How to make a PowerPoint poster

These steps explain how to create a poster for a poster presentation from scratch or from an existing PowerPoint slide presentation.

Create your presentation

Using PowerPoint, create your presentation as a series of slides.  Save the presentation as a PowerPoint file.

If some of the slides could be used as elements of your poster, you can do this. Perform a "Save As" to save each slide as a PNG, GIF or JPEG (see below).  It will then be possible to import one or more of these individual slides into your poster presentation.

A better idea is to pick and choose individual images from your slides and paste them into your poster. PowerPoint is a fairly good tool for drawing additional graphics to use on your poster, as well.

Be sure to save everything you create so that you can go back to the originals if needed.

Download the template

Download the PowerPoint example poster (YourName_poster.ppt).  Rename the file to indicate your name, or the name of your group or team.  If you are interested, you can compare the poster with the original PowerPoint presentation (ExamplePresentation.ppt).

You can also create the poster from scratch if you have more experience with PowerPoint. Create a single page that is 24" wide by 32" high.

Design your poster

Open the template in PowerPoint and use it as a starting point for your poster.  Keeping your presentation open at the same time will allow you to easily copy individual images and text elements from your presentation to the poster.  Here are some useful tips and information:

• The size of the poster should be 24" wide x 32" tall (the template is this size)
  • Note the 24"x32" size is designed to mount on our department supply of foam core poster boards.
  • Current maximum size can be up to 36" wide (paper stock is 36", so be aware of margins).  Reasonable maximum length is 48".
  • It is always good to double-check size limits of where the poster will be presented.
• Maintain a 1" margin around all edges of the poster
• Use less text, more graphs, charts and images, when possible
• Use background colors and background images sparingly, when it adds something to the overall design. A white background is the thriftiest in that is uses less ink to print on the department poster printer.
• Layout tips can be gleaned from research posters on the walls and hallways of your school or business
• You can save presentation slides as images and then import them into your poster if they are good design elements.
• See example posters below.

Save your poster

Save the poster as a PowerPoint Presentation.  You can also save the poster as a Jpeg or PNG (see below).

You're done!

Presentation & Poster FAQ

What Font should I use?

• Recommended fonts: Arial, Geneva, Comic Sans for readability
• Font size suggestions:
• Title:  54 point bold
• Slide headings:  40-48 point
• Section headings: 28-36 point
• General Text: 24 point
• Captions for figures and graphs: 20 point

How can I save my slides as JPEG, PNG, etc.

To save your PowerPoint slides as Jpeg image files, for example, select File->Save As->Jpeg File Interchange Format (*.jpg), and have it export "Every Slide" to a Jpeg file.  Each slide will be saved as a separate Jpeg image.

How to I print it on a regular printer?

• Printing on regular letter-sized paper is good for proofreading your poster.
• In PowerPoint, select File->Print from the menu. In the pop-up window, select the Scale to fit paper box, and make sure the paper size is letter (8.5x11in.) and landscape mode.  Print!
• DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE OTHER SETTINGS!
• After printing, you can tell that the font sizes are right if you can still read the text.

What are other online references for making posters?

• How to Make a Poster Using PowerPoint
• Step by Step Instructions on How to Make a Poster Using PowerPoint
• Poster-making 101
• Google: powerpoint poster

Examples

• Villanova Magic School workshops and program, SIGCSE 2008 - poster (11MB)
• Delaware Interprocedural REgion-based Compiler Toolset - presentation (174K)and poster (540K)
• Design of a Speech Recognition System to Assist Hearing Impaired Students  - poster (851K)
• A Novel Multidisciplinary Service Learning Program with a CS Foundation, SIGCSE 2007 - poster (2.8M) and paper (76K)
• Villanova Virtual Advisor - poster (4.3M)
• Yellow Duck Online - poster (902K)
• jFAST the Java Finite Automata Simulation Tool - poster (847K) and paper (318K)
• Villanova Webmail Alert - poster (1.3M)
• SNITCH Spotting and Neutralizing Internet Theft by Cheaters - poster (1.9M) and paper (197K)

updated 09/02/09