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When creating a poster to be printed in the Faculty Lab, please keep the following guidelines in mind:

Document Size and Color

Create blank document with the correct size before adding content

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1. When you create your document in PowerPoint, Publisher, or another program

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1. , use the Page Layout function to make the dimensions of the electronic document conform to the size of the final poster

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One side (width or height) cannot exceed 40 inches.  

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1. you want before you begin to put in any text or other elements

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1. .
   1. Maximum width or height will be 40 inches.  This is due to the size of the poster paper.
   2. Maximum length of a poster depends on how much paper is left in the printer. 
2. Making posters smaller or larger after they've been designed causes formatting problems and images are often pixellated or unclear.

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1. Please use a white background for your posters. 

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   1. 1. Color backgrounds are beautiful, but they will drain the ink supply AND create an undesirable ripple effect in the paper as too much ink is laid down on the paper.
      2. Rule of Thumb: At least 55% of your poster background should be white. The FacLab reserves the right to refuse printing of any poster with more than 55% color (including images and text boxes with background color).

   Images

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   1. Pictures and images from scientific equipment should be sized according to the final dimensions of the poster

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   1. when it prints out.
   2. You cannot make images larger - they will become pixellated and look unprofessional.  Think of how pictures on balloons look when you blow them up.  The same thing happens when you try to make a too-small image bigger in PowerPoint or Publisher.
   3. Pay attention to the resolution (dots per inch or dpi) of images. 
      1. Most images from the web and screenshots from a computer are 72 dpi   You can get nice printouts for images at 72 dpi, but they tend to be too small to fit on posters any larger than 8.5x11
      2. Printed images should ideally be

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   1. 1. 300 dpi
      2. If you are exporting an image from scientific software, make sure to export at

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   1. 1. 300 dpi in .jpg, .png, .gif, or .tiff format.  Exporting to PDF is also effective.

   Charts

   Importing Excel Charts to PowerPoint

   Many times an Excel chart will not be properly imported into Publisher or PowerPoint.  Though the chart may look complete in your layout, problems will arise during printing.  Lines representing data or values on the chart may not print properly.  To avoid this, you will need to use the Paste Special function in PowerPoint or Publisher.  Note that once the chart is imported as an image in Excel, you cannot change it. Therefore, any edits need to be made in Excel before it is copied into power pointPowerPoint.

   Copy the chart in Excel

   In the PowerPoint presentation, click the arrow under the Paste button on the Home tab

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   FacLab employees will be happy to help you link to the printers and make sure that your poster will print properly to the large format printer.
   Printing services are self-serve; You must come to the lab to print the poster and receive assistance.

   Large Format Printer (Poster) Black &White or Color- $5.00/foot