10 steps

to better
™
POWERPOINT
posters

The Illustration section of Media Resources at University College London provides a large-format
poster printing service. Many software packages can be used to design and produce posters, the best
being high-end page layout programs such as Quark XPress™ or Adobe Pagemaker™, but it is
recognized that many users do not have these specialist applications. Many have Microsoft’s
Powerpoint and it is for these users that this leaflet is designed.

We are not trying to teach you poster design in one quick lesson, but we hope that the facts and tips
here will make the production of your next poster a little easier.

Please note that parts of files may not print if the guidelines are not adhered to and the Centre will
not accept responsibility for any posters that have omissions or faults due to this.

Please note that a proof copy or pdf of your file should be provided.

Media Resources
University College London
1. Check the necessary details…
When and where is your poster to be displayed? You need to know your space allocation at the
conference. There is no standard size; areas can range from 1 metre square to 21⁄2 x 1 1⁄2 metres and
can be portrait or landscape.
Some organisers give specific instructions regarding logos/colours/title sizes/abstracts/poster
numbering?
Each A0 poster takes an hour to print so take into account the time limitations that this imposes.
Major conferences can require participating groups to produce many posters. The Centre serves all
of UCL and many other Institutes so there can be considerable demand. A minimum of 2 days is
required to print with 2 extra days added for lamination as long as the file is correctly formatted.
Do not leave your poster until the last minute, we will always do our best to ensure you are
pleased with your poster but severe time restraints can curtail our efforts.
In short, a minimum of 2 clear days for unlamimated or 4 clear days for laminated is required. If
heavy colours are used then allow considerably more time for drying.
When saving the poster please give it a unique name, preferably the author’s and a date, it is
amazing how many ‘Poster.ppt’ files we receive.

2. Page set-up
Go to File—Slide Set-up and use the Custom
setting (portrait or landscape). Either set the
final size or set a proportionate reduction of it,
we can then scale this to fit. ‘A’ sizes are easy
but if not let us know and we’ll work out the
maths…
A0 - 841 x 1189 mm 331⁄8 x 463⁄4 inches A3 - 297 x 420 mm 113⁄4 x 16 1⁄2 inches
A1 - 594 x 841 mm 233⁄8 x 331⁄8 inches A4 - 210 x 297 mm 81⁄4 x 113⁄4 inches
A2 - 420 x 594 mm 161⁄2 x 233⁄8 inches

3. Layout and design tips

Use separate text boxes for different sections on a poster. It is then easier to move sections around
and to size text boxes according to available space.
Turn off the Snap-to-Grid feature once text boxes are aligned properly. This allows finer
movement of graphics and other items.
Ensure all the text boxes and graphics stay within the page.
Avoid or outlined text and never use underlining—it’s a throwback to typewriters…

4. Graphs and charts

A number of different applications are used for generating charts and most can either be copied
and pasted or exported in a suitable format but it is worth checking that the text looks good on
your computer. Sigma plot, for example, copied and pasted into powerpoint can produce odd
results, although it may look correct on screen it is possible for it to make omissions during
printing. Save vector files as eps or PICT and insert them, a proof copy or pdf should also be
provided. Check it carefully and ensure the spacing looks correct, overlapping of text on screen
will result similarly on the end product. If in doubt eliminate the text in the original and add all
text in Powerpoint.
5. Text
If you already have the text in a word processing application, copy and paste
into text boxes, otherwise type straight into text boxes Brush script
within Powerpoint. The text tool is either that
illustrated for powerpoint 4 or a similar icon above Bauhaus
simulated text on the bottom menu bar of later versions. Tables are best typed stencil
directly into Powerpoint using tabs set on the text ruler. Do not use the space
bar to line up columns within
tables—use the left, right, Helvetica
decimal and centre tabs.
The Equation creator in Word Arial
and Powerpoint does not work when printed so they need to be saved as a tif Gill Sans
or pict file and imported.
Use ‘standard’ fonts: text is there to be read with ease not to cause a design
sensation. Large blocks of text using fonts such as Brush Script or Bauhaus do Times
not read well. Garamond
Titles and headings are best set out using a sans serif bold font such as Palatino
Helvetica or Arial and serif fonts such as Times or Garamond are better suited Clarendon
for body text.
Where possible keep the text horizontal: audiences don’t need to exercise their
neck flexing muscles, and printers have problems with rotated text.
When setting text in columns, justified looks better visually, but with scientific words and narrow
columns hyphenation can be a problem.
Use justification if it does not leave large gaps or multiple hyphenations.
Column lines may be used to guide the eye through text and the poster as a whole.

6. Summary
• Titles – big and bold (72-84pt at A0)
• Authors – same font, smaller and perhaps italics
• Text body – Use a minimumof 24pt at A0 for clarity
• References – Can be set at smaller size to fit remaining space.

7. Colour matters
Powerpoint does not support colour management which means that we cannot guarantee precise
colour matching. If exact logo colours or absolute colour accuracy is required, we must be
responsible for generating the colour on our own system.
As at Eastman Dental Institute, standard
templates are often used to provide a ‘corporate’
image, these should be set up in standard ‘A’
sizes and this file supplied to participating staff
Keep backgrounds light and pastel. Remember the ‘book’ metaphor.
Saturated and darker colours are fine for text and reversing out should be used sparingly.
Do not use fill colour in text boxes, they do not print correctly so it is best to use ‘no fill’ and
introduce colour using filled rectangles behind the text.
8. Dealing with images
Files put together at A3 will be enlarged by 280% to reach A0, so image resolution must be
adequate to cope with this resizing. Note that apparent resolution depends on the printer’s line
screen, not dots-per-inch.
72 dpi images are not adequate; at this magnification it would result in an equivalent resolution of
25 dpi/12 lpi. Many posters are spoiled by pixellated images that have been scanned at low
resolution or downloaded from the Internet.
The resolution required will depend on the page size selected relative to the final printed size. If
the page set up is the same as the required printed size then a resolution of 300dpi is plenty.
However, if we have to make an enlargement from your file then that must then be taken into
consideration and the sums worked out to achieve approximately 300dpi on output.
Supply us with the Powerpoint file and also send the images separately; this allows to correct any
colour or cropping problems.
Use PICT ot TIFF format for saving images. It is a format that can be readily inserted as a file
into Powerpoint and read by our printer.
Do all image work out of Powerpoint but add any text in Powerpoint.

9. Cost
Poster printing alone A0 – £55 (+VAT) A1 – £30 (+VAT)
Lamination A0 – £15 (+VAT) A1 – £8.50 (+VAT)
A3 proofs A3 – £6.00 (+VAT)
Prices for larger posters on request
All posters are printed on a 170gsm photo semi-gloss paper using highest quality inks.

10. Getting the files to us…

Posters with only text and a few graphs and tables will probably be no more than 2–3 MB, so can
be e-mailed as an attachment either to pic2@ucl.ac.uk for Macintosh files or pic3@ucl.ac.uk
for PC files. Please give your name, phone contact number, order number, whether it needs
laminating and the date it is required. Please do not label your poster ‘poster.ppt’ or wherever it is
being displayed or whatever conference your poster is for, we do get rather a large number with
the same names, it is best to use your own name and date.
Posters with a few good pictures can be tens of megabytes, far too big to e-mail.
A variety of different transfer methods are then available.
FTP (file transfer protocol) is the best method. It is a rapid route and ensures that the file has
reached our host computers. You will need to contact the Centre (020 7679 6669) so that an i.d.
and password can be arranged. You will then be free to transfer files and send an e-mail with
relevant instructions. The FTP host address is pic2.photil.ucl.ac.uk for Macintosh and
pcserver.photil.ucl.ac.uk for PC files.

If FTP is not possible then we would advise the purchase of a Zip drive (approx £80) and to send
us files using Zip disks which hold 100 MB each. These can be brought to the Illustration Unit in
the Cruciform Building, Huntley Street, WC1E 6AU.