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Creating Research Posters: Introduction

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Introduction

Creating Research Posters

A research poster is one of a few common ways in which scholars share their work, and the highly visual format provides a lot of flexibility in how you engage your audience. Regardless of whether you're creating the poster for a classroom assignment, for a research fair, or for a conference, the process you follow is largely the same. Before you get started creating your poster, there are a few practical concerns that will guide your design process:

Poster Format

  • Will your poster be displayed digitally, on a screen, or will it be printed out?

  • Print posters are commonly 48 inches by 36 inches, there may be specific requirements for the dimensions

  • A digital display may be widescreen, which has a width to height ratio of 16:9, or standard, which is 4:3

Timeline

  • Do you only need to bring a completed poster on the day you are scheduled to present, or do you need to submit your poster ahead of time?

  • Designing a poster usually involves making a lot of choices, and it may take longer than you expect!

Design Tools

  • Are you required to use a specific template or tool? If not, how will you make your poster?

  • PowerPoint is a common tool and is accessible through Office 365, but requires tweaking as it is not designed with posters in mind

  • Adobe Creative Suite includes many high-powered graphics design tools (like Illustrator and Photoshop), but is expensive and complex; Several Macs and PCs in the Undergraduate Library, labeled "graphics computers," have Adobe Creative Suite installed

  • LaTeX is a typesetting tool which is commonly used in math and science, and can be used to create research posters

  • Canva is a "freemium" browser-based graphic design tool that offers good functionality but limited options for unpaid users

  • Inkscape is a free and open-source design tool meant to serve as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator

Adapted from the guide "Creating Research Posters" originally created by Clayton Hayes, Wayne State University Library System. https://guides.lib.wayne.edu/posters