What is the best way to make an A1 size poster to present a research project?

Is there any especially good software for this? Or can it be done on word?

Thanks

I did a couple of those on power point this year. If you can get access to a projector you can see what it'll look like before you print it out etc.

Never design on word. Please.
You'll need to present the file as a vector, along with any bitmaps at high res.
So, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Indesign.

Oh, for a freebie, Inkscape.

Ask a designer to do it for you, it won't be as expensive as you think and the results will be much better than you can achieve no matter what software you buy.

If you want to do it in word, export as a high res .PDF – most bureaus will be able to print from that. But I agree with above – get it professionally put together and printed.

You can't set-up a large enough page size in Word, use Powerpoint and the 'banner' option in page setup.

Adobe Illustrator gets my vote!

Never tried to do much in that hateful program – what is the largest document size it will handle?

If you are any good at picking up programs, download a free 30 day trial of Illustrator and use that.

Google layout is okay and free. But indesign is the best page layout tool i have used.

We have always used powerpoint without too many dramas. I'm sure there is better software out there, but IMO it's the content I'm interested when looking at a scientific poster, not the pretty pictures. In fact, usually, you can judge that the content will be crap if the person has enough time to make it stand out from a presentation PoV, because they should have been doing research instead of playing at being an art school failure…

because they should have been doing research

But really – what point fantastic research if the results aren't clearly communicated?

Never tried to do much in that hateful program – what is the largest document size it will handle?

I thought you waz all over PowerPoint since you got your laptop m_f innit 🙂

I thought you waz all over PowerPoint since you got your laptop m_f innit

🙂

In fact I just tried to layout a proposal template for a client in Word the other day. I swore out loud.

…a proposal template for a client in Word…

Using a few concepts his or her daughter came up with at nursery 😆

LOL yeah I know.

It was the brief – they wanted us to design the template so they can use it for their proposals – and of course they use Word.

But really – what point fantastic research if the results aren't clearly communicated?

You can clearly communicate without using just about every fancy effect available in designer software. For an academic poster with 3-500 words max, you need to concentrate on what's said, not what pretty picture it's overlaid on to.

EDIT: And in any case, if it's worth reading, it'll be in a journal soon enough. I can't say I see many whizz-bang graphics in most scholarly journals.

All of my research posters are done in powerpoint. I used to do them in Illustrator, but powerpoint is actually easier for this unless you are trying to do anything super fancy…

And I am saying this from the point of view of a numerical modeller in earth science – even though I have lots of sophisticated programs and technical know-how available, powerpoint is still the easiest way to do a poster…

If you use Word, wherever you get it printed will hate you! Mainly on account of it being rubbish

Illustrator or Indesign. As pointed out, just get a demo copy. Or better still, get a proper designer to do it for you. Like me for example. Fancy another bidding war Mastiles? 😀

If you've got access to Microsoft Publisher you can knock up some pretty good work in that, but I don't think you can create pdfs directly from it. You can get around this though by installing CutePDF…

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

And I agree InDesign is the best layout package, but you'd probably spend all your demo time learning how to use it, and Ilustrator still baffles me at times after over 10 years of trying to get my head around it (I was a Freehand man, and still use Freehand daily!).

All of my research posters are done in powerpoint

Same here, find it easy to use and good enough for the job required, although I use more specialist programmes to generate images to put on the poster. Whilst its good to have a nice looking poster it is the content that will generate interest.

You can clearly communicate without using just about every fancy effect available in designer software.

I agree entirely.

But I am 100% confident I could design a poster that more clearly communicates content than someone with no experience. And I promise I won't use every fancy effect available. Well maybe just 3D rotation, rainbow fill and drop shadows. 😉

But I am 100% confident I could design a poster that more clearly communicates content than someone with no experience. And I promise I won't use every fancy effect available. Well maybe just 3D rotation, rainbow fill and drop shadows.

I think the point is that most scientists would rather just get on with doing science. If you're a designer, great, design away. But as a scientist, I'd rather get things written and published thanks. If I'm looking at someone's work and trying to assess whether I'd want to collaborate with them, it'll be the content, not the design of a poster or presentation that interests me, and most of my peers. From my experience, the best designed scientific posters are also some of the simplest. If you can't knock that up in powerpoint, you clearly don't know how to use it.

I think the point is that most scientists would rather just get on with doing science. If you're a designer, great, design away. But as a scientist, I'd rather get things written and published thanks. If I'm looking at someone's work and trying to assess whether I'd want to collaborate with them, it'll be the content, not the design of a poster or presentation that interests me, and most of my peers. From my experience, the best designed scientific posters are also some of the simplest. If you can't knock that up in powerpoint, you clearly don't know how to use it.

That's fair enough if that is what the author wants. And I have already agreed that simple is best. But putting something together that is simple is not always easy.

I think most people here are missing the point about what a graphic designer does. It's not just about using fancy graphics and pictures. It's the art of good communication; this is often done without the use of images.

The majority of business presentations are about money, either asking for it or explaining how it was spent, undoubtedly they are all about creating an impression. A professional poster will help achieve a good impression, not by dazzling the audience with artistic skills infact quite the opposite. In a well designed presentation the information will be what comes across to the audience, sure they may notice it looked good but should not be a dwelling point.

Essentially a designer will be able to improve the ability of a poster to convey information even if it is only text. Typography is a massive are within graphic design. Yes it does have a cost, but this has to be assessed against how much the presentation is worth.

Back to the OP, i would check with your printer before doing anything. They (in most cases) are unlikely to want or need the file at 100% for a poster of this size (the file size will be massive if it contains any images). They are likely to scale it up from 25%.

I think some of you are missing the point that this is a research poster, which is a particular genre of poster that most professional design people will not have any experience of. Assuming it is aimed at an academic audience, there is a particular way in which things need to be presented, which is very hard to get as a non practitioner, I know it took me a couple of years of academic work before I could make a decent poster, coming from a background where I'd done bits and pieces of design and print work for spare cash (posters, leaflets etc) over the previous few years, so had an okay idea of how to lay out a page so it was readable, attractive, quite polished writing skills, basically I had competent although nowhere near professional design skills, but even so, it took a lot of work to get into the genre.

to answer the original question – I don't have a copy of indesign any more (or even pagemaker, which I used before.that). I usually use openoffice draw for posters. it is easier to get something looking good than in PowerPoint, as it is actually designed as a page layout tool. It is not perfect, I'd much prefer indesign, but the price is right (free), and it does the job. just whatever you do, use guidelines, or the align tools and make sure things align nicely, it makes posters so much more readable somehow.

Joe

I make rather a lot of research posters and use nothing more than publisher, create a custom size blank page that's A1 then just go for gold.

You will need a projector (as already mentioned) to check the layout or do what I do and hook it up to a large LCD TV.

Don't forget your references 😉

From my experience, the best designed scientific posters are also some of the simplest.

I'm an information designer, I am. It's harder than it looks, making things look simple.

Not heard of the genre 'scientific poster' before. Anyone got any examples?

There are more types of research than "scientific research". The OP hasn't said what kind of research it was. But the "we know better" scientists have jumped all over it.

I've seen plenty of information shit "designed" by scientists. Tell you what, you just stick to science…because you're worth it 🙂

Personally, I think this one is too wordy, but it's an example of the genre http://www.cefas.co.uk/media/21316/habit-poster.pdf

Just pulled from google…

I've seen plenty of information shit "designed" by scientists. Tell you what, you just stick to science…because you're worth it

Yes, because every designer is a brilliant one…

Don't worry about trying to make the poster look too good, and don't take any notice of the "designers" coz they wouldn't understand the point of a scientific poster.

Also, no one will look at it anyway, they only have them for people who are too boring to present something, or if its not good enough to be published in a journal.

HTH

Also, no one will look at it anyway, they only have them for people who are too boring to present something, or if its not good enough to be published in a journal.

Whilst in essence this may be true, no need to be so condescending! Most young scientists have to start somewhere. It's quite a good forum to get your name noticed by academics to whom you may be applying for a postdoc in a couple of years, and as it's more informal than a presentation, it's a actually a better format to hold a discussion with someone about your work. Concentrate on getting the title right – that's what would attract most people who are worth it looking at the poster. In this forum, design (unless appalling) is very secondary to content.

don't take any notice of the "designers" coz they wouldn't understand the point of a scientific poster.

Why the inverted commas?

I suppose you mean that if a designer didn't go to the trouble of understanding the point of a particular piece of communication, then they're not a true designer? That would be true – but also a truism.

So your post is pointless, as well as condescending and antagonistic.

I think I'll ignore it.

🙂

Don't worry about trying to make the poster look too good, and don't take any notice of the "designers" coz they wouldn't understand the point of a scientific poster.

The point of the poster is surely very simple – to engage the audience and ensure they quickly understand what the presenter is wanting to communicate. There is no such thing as a 'scientific' poster as such – a poster for a gig, for chlamydia screening, for underwired bras, for a 50% off everything sale etc all want to achieve the same thing – to communicate something to their audience.

And a good designer will ensure that the requirement is met.

Ah zokesey, don't be getting too wound up now 🙂

Have we actually found out what the OP's "research" topic is yet?

do posters in powerpoint, its easy, you can get excellent results. just go to page setup, custom, and enter the A1 size

i can send you a template

i've presented posters in the states, japan, oz, swizzerland, and nearly everyone uses pp.

by the way, get good at designing posters and presentations, cos communication is the lifeblood of research. plus papers are judged on the trendiness of the figures.