How to Make a Convention Poster in the

CWU sychology Department

Warren Street

Department of Psychology

I. First Steps

  • Standards: Check the convention program or your acceptance letter for standards of poster size and any other guidelines. A maximum size of 48 inches high and 96 inches wide (4 by 8 feet) is common. The maximum height our large-format printer can produce is 42 inches high. We have rolls of paper 24, 36, and 42 inches wide.
  • Text: Using Microsoft Word, plan a few blocks of text that convey a simple, direct summary of your study.
    • Don’t just copy your thesis or research paper onto the poster. It won’t fit and nobody will read it. You will be shunned by others. Do compose a few blocks of text that summarize main points and will draw people into conversation about your study. Focus on your hypothesis, methods, and results, not on the literature review and references.
    • Choose a simple font like Ariel, Lucinda Sans, or Times New Roman for the body of your text.
    • Do as much of your text formatting in Word as possible: e.g., justification, centering, colors, bolding, etc.
  • Tables: If appropriate, use Word or Excel to construct one or two tables of data that communicate your main findings.
  • Graphs: If appropriate, use Excel or a statistics program to construct one or two graphs of important data.
  • Illustrations: One or two appropriate digital photos can attract people to read your poster and learn about your findings. Don’t use colored or photo backgrounds for your poster.
  • More detailed guidelines for poster content are available on the web, at “Creating a Poster Presentation” at http://www.westernpsych.org/

II. Composing Your Poster

Use Microsoft PowerPoint to compose text boxes, tables, graphs, and illustrations into a single PowerPoint slide, from which you will print your finished poster.

Setting Up Your Poster in PowerPoint

  • The maximum size of a PowerPoint slide is 56 inches high and 56 inches long. Most posters are longer than 56 inches. Because of that, you’ll need to make a PowerPoint slide that’s half the size of your desired poster and enlarge it to full size when you print it.
  • Templates for the following poster sizes are available on the CWU Psychology Department web site, at http://www.cwu.edu/~psych/posters/posterguidelines.htm
    • 36 x 48 inches (3 feet x 4 feet)
    • 36 x 60 inches (3 feet x 5 feet)
    • 36 x 72 inches (3 feet x 6 feet)
    • 42 x 66 inches (3 feet, 6 inches x 5 feet, 6 inches)
    • 42 x 72 inches (3 feet, 6 inches x 6 feet)
    • 42 x 92 inches (3 feet, 6 inches x 7 feet, 8 inches)
    • 42 x 96 inches (3 feet, 6 inches x 8 feet)
  • If you use one of these templates, you can click on File > Page Setup and you’ll see that the actual dimensions of the PowerPoint slide are half the dimensions of the finished poster. You’ll lay out the poster at half size and enlarge to full size when you print.
  • Open the applications that contain your text blocks, your images, your graphs, and your tables. Select each element you want to include on your poster, Copy it, open your PowerPoint poster file, and Paste it. You can move and resize the elements to make an attractive poster.
  • In text blocks, a font size of 16 points, boldface, is good. When your poster prints, it will be 32 point size, which is a suitable size. One common problem is that text blocks often import as a very large font, like 56 points. If that happens, select all the text in the block and set it to 16 points, bold.
  • In the example below, we’ve typed the title and authors into the areas provided on the template and we’ve imported several blocks of text, three graphs, and two images.
  • Save your poster several times while you’re composing it. When you’re done, save it to your own computer and also save it to a USB drive or to a CWU network drive.

    III. Printing Your Poster

    The large-format printer and its computer are located in the file room next to PSY 421.

    Be sure the large format printer in PSY 421 is turned on. The ON button at left end of the front panel should be lit.

    Be sure the correct size paper roll is loaded. One caution: Experience has shown that lining up the right edge of the paper with the blue alignment line on the printer may cause the paper to wrinkle on very long posters. It's better to raise the blue lever, smooth and tighten the paper on the roll, pull the front end of the paper tight against the roll, then lower the blue lever. This squares the paper on the roll.

    Start up the computer in PSY 421. Attach your USB drive or access your network folder and open your poster file in PowerPoint.

    Check File>Page Setup to be sure your poster dimensions and orientation are correct. In our example, the dimensions are 48 by 21 inches to print a 96 by 42-inch poster. Be sure the “Orientation: Slides” is “Landscape.” Click “OK.”

 

III. Printing Your Poster

The large-format printer and its computer are located in the file room next to PSY 421.

Be sure the large format printer in PSY 421 is turned on. The ON button at left end of the front panel should be lit.

Be sure the correct size paper roll is loaded. One caution: Experience has shown that lining up the right edge of the paper with the blue alignment line on the printer may cause the paper to wrinkle on very long posters. It's better to raise the blue lever, smooth and tighten the paper on the roll, pull the front end of the paper tight against the roll, then lower the blue lever. This squares the paper on the roll.

Start up the computer in PSY 421. Attach your USB drive or access your network folder and open your poster file in PowerPoint.

Check File>Page Setup to be sure your poster dimensions and orientation are correct. In our example, the dimensions are 48 by 21 inches to print a 96 by 42-inch poster. Be sure the “Orientation: Slides” is “Landscape.” Click “OK."

Clهck on File>Print to get the Print dialog box.

On the “Printer” dropdown menu, select the “HP DesignJet 500 42 by HP” printer.

Then click on “Properties.”

Under “Paper,” click on the “Roll” radio button and choose “42 inch roll” from the dropdown menu.

Then click on “Scale to Fit.” This will bring up the “ZoomSmart Settings” box.

Under “Page Size: Document, ”click on the dropdown menu, scroll all the way to the bottom and click on “Edit Paper List.”

This will bring up the Paper Sizes dialog box.

Under “Custom Paper Sizes,” type in the desired width and height of your finished poster.

In our example, I want the finished poster to be 96 inches wide and 42 inches high.

Click “OK.”

This will bring up the “ZoomSmart Settings” box again,

This time, Under “ZoomSmart Options,”click on “Fit the document to this paper” radio button and on the paper size dropdown menu, find your custom paper size. It should be at the top of the list as “Custom 1,” with the dimensions you created previously. Click on that paper size, then click “OK.”  If your dimensions aren’t on the list, see the next note.

Note: If your dimensions aren’t on the list, just scroll down to the bottom of the list, click on “Edit Paper List,” bringing up the Paper Sizes dialog box like before. Under “Custom Paper Sizes” type in the desired width and height of your finished poster. Click “OK” twice.

This should return you to the DesignJet Properties screen.

  • Check to be sure your desired poster dimensions are displayed in the “Paper: Size” box.
  • The other settings should be Quality : Normal,” “Optimize: for Drawings/Text” and “Orientation: Landscape.”
  • The desired poster size should also appear to the right of the “Optimize” box.
Click “OK.”

This will  return you to the “Print” dialog box.

Click on “Scale to fit paper.” This is essential to get the poster to print at your desired size, double the size PowerPoint

Then Click on “Preview” and be sure everything looks right. Here’s the preview view of our sample poster

Click on “Print.”

The “Print” dialog box will come up again.

Click on “OK.”

An inset will appear in the upper left of your poster layout, showing “Spooling” and “Printing” progress.

The printer will start and your poster will be printed. Watch the first few inches to be sure the scaling and orientation are right.

If you need to terminate the print job before it’s done, press the pink “Cancel” button on the right end of the front panel of the printer.

We have carrying boxes for 42 inch high posters. Ask the department secretary for a carrying box.

Write a one-page reminder of your main points and make copies to distribute at the convention. Be sure to include contact information for those who would like to follow up with a contact later on.

have a great time at the convention with your poster!

 

 

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