Creating and Printing a Research Poster in PowerPoint

Knapp Media & Technology Center and Science Library

Creating your Poster in PowerPoint | Printing your Poster in Knapp | Printing your Poster in the Science Library

Instructions for Creating Research Posters in PowerPoint

These instructions will guide you through creating a research poster in PowerPoint for printing on the Knapp and Science Library Plotters.

Before beginning:

If you plan on including more than 4 layers of material Photoshop would be a more appropriate tool. An example of a 4 layered document that will print from PowerPoint is a rectangle border under an image under another rectangle under your text. Adding additional layers may cause your document to not print. PowerPoint can create very complex slides with many layers, but is unfortunately unable to print them properly. Photoshop will allow you to create complex and many-layered documents and then flatten them for printing.

As soon as you know you are going to use the plotter:

Call Knapp at x2369 or the Science Library at x3083 to reserve time to print your poster. Reserve the plotter for 1 hour per poster. If there are no problems with your document it will print in around 30 minutes. We add the extra time to the reservation in case there are problems with the file.

Create a new poster file:

  1. Open a new document in PowerPoint.
  2. Choose File > Page Setup
  3. Choose Slide Sized For > Custom
  4. Set Width to 46.5 and Height to 33
  5. Choose the horizontal (landscape) orientation for the Slides.
  6. Click OK.

Create your poster using the following tips:

  1. Use generic fonts (it needs to be cross-platform!)
  2. Concentrate on your main points. Too much text will make your text too small and hard to read.
  3. Follow the rules of CRAP to make your poster easier to read

    C - color and contrast (make background colors and text in high contrast)
    R - repetition (use the same colors, fonts and font sizes throughout your document)
    A - alignment (choose a strong alignment with or without columns)
    P - proximity and placement (consider spacing and how elements are arranged)

When you arrive at the plotter:

Printing In the Knapp Media & Technology Center (printing from a Mac):

  1. Save a copy of your document to the computer's desktop. DO NOT work with a document from a desk or on the network.
  2. Open your poster file in PowerPoint.
  3. Choose File > Page Setup
  4. Click Options
  5. Choose Format for > Stylus Pro 9800
  6. Choose Paper Size > A0 > A0
  7. Choose the second button (landscape) for Orientation
  8. Set Scale to 100% if it's not already
  9. Click OK
  10. Click OK to close the Page Setup window
  11. Choose File > Print
  12. Choose Printer: Stylus Pro 9800
  13. Choose Presets: Glossy Paper or Luster Paper depending on what is displayed as the current paper type on the top of the plotter.
  14. View the poster in the preview window to make sure it looks correct.
  15. Click Print
  16. If you receive an error saying that some post-script specific settings will be ignored, click OK.

Printing In the Science Library (printing from a PC):

  1. Save a copy of your document to the computer's desktop. DO NOT work with a document from a disk or on the network.
  2. Open your poster file in PowerPoint.
  3. Choose File > Print
  4. Choose Name Epson Stylus Pro 9600 - Large Format Plotter Printer
  5. Click Properties
  6. In the Main tab:
  7. In the Paper Tab:
  8. Click OK
  9. In the Print menu, click OK
  10. A new EPSON Print Preview window should open
  11. View the poster in the preview window to make sure it looks correct
  12. Click Print at the top