4/3/12
So you want to make a
poster...
PURE: Psychology Undergraduate Research Event
April 13, 2012
Posters!
•  most of you probably have not made a
poster before
•  this info session is designed to provide a
brief introduction to the procedures
necessary to make a poster in PowerPoint
(or similar presentation program such as
Keynote or Open Office)
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What I will cover in this
session
•  who makes your poster?
•  timeline for making posters for PURE
•  why posters?
•  general principles of poster making
•  requirements for printing
Who will make your
poster?
•  you will design your poster, ideally in
collaboration with your supervisor
•  you will provide the content and format
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Who will make your
poster?
•  your poster needs to be printed
•  the Psychology Department will cover
the cost of having your poster printed
•  your poster will be printed by the
Geography Department (they have a
really big printer!)
•  deadline for free printing is Thursday
April 5
Timeline for free poster
production
•  ideally, by Wednesday, April 4, or earlier,
have a draft of your poster for your thesis
supervisor to review
•  submit your poster file to Geography by
4:30 PM Thursday, April 5 (details later in
this session)
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Why posters?
•  research is meant to be public
•  besides journal articles, the primary forum
for presenting research is at conferences
•  oral presentations (talk)
•  posters
Why posters?
•  posters are an efficient way to convey
information about your research to others
•  poster sessions at conferences are usually
about 2 hours long
•  set up poster
•  author stands by poster to answer
questions
•  1 minute spiel; 3 minute spiel
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What does a poster look
like?
What are the parts of a
poster?
•  posters generally have the same
components as a journal article or thesis
•  introduction
•  method
•  results
•  discussion
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Principles of poster making
•  include major findings only; what are your
key findings?
•  reduce text as much as possible
•  use point form if possible
•  make your poster visually appealing
•  use graphics
•  layout is important
Printing your poster for
PURE…for free
•  take advantage of the Psychology
Department s offer to print your poster;
you will pay $60-70 (or more) to get you
poster printed elsewhere
•  timeline is tight but should be do-able!
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Printing your poster for
PURE…for free
•  posters must be printed by Steve Prashker,
Geomatics Lab Manager (A239
Loeb; [email protected])
•  printing requests must be received by Steve
no later than one week before the poster
is required
•  an application form is required (will be
made available on PURE website)
Printing your poster for
PURE…for free
•  Steve asks that students save their posters
as Microsoft Office 2003 documents (under
save options), as there can be
complications with PDF files and later
versions of Office
•  .ppt extension (vs .pptx) •  files may be submitted by email, memory
stick, or CD-R/DVD-R
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Printing your poster for
PURE…for free
•  name the file "Student name Course
number poster" e.g., Jane Doe PSYC4908
Poster.PPT.
•  fill out the Poster Printing Work Request
Form; when you send your file to Steve,
drop off a copy of the Print Request Form
to the Psychology Undergraduate Office
(we will deliver the form to Steve)
Printing your poster for
PURE…for free
•  you must send notification to
[email protected] prior to
contacting Steve (this is so the Psychology
Department can keep track of who is
getting their poster printed by Geography
so Psychology can reimburse Geography!)
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Nuts and bolts
•  PowerPoint templates for posters
•  your supervisor likely has a template(s)
•  a bajillion templates are available on the
internet
•  I will post several on the PURE site
Nuts and bolts
•  poster dimensions: 40" wide x 36" high
•  leave a 1" margin on all sides
•  use standard fonts
•  light backgrounds and black text are the
most readable
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Nuts and bolts
•  ensure that any photos or images are at
least 300 dpi
•  beware copying graphics from websites;
they may look fine on your screen but
become pixelated (i.e., jagged looking)
when printed at 600 dpi
Nuts and bolts
•  should you decide that a Carleton logo
would enhance your poster, download the
logo from The Department of University
Communications at http://
newsroom.carleton.calresources-andpublications/
•  make sure you select a logo that is
designed for printing (not for the web)
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Alternatives to PowerPoint
posters
•  if the timeline for getting a poster ready
and getting it printed by Geography is not
feasible for you, there are alternatives
you can pay $60-70 and get your poster
printed professionally, with usually a 2-3
day turnaround
http://www.codespro-online.com/
you can use a word processing program
and print individual pages and attach
them to a backing board
• 
• 
• 
That s it!
•  if you have questions, contact me
([email protected]), Matt Sorley
([email protected]), but
especially, your supervisor!
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Sites with information
about making posters
•  http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/
agalvez/poster/
•  http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/
resources/making_posters_2004.pdf
•  http://abacus.bates.edu/~bpfohl/posters/
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