How to prepare a poster

The guidelines given here are concerned with the use of posters to present technical information, not images.

A poster is simply a static, visual medium (usually of the paper and board variety) that you use to communicate ideas and messages. The difference between poster and oral presentations is that you should let your poster do most of the 'talking'; that is the material presented should convey the essence of your message. However, that does not mean that you will not be asked any question about your work. Your poster however, should be clear enough to convince others that what you have done is excellent and worthwhile.

The purpose of poster presentations is not to put your report on the board. If you are presenting your poster at a conference or convention, you would have limited space. The space you are allowed will determine the content of the poster.

Your poster should have the following sections:

• a Title page, telling others the title of the project,  the people involved in the work and their University and department.
• a Summary of the project stating what you have set out to do, how you have done it, the key findings and the main results.
• an Introduction that should include clear statements about your project which lead to declarations of project aims and objectives.
• a Theory or Methodology section that explains the basis of the technique that you are using or the procedure that you have adopted in your study. You should also state and justify any assumptions, so that your results could be viewed in the proper context.
• a Results section that you use to show illustrative examples of the main results of the work.
• a Conclusion section, listing the main findings of your project.

Some important points to keep in mind when preparing your poster:

• make full use of the space, but do not cramp a page full of information as the result can often appear messy.
• be concise and do not write lengthy sentences. Use only relevant information to convey your message.
• be selective when showing results. Present only those that illustrate the main findings of the project. However, do keep other results handy so that you may refer to them when asked.
• colors should be used only to emphasize, differentiate and to add interest. Do not use colors just to impress!
• choose background and foreground color combinations that have high contrast and complement each other - black or dark blue on white or very light grey is good.
• it is better to keep the background light as people are used to it (for example newspapers and books).
• if you insist on having a dark background, use colored paper so that you would not have to spray white paper with ink. Not only is this cheaper, you would also not face the problem of a soaked and distorted page.
• too many font types distracts, especially when they appear on the same sentence.
• fonts that are easy on the eyes are Times-Roman and Arial.
• Titles and headings should appear larger than other text, but not too large. The text should also be legible from a distance, say from 1.5m to 2m.
• Do not use all UPPER CASE type in your posters. It can make the material difficult to read.
• use underlined text, the bold face or italics or combinations to emphasize words and phrases.
• if you use bold italicized print for emphasis, then underlining is not necessary
• Equations should be kept to a minimum, present only the necessary and important equations, should be large enough, should be accompanied by nomenclature to explain the significance of each variable
• A picture is worth a thousand words … (but only if it is drawn properly and used appropriately)
• choose graphs types that are appropriate to the information that you want to display
• diagrams and drawings, should be labeled
• drawings and labels should be large and clear enough so that they are still legible from a distance
• clipart should only be used if they add interest to the display and complement the subject matter. Otherwise, all they do is to distract attention from the focus of the presentation.
• there is nothing more amusing or annoying than spelling mistakes on public display, especially if they are on the title page.
• spelling mistakes give the impression that you have not put in the effort; careless; not bothered; not worthy of high assessment scores.
• inconsistent styles give the impression of disharmony and can interrupt the fluency and flow of your messages.
• headings on the different pages of the poster should appear in the same position on all pages.
• graphs should be of the same size and scale especially if they are to be compared.
• if bold lettering is used for emphasis on one page, then do not use italics on others.
• captions for graphs, drawings and tables should either be positioned at the top or at the bottom of the figure.
• you would probably be preparing sections of the poster on A3 or A4 sized paper before sticking them onto mounting boards or display stands.
• remember that you are using posters to tell a story about what you have done and achieved. As in report writing, the way you arrange the sections should follow the 'storyline'.
• sometimes it is helpful if you provide cutouts of arrows to direct attention to the sequence of the presentation
• use a new page to start off a new section