 했습니다. 그래서 이나고 포스터 프레젠테이션 서비스 에 상담하기로 결정했습니다.

왜 이나고 포스터 프레젠테이션 서비스를 선택해야 할까요 ?

이나고 포스터 프레젠테이션 서비스는 학회, 대학 학과 등에서 자신의 연구를 발표하고자 하는 신진 연구자 및 경력 연구자와 학생 모두에게 이상적인 서비스입니다. 또한 기업이 전문가 모임에서 아이디어와 서비스를 프레젠테이션하는 경우에도 도움이 됩니다.

이나고는 처리 시간 및 서비스 관련 다양한 옵션과 더불어 경쟁력 있는 가격을 주디에게 제공했습니다. 또한 이나고 언어 전문가들이 언어의 정확성을 꼼꼼히 확인하고 텍스트를 압축하여 명확하고 간결한 포스터를 제작했습니다. 그 결과 품질이 향상되고 매력적인 포스터를 완성할 수 있었습니다. 또한 다양한 배송 옵션과 신뢰할 수 있는 고객 지원을 통해 전체 프로세스를 간소화했습니다.

이나고 포스터 프레젠테이션 서비스의 장점

1. 연구 결과를 효과적으로 전달함.

이나고 디자이너들의 풍부한 경험은 시각적으로 매력적인 포스터 제작에 도움이 되었습니다. 이는 주디의 연구 결과를 효과적으로 요약하고 해당 행사의 요구 사항을 충족하는 데에도 도움이 되었습니다.

2. 간결함과 정확성 유지

포스터에 사용된 언어가 정확하고 간결한지 콘텐츠 전문가가 꼼꼼히 확인하여 보장했습니다.

여러 차례의 품질 검사를 통해 주디의 포스터가 최고 수준의 품질 기준을 충족하는지 확인했습니다.

4. 고객 맞춤 제작

맞춤형 서비스는 주디가 자신의 연구와 참석하는 학회의 특정 요구 사항을 준수하는 데 도움이 되었습니다.

이나고 덕분에 주디는 전문가다우면서도 매력적인 포스터를 제작할 수 있었습니다. 덕분에 학회에서 사람들의 눈에 띄고 좋은 인맥을 쌓을 수 있었습니다.

훌륭한 과학 포스터를 제작하려면 계획을 신중히 세워야 하고, 디자인과 관련한 사항들을 고려해야 하며, 연구를 깊이 이해하고 있어야 합니다. 전문가의 도움을 받으면 흡입력 있는 포스터 를 제작하여 청중을 사로잡고 과학적 연구 결과를 효과적으로 전달할 수 있습니다.

이나고는2005년에 설립되어 현재까지 전 세계 125개국 이상의 연구자들을 위해 영문교정 , 논문출판 , 학술번역 등 국제 학술지에 연구 논문이 출판될 수 있도록 저자 서비스를 통해 지원해 오고 있습니다. 논문 게재는 연구 결과 자체가 달려야 하지만, 저자가 언어 또는 경험이 걸림돌이 되어서는 안 된다고 굳게 믿고 있습니다. 이나고는 평균 출판 경력 15 년을 바탕으로 전문적인 원고 영문 교정과 출판 지원 서비스를 제공하여 저자가 논문 출판에 기술적 과제를 극복하고 언어적 오류가 없이 성공적으로 논문이 게재 될 수 있도록 지원합니다. 이나고 아카데미는 출판에 필요한 학술 자료를 제공하는 지식 파트너입니다. 최신 학술 논문과 출판 정보를 이나고 아카데미 웹사이트를 통해 게재하여 전 세계적으로 30만 명 이상의 구독자를 보유하고 있습니다. 아카데미 전문팀은 각국 연구기관 및 병원등 함께 협력하여 약 35개국에서 학문 글작성을 위한 워크숍을 진행하였습니다. 더 자세한 사항은 언제든지 고객 서비스팀으로 연락주시고 필요한 학술 콘텐츠를 알려주세요

무료로 보실 수 있는 기사 횟수에 제한이 있습니다. 구독하시면 논문작성 및 저널 출판에 관한 다양한 자료를 횟수제한 없이 이용하실수 있습니다.

• 500개 이상의 출판뉴스
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