Introduction > Presenting Science > Poster Presentations > Poster Software

Poster Software The most popular software programmes that can help you design and create your poster are PowerPoint, Publisher and Adobe Illustrator. PowerPoint If you've used PowerPoint for creating presentations, you should be familiar with the functions available to you. Specifically for creating posters, the size of the slide can be altered to A0 or A1 by clicking on 'File', then 'Page Setup'. In the first drop-down box on the left hand side, the size of the slides should be set to 'Custom' and then manually enter the height and width (make sure you get this the right way round for portrait or landscape): A0 83cm x 115cm A1 83cm x 57.5cm. Use text boxes or autoshapes if you want to type in text. For adding JPEG photographs, click on 'Insert', then 'Photograph' then 'From file'. Graphs can be cut and pasted directly into Powerpoint. Creating a grid on your slide ('View', 'Grid and Guides' then ticking the 'Snap objects to grid' and 'Display grid on screen') allows you to precisely align your text boxes and imported images. Publisher Part of Microsoft Office, Publisher, is design software, which is often used to produce web sites, fliers, etc. It is relatively easy to use and may be available through your University's subscription to Microsoft Office. Adobe Illustrator Originally developed for Macs, Adobe Illustrator is now widely available for both Mac and Windows. It has the same basic functions as PowerPoint, but is a much more sophisticated programme. One of the main advantages in using Illustrator is that you can create layers. If you're designing a series of posters that have identical components, you can create and then 'lock' the layers that you want the same and create a top layer that is different. This way you can be confident that the positioning of the identical components is really identical.

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