Technical and Media Services : PowerPoint Poster Guidelines

• Font sizes. Use a MINIMUM of 24 point type for body text and 96 point type for headings.

• Poster size. An appropriate size for a symposium poster is 48" x 36."

• Poster title. The poster title should be easily read from a minimum of 10 feet. This announces the topic or questions of your research, so that the reader has immediate context for the material you are presenting.  The title should contain sufficient information and detail so that the reader has a sense of the specific question or topic that is addressed in the poster.

• Borders. If a border is used on the textboxes, BE CONSISTENT with stroke width and border color!

• Allow for margin space. Allow a minimum of 1/2" margin on all sides of the poster for printing purposes.

• Use quality images. Do not use images found on the Internet. Most web images have been compressed and are not a high enough quality for large format printing. Scan images and place them in the poster instead. Scan at minimum 150 dpi (resolution) and save as an uncompressed TIFF image.

• Use color sparingly. Choose 2 colors, preferably a dark and light color, for your color "theme."

• Too much information. Be careful not to overcrowd the poster with unnecessary detail. Be selective in your information and condense it down into presentable facts. Choose the images/graphs that say the most about your project.

• Protect your poster. Take care how your poster is stored - invest in a poster or shipment tube to protect it.