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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
Tips for producing poster in Publisher
These instructions have been written for Publisher 2016, but should work for
Publisher Office365 and Publisher 2019.
Check the rules
When creating and academic or conference poster, there will usually be some
guidelines that need to be followed. Failure to follow the rules can result in a
lower grade or a rejected poster. These may include:
Poster size
Orientation (landscape / portrait)
Text sizes
Other
Paper sizes
We should all be familiar with A4 as a
standard paper size. Doubling a sheet of A4
along, its long edge, gives us the A3 size.
Doubling A3 along the long edge gives us
A2.
Doubling A2 along the long edge gives us
A1.
Doubling A1 along the long edge gives us
A0.
A4
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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
The actual dimensions are:
Portrait
A4 – 210mm x 297mm
A3 – 297mm x 420mm
A2 – 420mm x 594mm
A1 – 594mm x 841mm
A0 – 841mm x 1189mm
Landscape
A4 – 297mm x 210mm
A3 – 297mm x 420mm
A2 – 420mm x 594mm
A1 – 594mm x 841mm
A0 – 841mm x 1189mm
Create your paper size in Publisher
Open Publisher and you will be
presented with the “Choose a
template” window.
To create a large size poster, we
will need to choose “More blank
paper sizes” and manually create
the paper size we are wanting.
This is because Publisher does
not automatically make the
larger paper sizes available.
Portrait
Landscape
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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
On the next screen will need to choose “Create new page size…”
In the resulting popup window - Name your new paper size (mine is called A1
Portrait).
Add in the page width and height for your paper size (the sizes are in cm so
594mm becomes 59.4cm).
You can also set page margins, but I’ve left these as the default settings.
Clicking OK will keep this new named paper size for use next time you want it.
Your new blank poster is now ready to populate.
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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
Filling your poster
You are now ready to start working on your poster. But… you have a few other
things to consider:
Text size
You will need to set the size of your text so that it can be easily read from a
short distance. Our suggestions provide a range that you should try to work
within:
Main page heading - 54 to 70
Page text - 18 to 22
Page sub-heading - 36 to 48
Captions - 14 to 18
Section heading - 24 to 32
Image citation - 12 to 14
Font
You need to use a clear font and may use separate ones for your headings and
text. Comic Sans and SCRIPT fonts are out.
Any common sans-serif (the ones without extra curls at the end) are generally
good.
Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Open Sans, Tahoma and Trebuchet are all good and are
easy to read on a poster.
Poster presentations - useful links
Colin Purrington has compiled a very useful page full of tips, dos & don'ts,
templates and advice for designing, creating and populating academic
posters: Creating Conference Posters
For further help in using PowerPoint and Publisher go to Free Microsoft Tutorials
at GCFGlobal or complete a certificated course in Linkedin Learning (university
login required).
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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
Some simple rules
1. Follow the rules! Read the briefing document / assignment specification
to properly understand what you are being asked to produce.
2. Switch off your computer! When planning a poster, start with pen and
paper. Sketch out what you plan to do before trying to build it on your PC.
3. Use the right tools! PowerPoint and Publisher make usable posters, but
consider more professional tools if posters are to be a big part of your
future.
4. Be bold, but silent! Less text usually means more visitors – can you get
across your main ideas with charts and images? Can you show a journey?
5. Big and clear! Choose your font(s) and text sizes according to the
guidelines on the previous page. Ensure your poster can be easily read.
6. Use colours wisely! 2 or 3 main colours are enough to create interest
and style. Any more and things get distracting.
7. Line it up! Keep things tidy and line things up – you don’t want your
poster to look like the content was simply thrown at the page.
8. “White” space is your friend! Leave space around the edges and
around objects to make reading easier (the space doesn’t need to be
white).
9. Leave plenty of time for printing.
