Using PowerPoint is perhaps the easiest way to make a good poster. Most users are familiar with Microsoft Office and can navigate the tools with some confidence. Even easier than making a poster is making a poster that won’t print. What follows are instructions for minimizing the likelihood of an unprintable poster. You will find this process easier if you are familiar with the concepts in the Imaging Essentials guide before beginning making a poster: it.med.harvard.edu/ris and go to Guides & Primers

The following workflow is diagrammed later in this document. Workflow Overview
A. Contact the organizers of the poster session to find out the submission guidelines. Find out
• the size of your display space
• the orientation of the display space (landscape or portrait)
• consider making poster slightly smaller so you have somewhere to stand without blocking the view of your poster.
B. Open PowerPoint- either a template or start from scratch (find templates at it.med.harvard.edu/ris)
• set the Page Setup to the correct dimensions for your poster (if the poster is more than 55” in either dimension, set the Page Set up to one half of the target poster dimension and tell the printer service bureau to print it at 200%.)
C. Insert text content into poster
• if using a template, insert text content into existing Text Boxes
• if starting from scratch, select the Text Box tool from the Drawing Toolbar and insert Text Boxes, then add text content
• edit content so the message is conveyed with minimal verbiage
• Format content
• be sure to leave room left on poster for graphic elements
• font should be sized to keep number of words per line to about 12
D. Determine target dimensions for raster images
• select the Rectangle Tool from the Drawing Toolbar and insert placeholders where pixel based images will go
• double-click image placeholder to determine target physical dimension
E. Edit a copy of raster image with Photoshop to meet file type, color mode, resolution, physical dimension, etc. needs.
• file type: .jpg, flattened .tif or .png files are acceptable file types
• color mode: if there’s color, use RGB; if not, use grayscale
• resolution:
• if printing at 100%, 125-225 dpi
• if printing at 200%, 250-450 dpi

Download