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Poster Printing Guidelines

Software

Microsoft PowerPoint is the preferred software for poster creation. Please specify if your poster is designed on Mac OS X or Windows PowerPoint; both platforms are supported. You can create your poster in any other program you have available as long as it can be exported to a PDF file. Please check the PDF file for font, photo, graph placement and quality before sending.

Presentation Size

The default PowerPoint presentation is 10” x 7.5” for an on-screen show. This rarely can be re-dimensioned (resized) without some editing and placement adjustments which can delay your print. Please specify the presentation size before you add any photos, graphs, or text to the poster.

In Microsoft PowerPoint, use File > Page Setup or Design > Page Setup to define a poster’s dimensions.

  1. Select the "Orientation" as Landscape.
  2. Enter in the width and height of your poster. Standard sizes are 36" x 48" and 42" x 56".
  3. Place photos, text, graphs, etc. as you want them to look on a poster.

Avoid using special font stylings like drop shadows, gradients, or 3D effects for boxes and fonts. This adds exponentially to the spooling time and can delay your print.

Standard paper roll sizes are 24”, 36”, and 42”. Other sizes are supported but will require trimming that is not done in-house. If you have a specially sized poster, please discuss this with the digital media specialist when submitting your poster.

Paper

The digital media specialist's office keeps stock of coated and bright white paper in sizes 24”, 36”, and 42”.

Special Fonts

Make note of the fonts you used in your poster. If you use any fonts that are not the default fonts provided in Microsoft Windows or Office, PowerPoint will substitute the font with some other arbitrary font that could look completely different, which is especially true for fonts with special symbols. In case you do use special fonts, you will need to copy your special font files with your poster file.

Colors

Do Not use dark solid color backgrounds. Not only does such backgrounds use a lot of ink, it can moisten the paper and make it wrinkle. Also, the printer may leave small horizontal lines in solid blocks. The same caveat applies when pictures are used for backgrounds. Background images are a nice effect, but make sure the image you use is as high resolution as possible or there will be noticeable square block pixelated effect, though such effect may be indeed desirable.

If you have text directly on the background image it is encourage to use an image-processing software to make the image as light as possible so the text is easy to read. This will also make any pixilated effect less noticeable. Some software has a text block option to make the background of the text block semi-opaque, so that you can still see the background but it is lighter or whiter in the text box.

Note that image colors do not always print out exactly as they are shown on the screen, especially in PowerPoint and the PowerPoint default template backgrounds.

Proofreading

Please have your group members or collaborators review your poster for grammar, presentation, and design before submitting the file for printing. There are no "rough draft" prints offered.

Time

Please do not put off printing to the last minute! There is only one poster printer at the College, and it may be in use by another project. The digital media specialist may also be pre-occupied with other duties and unable to print posters at that given time.

Posters cannot be printed with less than 48 hours notice. Please submit poster printing requests at least 5 days in advance. Refer to the table of services for more timelines.

Posters usually take about 30 minutes to print, but they can take up to an hour or more, especially when high resolution or numerous photos and graphics are used or if an image has been used for a background. Avoid using special font stylings like drop shadows, gradients, or 3D effects for boxes and fonts. This adds exponentially to the spooling time and can delay your print.

Other Services

The digital media specialist offers other printing services for professional student pharmacists and organizations free of charge for College events and classes. Trifold brochures, banners, cards, labels, etc. are just some of the types of printing that are available.