Sue’s Hints for Making Posters

Choose the size of your poster before beginning. The maximum size should be slightly smaller than the allotted size (I used 44” x 44” instead of 48” x 48” for the ACA poster) because the boards often have metal rims and I think its better for the poster to fit inside that area.

Adobe Illustrator by default links graphics rather than embedding them. This makes the files much smaller, but if you open the file on another computer the graphics may not be found. If you plan to work on the poster using two different computers, embed the graphics when you insert them into the file.  

Choose a standard font and make sure it has symbols. Times New Roman and Ariel work. Don’t mix too many different fonts or effects -- it’ll make the poster look cluttered. Color is a more effective way of highlighting something.

Set up grid lines to help with layout.

Graphics can be imported into as tif files. Make sure that your figures are at least 300 dpi resolution at the size they are to be printed on the poster. You can change tiling in raster3d (when bobscript or molscript figures are rendered.)

Don’t be too wordy. (The CueO poster has way too much text – Do as I say, not as I do.)