So, You Need to Create a Poster

A Poster Session is an advertisement for your research/work. A successful poster combines text and imagery to create a visually pleasing presentation that can engage and hold the attention of your audience in the brief seconds as they walk by.

IMPORTANT. Before you begin to plan your poster, Check with your Conference or Event for poster regulations,guidelines and expectations. These will define your size, content and layout.

Poster BasicsTechnical TipsPoster AnatomyFree Templates

Poster Basics

A Successful Poster Should:

  1. Efficiently communicate your research topic in <5 seconds—the time it takes for someone to walk by
  2. Be legible from a distance of 6 feet—a comfortableviewing distance for your audience
  3. Be well organized and pleasing to the eye—people viewing your poster will typically be viewing several others as well. Make it easy on their eyes, and they will be grateful
  4. Be clear, concise and to the point—it should take less  than 10 minutes to go through
  5. A picture speaks a thousand words—replace text with images wherever possible

Technical Tips for a Successful Poster

Layout

An important aspect of any good academic poster is that it is easy to follow.  A successful layout should allow for easy navigation by a reader.

Organize your poster in columns. Newspapers have used this format for decades because it makes text more readable.

Add numbers to help readers know how to navigate your poster.

Use white space to help define the flow of information, and create a clean & clear design (avoid ‘clutter’)

Balance the placement of text and graphics to create symmetry that helps provide visual appeal.

Colour

Colour choice can affect the legibility of your information.

As a rule we recommend using brightly saturated colours only as accent colours. Light text on a dark background causes eye fatigue. We recommend using white as a background, or if a background colour is desired, only muted/light colours should be used.

Does your school, faculty, or department have specific colours? If so, consider using those specific elements in your design. Check out our selection of templates for colours specific to The University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University.

If your poster is not school- or faculty-specific, you can also pull colours from images within your poster, or use online resources likes www.colorcombos.com or coolors.co to help build complimentary colour schemes.

Avoid a busy background. A solid tone or light gradient background works best.

Remember that some readers may be functionally colour-blind. Avoid using reds or greens as text or image colours.

Text

Text Size and placement are critical in achieving a highly legible poster.

Brevity is key. Replace text with images, flow-charts, graphs, or other visual components wherever possible.

85-point font (or larger) for your title, 50-point font (or larger) for the authors, 36-point font (or larger) for major text throughout the document, 24-point for body text, and 18-point text for captions.

Sections Headings should be in a larger point size,or should use a bolder typeface than the copy within the body of the poster.

Avoid using ALL CAPS for headlines. It can make your text harder to read.

Large blocks of copy are difficult to read. Use paragraph breaks or bullets to highlight important ideas and help keep information readable.

For readability, dark text on a light background works best. Light text on a dark background or a combination of saturated colours can cause eyestrain and fatigue.

Fonts

For the best readability, keep your fonts clean and simple. Remember, your research and data are the real stars of the show.

Here is a list of common fonts we recommend, as well as some common fonts to avoid: 

Great Fonts to use: Aptos, Arial, Avenir, Bookman Old Style, Century Gothic. Calibri, Cambria, Futura, Garamond, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Minion Pro, Myriald Pro, Palatino, Univers, Verdana

Fonts to Avoid: Bauhaus, Comic Sans, Black Oak, Cooper Black, Engravers, Ethnocentric, Impact, Market Felt, Lucida Blackletter, Papyrus, Rosewood STD, Rockwell Extra Bold, Snell Roundhand, Tekton

Images

Anatomy of a Poster

1. Heading

The heading typically contains the following information:

Title – It should be clear and concise and should fit onto one line for maximum readability (or if needed, a maximum of 2 lines). If it spans two lines, check that the sentence breaks in a natural and cohesive place, where both segments are ‘readable’. Text size should be greater-than-or-equal-to 85pt.

The Author(s) – 42 pt font

Affiliation – the school(s), company(ies), or organization(s) where the work was done (24 pt font). Consider adding logo(s)

2. Introduction

Introduction/Background This section should briefly define the issue addressed in your poster and provides the rationale for the project. BREVITY is important here. It should be well written and engaging, and not overly weighted down with technical information. 200 words or less, 28-point font or greater

Research Objective/Hypothesis This should be a simple statement clearly identifying the objective of the work shown on the poster. Although a Research Objective is commonly included, it is not always required or needed. 1-2 sentences, 28-point font or greater

Background The Background is a brief statement, summarizing existing data that has led you to produce the body of work shown in your Poster. This commonly included as part of the introduction, but it can also have its own stand-alone section. 28-point font or greater

Abstract Most Conferences require submission of an abstract, and this will already be available to conference attendees. Although an abstract is largely not nessecary to include in your poster, if you decide to include it, consider editing for brevity. 28-point font or greater

3. Methods and Materials

This section should give higher order information on the approach or experimental design used in your research.

For better visual appeal, and faster processing by people visiting your poster, consider replacing words with images, charts, tables or graphs.

Avoid overly technical language or unnecessary detail

Less than 200 words, 28-point font or greater

4. Results

The Results section is typically the bulk of the poster.

Wherever possible, consider transposing complex numerical or written data to more visually appealing elements such as  charts or graphs, which can also convey information more rapidly.

The figures you include must be readable at a reasonable distance.

Font size should not be smaller than 14 points on any elements (including axes text).

The minimum size of figures will depend on how much information is contained in them. A simple bar graph with two columns could be clear with a minimum diameter of 3 inches, but a complex graph should not be reduced to this size. In general, figures should be over 4 inches in diameter.

Less is sometimes more. Avoid clutter. Consider the most important elements that you want to convey. If you have 5 minutes to tell your story, which pieces of data will be critical.

5. Discussion or Conclusion

The Conclusion is a summary of the work presented.

It typically reminds the audience of your research questions, the results you’ve
obtained, and the overall significance of your work.

For maximum visual appeal and
readability, consider using bullet points.

3 to 4 lines, 28-point font or greater

6. References and Acknowledgements

References

A brief list of Citations for the work you’ve referenced.

Check with the conference for style specifications, if any.

Can be formatted in one or two columns (if extra space is needed)

Font size should be 18 point or greater.

Acknowledgements

A statement of Acknowledgement, giving credit for the assistance and financial support that made your work possible.

22-point font or greater

Billboard Posters

1. Headline

The Headline is the main message you want your poster to communicate.

It should distilled to minimum need-to-know information about your study or body of work, and translated into plain English. Plain language is digested faster and gets the reader’s attention more easily.

Your headline should be located in the centre section of you poster, and left justufued (aligned it to the left). Centered text requires the reader’s eyes to do more work.

Use bolded text to emphasize important words.

2. Poster Overview

The Poster overview is a stand-alone section that gives an overview of your research in 1 to 4 minutes. It should be clear, concise, and easy for someone understand.

If you are busy speaking to someone else, or if are away from you poster, people will be able read this section to get an overview of the research.

Include a distilled version of the information that you normally would on an academic poster. You can even follow the traditional format you would with a normal poster (ie. introduction, methods, results, and discussion).

If you find the information does not all fit, try cutting down some of the sections, or moving some of the figures or supporting data to to the Resources.

3. Resources and Supporting information

The right column of the poster, is a designated section for your supporting data.

Include any resources like miscellaneous tables, figures, graphs or other relavent data, that will help you answer questions about your work.

This section is not meant as a stand-alone section - it is for you to use as a resource.

4. Background

Choose an appropriate and attractive background that will help your headline stand out.

You can use bright colours, school colours, or also consider using a background image that relates to your posters theme.

5. QR Code

If you would like to share additional information like a published paper, expanded abstract, or downloadable version of your poster, you can include QR code linking to additional resources.

Steps for creating/using a QR code:

1) The information you want to share will need to live online to be accessible by others (on a website or on google drive, or one drive), before you can share it.

2) Obtain a URL for the location of the file/files.

3) Use a free QR code generator to create a QR code for this URL. We frequently use https://www.qrcode-monkey.com

You can then place the QR code anywhere on the poster, but they are commonly placed in the centre/headline area so they are easily accessible. You also want to include your QR Code large enough for someone to scan it from a distance. We recommend a minimum size of 4 by 4 inches. Now, attendees can use the camera on their smartphones to find out more about your research