You’ve written your thesis but now your department asks you to take all of that information and put it on a poster. Unsure where to start? The resources below will help to get you started on tips for creating the best poster possible to convey your research and topic.
Check out our Poster Workshop Slides to get you started.
Suggestions
Design
Titles, Text, and Fonts
- Font Sizes: at least 88pt for title, 64pt for your name, 48pt for section headings, 36pt for body text
Font Selection: For readability, use a Sans-Serif font, particularly for headings (ex. Futura, Calibri, Helvetica) - Body Text Formatting: flush left, rag right with 1.5 spacing
- Body Text:Use bullets and limit the use of paragraphs
- Limit the use of words. Keep your word count to 800 words or less. Remember your poster is the abstract.
Colors
- Color should capture attention, but not distract.
- Use Coolors to help design an appealing palette: https://coolors.co/
- Accessibility is another key component of good design. Make sure everyone can read your poster using this tool:https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/.
Alignment and Whitespace
- Whitespace is important to allow information to seem less cluttered. Let your text breathe!
- Grid guidelines can help to keep items aligned
Other Formatting Requirements
- Use images and graphs to support your argument
- Final Poster Size: 36” tall by 48” wide; if you leave a 2” margin on the poster edges, the printable area will be about 32” tall by 44” wide
- Image ratio is important
Resources
Where to Find Support
Digital Media Bar
Book a virtual support is available with our Student Digital Media Assistants.
Technology Services and HelpDesk
- Call at 330-287-4357 (HELP) or email at helpdesk@wooster.edu
- Chat via the Technology Services website from 8:30AM-5PM, M-F
Educational Technology Staff:
Book a virtual appointment, 8:30AM-5PM, M-F, with the Educational Technology Professional Staff available via our virtual bookings.
Jon Breitenbucher, Director: jbreitenbucher@wooster.edu
Emily Armour, Educational Technologist: earmour@wooster.edu
Maira Senoo, Educational Technology Associate: msenoo@wooster.edu
Megan Smeznik, Educational Technologist: msmeznik@wooster.edu
Poster Design
- AHA Poster Presenters Workshop
- Canva Tips for Designing a Poster
- Consider the Poster by historian, Fred Gibbs
- Designing Conference Poster by Colin Purrington
- Effective Poster Presentations by the AHA
- Example Posters from Public Health at Harvard University
- Presenting Conference Papers and Posters in the Humanities by David Forrest
- Printing your Poster at the College
- Templates and Logos documentation at The College of Wooster for posters (login is not necessary)
- Training Videos via Hoonuit
