A research poster is a popular means to communicate research information to a general audience. The best posters combine a general summary of the research with tables, graphs, and photos/images that will enlighten the reader and hopefully generate discussion.
Read your assignment instructions carefully. Questions about your research poster? Ask your instructor or TA.
- Is there a minimum or maximum size?
- Are there required elements (e.g. abstract, references, methods, findings, etc.)
- Are there restrictions on graphics?
- How will the poster be displayed (e.g., on a table, board, will you need to bring pins)?
- Keep in mind the average viewer will spend less than 10 minutes reading a poster. Be sure your main idea is clear and understandable. Develop the main idea you want people to take away.
- Determine where/when you will be print your poster, and how long it will take – some print shops can take 2+ days to print a poster (refer to Step 7: Print the Poster).
- Learn more about effective posters from these guides: Research Posters: Creation, Design and Best Practices. Take a look at other posters to get ideas of design, graphics, colour, e.g. Pimp my Poster on Flickr, PhD Poster Gallery.
Questions? Ask your instructor or the organizer of the event for which you are creating the poster.
Draft the text of the individual parts of poster (introduction, results, findings etc.). Use words and images to reinforce each other and support the overall message.
- Say it visually! Consider alternatives to paragraphs of text such as lists, tables, charts, graphs, or graphics. See The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, for more information.
- Develop a meaningful and engaging title.
- Determine how you are going to cite information within your poster - more information on citing can be found in Citing Images, and from UTL's Citation Guide.
The most common way to develop a poster template is creating a PowerPoint slide. Refer to Creating a Poster with Microsoft PowerPoint on how to set up your template, and tips and tricks for fonts and typeface. More advanced digital publishers create vector designs with Adobe Illustrator (departmental licensing), (academic licensing).
Create tables, charts, or graphs to clearly display data. Consider using a program such as Excel to create and import them as graphics.
If you are using images from the an external source, ask yourself, are they copyrighted? Do you have permission to use them? Remember to cite any images, charts or graphs created by someone else. Look for a Creative Commons license and run them through an image plagiarism detection application like Tineye, or Google Search by Image to verify their origin (a copy of an unattributed copy is still plagiarism).
Will the image look good when enlarged to poster size? Use a minimum of 300 x 300 pixels. TIFF and PNG are generally a higher quality file type. A resolution of 300 pixels per inch (typeset resolution) rather than 72 pixels per inch (web resolution) looks much better when printed. 600 pixels per inch (imageset resolution), even better.
Make sure fonts are easy to read from 3 to 5 feet away, and use the following guidelines:
- 20-30% text
- 30-40% graphics
- 30-40% white space
In addition to enough white space, think critically about where it is. Avoid too many borders and the 1+1=3 design problem. Consider how contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity implies relationship in visual design. You are creating perception art.
Create any handouts or gather any other materials or props you may need for the presentation day.
Make sure images, graphs or charts created by others are cited. Read more about Citing Images and from UTL's Citation Guide.
View the entire poster on your screen:
- Zoom in to 100% to be sure graphics are not blurry and are of good resolution.
- Zoom out ("fit to screen") to see the entire poster to make sure everything is lined up and images don't overlap with text, etc.
Check your assignment requirements to make sure you completed all components. Gather feedback by showing the poster draft to mentors, peers, friends, or family. Most communication designs we create we are too close to to know what is unclear.
Deliver, upload, or email file to the printer within timeframe to get printing done by deadline. Print shops sometimes require 2+ days to print a poster.
- UTM: See Printing your Poster @ UTM.
- St. George campus: Gerstein Library guide to poster printing.
- UTSC: Guide to Poster Printing
Check with printer to be sure to send correct file type; frequently a PDF is okay. Information on converting a .ppt to PDF. Consider how you are going to transport your finished poster – do you need a telescoping poster tube? Do you need to take it on a plane?
Remember to have any research artifacts and/or final copies of handouts ready. Bring business cards or some form of contact info so your audience can contact you afterwards.
While the poster needs to communicate research on its own, research artifacts which were used in the creation of the poster are helpful to make the live presentation tactile, engaging and clear rather than inviting 'hand waving' explanations.
Write short talking points to describe your research to viewers and be prepared to answer questions on your research.