Conference Posters:a workshop

Dave BakerDave Baker

IT Learning Programme

Today’s arrangements

Your teacher is Dave Bakerdavid.baker@oucs.ox.ac.ukdavid.baker@oucs.ox.ac.uk

We finish at

You should have Some ideas!

You will have Copies of slidesYou will have Copies of slides

Your safety is important

Where is the fire exit?

Beware of hazards:

Tripping over bags and coats

Please report any equipment faults to us

Let us know if you have any other concerns

Your comfort is important

The toilets are along the corridor outside thelecture roomslecture rooms

The rest area is where you registered;it has vending machines and a water cooler

The seats at the computers are adjustable

You can adjust the monitors for height, tilt andYou can adjust the monitors for height, tilt andbrightness

Posters forConferences

Session format

How shall we use this workshop?

Your options are:

Critique some past posters

Critique your posters

Hear some ‘words of wisdom’ from us

Create your own postersCreate your own posters

Revisit your existing posters

Posters forConferences

Critique of posters

Posters forConferences

Creating posterswith PowerPoint

Today’s topics closely followthe Poster Process

Choosing your tool

Planning your poster layout

Using images

Using diagrams

Using text

Choosing coloursChoosing colours

Proofreading and printing

PowerPoint is not the best tool for the jobbut it is adequate

Excellent InDesignExcellent

Adequate

InDesign

PowerPoint

Poor Word

Some layout decisions will be made for you,others are yours…

TitleTitleConferenceorganiser:

Size Orientation Layout

You:onts

Some initial planning will save time

There are some things a poster must have

Title Title

Contact details

Start ► Middle ► End

A ‘path’ to follow

Headings

NumberingNumbering

Layout

A design element

Contact details

And some things a poster could have

Author images…

…because you won’talways be in front ofyour poster

QR Code…QR Code…

…because you canencode all sorts ofdata in it

An important first step is to set thepage size

Always do this first!A4

Always do this first!

Common sizes are:

A1 = 8 x A4

A0 = 16 x A4

Custom!

A4

Custom!

Poor alignment makes a poster lookamateurish

Make use of the alignment tools available :

Ruler

Grid (snap to)

Drawing Guides

Smart Guides (2010)

Everything should line up with something!Use a layout grid to help

Empty space is part of the content!

TextText20-25% TextTe

xt

Gra

phics

Gra

phics

Text20-25%

Graphics40-45%

Text

Graphics

Gra

phicsEmpty30-40%

Posters forConferences

Using images

There are two types of image

Vector Images

Windows Metafile

AutoCAD

Bitmap Images

TIF

GIFGIF

PNG

JPEG

You need to take care when resizing images

Vector graphics resize well

Bitmapped graphics don’t!

For large printed images you need largenumbers of pixels

At least:

200 dots per inch (dpi)200 dots per inch (dpi)80 dots per cm

1000 x800

12.5cm x10

cm

There are many sources for images…

But the most important image resource isyour librarian!

For posters use the vector (scalable)versions of the Oxford crest

Quadrangle

Rectangle

Search for:oxford branding toolkit

Rectangle

Presentation applications have a limitedrange of image editing tools

Original Washout Greyscale

Brightness Contrast Crop Flip

Posters forConferences

Using diagrams

Use the Shapes and SmartArt toolbars tocreate your own diagrams

Your visitors won’t have time to assimilatelarge tables of data – charts are better

YearSun

Spots YearSun

Spots YearSun

Spots YearSun

SpotsYear Spots Year Spots Year Spots Year Spots

1936 40 1945 25 1954 5 1963 20

1937 115 1946 75 1955 10 1964 10

1938 100 1947 145 1956 60 1965 15

1939 80 1948 130 1957 190 1966 30

1940 60 1949 130 1958 180 1967 60

1941 40 1950 80 1959 175 1968 105

1942 23 1951 65 1960 120 1969 105

1943 10 1952 20 1961 50 1970 105

100

150

200

1943 10 1952 20 1961 50 1970 105

1944 10 1953 10 1962 35 1971 80

0

50

1935 1945 1955 1965

Charts can be created directly inPowerPoint or pasted from Excel

Right-clickRight-clickto changeelements

Posters forConferences

Using text

The size of the fonts is criticalfor readability

Rule of thumb (for an A1 or A0 poster):

Main title: 72+Subtitles: 54+Text: 30+Text: 30+

Sub-text: 20+

At the recommended font sizes, you canget surprisingly few words on a poster

How many?~400-600

Use one font for the body and one font forheadings (and they might be the same!)

Your Heading Your HeadingYour HeadingLorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetur adipiscing elit. Nuncconsequat arcu tellus. Proinpulvinar congue quam euaccumsan. Aliquam malesuadaipsum sit amet enim tempordignissim. Quisque molestiefacilisis est, ut dignissim enim

Your HeadingIn interdum odio id leo pulvinar alobortis tellus tempor. Aeneancongue viverra elit, et facilisis duiadipiscing a. Duis faucibus arcumagna. Ut tempus ipsum eget velitornare tincidunt. Phasellus id dolorturpis. Aliquam non sem nec eroseuismod elementum. Proinfacilisis est, ut dignissim enim

mollis nec. Etiam a felis nibh, sedhendrerit elit. Proin luctus, risusvitae ornare pellentesque, nislante tincidunt sem, varius euismodest ligula imperdiet felis.

euismod elementum. Proinultricies eleifend nunc non varius.Pellentesque varius vulputateaugue ac hendrerit.

There are at least seven deadly sins of type

Take carereversing!

Arghh!!!

reversing!

powerpointcan’t underline

Arghh!!!DON’T SHOUT

Three’s a crowd

Posters forConferences

Using colour

Choose backgrounds carefully –especially gradients

TextText Text Text

TextText Text Text

If you want to use a background,put it on the master (layer)

A good choice of colours is subjective butsome combinations work better than others

Screen colours are not the same as printedcolours unless you take care…

Screen = Transmission Paper = ReflectionScreen = Transmission Paper = Reflection

RGBRed Green Blue

CMYKCyan Magenta Yellow (Black)

Posters forConferences

Proofing and printing

Proofread your poster before your audiencedoes it for you!

It is important that youproofread the the poster carefully

Use the spell chequer

Get someone else to evaluate your poster

OUCS can print your posters for you

Large format colour printing

A1 594 x 841 mm 233/8 x 33 1/8 in

A0 841 x 1189 mm 331/8 x 463/4 in

Charges

A1 Glossy or Satin paper £18.21

A0 Heavy Coated paper £21.15A0 Heavy Coated paper £21.15

A0 Glossy or Satin paper £41.13

Allow 24-48 hours

PDFs preferred!

Posters forConferences

Questions?

What you need to do:

Design your poster

Choose your colours and font

Set up the page size

Set up any guides you need

Source/create your images and diagrams

Create your text

Layout the poster

Proofreading and printing

Oxford University Computing Services

IT Learning Programme

david.baker@oucs.ox.ac.uk

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This presentation is made available by Dave Bakerunder a Creative Commons licence:Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivsCC BY-NC-ND