CutNPaste -- PowerPoint -- Illustrator -- Other Methods -- Software -- General Poster Advice -- Computer Labs/Printing
This page is intended as a meta-guide to scientific poster presentation. Rather than rehash everything that has already been published on the WWW, we merely link to it in an orderly fashion! You should find everything you need to produce your own perfect presentation poster. If, after scouring the Internet, you are still having problems, I suggest finding a friendly fellow student and offering her or him lots of beer to help you out!
There are several different ways to produce a poster for a scientific conference; the major ones are listed below. The PowerPoint method is probably the most common, and nicely balances ease of creation with a fair amount of flexibility. For large and/or complicated documents, LaTeX or Illustrator can't be beat. And, if you're a technophobe, the old method of cut-and-paste to a posterboard still works just fine (even though it is ugly...)
Old-school. Less convenient than using a software solution, but the ultimate in design flexibility. Time-consuming, but good for those who aren't all that comfortable with computers. However, these posters tend to look amateurish next to a properly designed and formatted PowerPoint or Illustrator produced poster. Make sure that, before you cut and paste any text pages together, that you have first sketched out the final appearance of the poster. Use a heavy cardstock poster board, and make sure that all elements are fastened to a corrugated backboard (heavy construction paper works well) before taping/pasting/pinning it to the posterboard. If you use rubber cement, make sure to get an even coat across the surface to be fastened.
Both of these popular Office applications allow you to create a poster as a single oversized presentation slide. These applications have the advantage of a familiar user interface, OLE on a Windows platform, and are available almost everywhere (in case you have problems). PowerPoint presentations are limited in size to 56 inches by 56 inches by the software. However, you may be more limited by the roll of paper you need to print on; typical 'height' limitations are 24, 34, and 36 inches. Just about all of the restrictions and advice mentioned for PowerPoint is also applicable to OpenOffice.
The best way to prep a Power Point presentation is to make liberal use of guides, textboxes, and AutoShapes. I suggest downloading one of the sample templates just to see how other have done it. 1" margins on all sides seem to be sufficient, and avoid using text font sizes smaller than about 18-20 point. 30-32 point main text and 20-22 point italicized figure captions seems a good all-around compromise.
If you have the time and the willingness to learn a new software package, Adobe Illustrator is the way to go to produce a professional, clean, and functional poster. It offers a wide variety of custom graphical and text tools, as well as multiple font and text formatting options, with the capability to print or export to almost any format. It is, however, an expensive piece of software with a learning curve.
The only advice I can give with respect to Adobe Illustrator is to get started on your poster early, and be prepared to spend a lot of time learning. If you've used DTP or other vector drawing programs before, the learning curve is somewhat less
Most sheet printers and plotters are designed to work with a wide variety of CAD/CAM and printmaking programs. The de-facto standard for the printing industry is PostScript. Any application that allows you to output or print to a PostScript document can then be sent along to the color plotter for printout. You may be more comfortable in one of these programs than the ones listed above, which should make the postermaking process faster. A list of several major pagemaking / layout programs that support PostScript are listed below.
The GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/
or http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/ (Windows Installer)
An
open-source re-implementation of the Photoshop toolkit (and much more!). This
software has a steep learning curve, but once you become a master of Script-Fu,
you'll never go back. If you can't afford Photoshop at home, or want to run the
same image-processing software on Windows, UNIX/Linux, and Mac OS X, the GIMP is
the one for you.
IrfanViewer32: http://www.irfanview.com/
A helpful
package for manipulating and converting multiple images. Does batch operations
on multiple graphics files (useful for SEM or digital camera images). Freeware
for personal or home use.
OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/
An
open-source office suite. Very flexible, free, with good Java support. Has a
built-in vector drawing program for creating custom images. Can output documents
automatically to Adobe PDF, Macromedia Flash, HTML, or DocBook SGML. The
built-in text to HTML converter is much more efficient and flexible than the
default Microsoft Office HTML converter, and gives better results, too! Give it
a try.
SnagIt: http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/default.asp
SnagIt is an advanced screen / window capture tool. It supports grabbing
raster images from toolbars, open window elements, or finite regions of the
monitor screen. Also allows you to take video (great for teaching students how
to do a task!). It's not free, but it's a useful package to have in your
toolbox.
Instructional Computing Classrom lab with Windows XP PCs with
open hours. Software usable for posters includes PowerPoint, ArcGIS, Macromedia
Fireworks MX (image editing), and Macromedia Freehand. For more
information:
http://www.cavs.pdx.edu/icc/info.php?page=2
CH-1 is another ICC lab, with the same list of software as CH-322. Open hours are posted on the door by the first week of the quarter.
The two black Dell Inspirons (GEOL_STRESS and GEOL_STRAIN) are probably the best computers to use. The other machines will be too slow for large-size posters. Software available includes Microsoft Office, OpenOffice 1.1, ArcView/ArcGIS, and IrfanView. Additional software, either open-source, freeware, or made available under a purchased University license, can be installed upon request.
The IDSC, also known as the Grad Lab (since it's officially only open to faculty, staff, and graduate students), supports the only easily accessible sheet plotter on campus. However, you can usually find a graduate student to vouch for you to print, or get a written note from the Department Chair to gain access. The lab hosts a ton of useful multimedia and graphic design software, including:
For more information about the Grad Lab, please visit their webpage at: http://www.idsc.pdx.edu/
The IDSC hosts an HP DesignJet 755CM plotter for printing large-format posters. Typical dimensions are as follows: Class C: 17 x 22 inches; Class D: 22 x 34 inches; Class E: 33 x 44 inches. If you wish to use custom sizes, the printer is limited to 36 inches 'tall' by an effectively infinite length (I believe the standard single roll is 150 feet long). Printing costs are dependent of the amount and type of graphics (color, photos, or images). The IDSC accepts cash for the EXACT AMOUNT or personal checks. They cannot bill your University account. Costs:
Kinko's is a full-service copy and production facility. Some of the locations have computers with a wide variety of graphic design software available by the hour. They can print anything, for a cost. Kinko's tends to be more expensive than the IDSC, but with much more flexibility as to poster sizes and formats (i.e. laminated posters, hardstock paper, etc.). They can also take credit cards...
They supposedly can print large posters, and is cheaper than Kinko's. I have NOT verified this, however. No in-house computer facilities.
