Here are some general guidelines I follow when working posters. You can skip to relevant sections and use my suggestions as you see fit.
- Set the document size:
- Create a new document. Go to the tab “Design” and then “Page Setup” button. Set your final width and height. This is the first thing you do with a new document because if you change this later it will do bad things to your images and text.
- Adding screen shots:
- When your window is ready you press “Print Screen” then paste it on your slide.
- You will want to crop your image to just the portion of the screen you want to use. Right click your image and “Format Picture” and select the “Crop” section. Under “Crop Position” you want to first set the “Left” and “Top” sections to the top left edge of your screen. Then set the “Width” and “Height”. You should now have a nicely cropped screen for your poster. Note: You want to set the Width and Height last because these will shift if you change your Left and Top afterward.
- I will usually put a solid border with a drop shadow to help make the screen pop.
- Text boxes:
- I prefer to put my text inside white rounded boxes, no border, with a drop shadow. It is a clean look that is easy to read. I usually make my headings bolded black text and my paragraph text grey. This helps your viewer pick out the different sections of the poster quickly and will look nicer.
- Spacing:
- Try to keep the spacing the same around all elements. So your paragraph text will have 1cm before the edge of the text box. All the images and text boxes should have 1cm between each other. That 1cm can be any size the important thing to remember is that you keep it uniform for all elements. Try not to have too much empty space on your poster.
- Images:
- If you are familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator, I recommend exporting your images as a PNG with a transparent background. This will allow you to drop all your images into PowerPoint or other programs and allow the background to show through the image. This is particularly helpful if you are working with a group and they may need your graphics for other uses in the future.
