Guidelines for Posters

Presenting Your Research Presenting Your Research

The guidelines we present below are just that – guidelines. There are no hard and fast rules for research posters since different disciplines, different projects require different presentations. This page and How to Make a Poster are meant to work together. Refer to both while making your poster.

Two general rules, though, are: (1) reduce the amount of text; and (2) reduce the amount of work your audience needs to do. The goal of a poster is to share your work and draw people into a conversation. Your goal is not to reproduce a paper or manuscript onto a large piece of paper.

Posters are visual representations of your research project but there should be one main point. You do not need to present all of the work you have done.

Content

Posters should include the following:

Title
Authors with affiliations and contact information (usually email addresses)
Background and motivation
Research or Driving Question
Main takeaway point
Methods
Results
Conclusions, future directions
References
Acknowledgements (who helped with the project, who are the funding sources, etc)

Layout

There is no right layout. Most often posters are made in landscape format (e.g., 36 inches high and 48 inches wide) but confirm what your conference or event prefers. Many more conferences now require portrait layouts (e.g., 48 inches high and 36 inches wide).

The most conventional format is a 3 column layout where the left-hand column is the introduction and methods, the middle contains the results, and the right-hand column has conclusions, references, and acknowledgements.

Example of three column poster

Source: The Scientific Poster « Write Like a Scientist (middlebury.edu)

This layout doesn’t work for everyone. See How to Make a Poster for more layout options.

Some things to think about when choosing a layout…

Sections should be arranged in a logical order. We typically read left to right and top to bottom.
You can also use arrows or other visuals to guide the reader.
Center the most important things and make them really big. In the sciences important graphs or images often make up the central focal point. But if you do not have these, having different statements or your main takeaway point can also be your focal point.

Formatting

Always set the dimensions of your powerpoint slide first.

Plan to leave some space (0.5” to 1”) around the edge to prevent losing any information during printing or when hanging.

Use simple, readable fonts. Sans serif fonts are the best for this. You can read more about this here.

Use bolding, italicizing, underlining, and capitalization strategically to highlight important things and increase readability.

Posters should be readable from 10 feet away. So your font sizes will be large. Here are some minimums:

Title: 90pt (but you should make it as large as possible)
Section Headings: 54-72 pt, bold
All other text should be at least 30pt
References can be smaller.

Design Principles

Unity: All the parts of the poster should work together

Consistency: Use the same style throughout

Use colors that go together (use consistent color schemes)
Make all the headers the same
Check for consistency in colors if using multiple graphs or graphics when the color portrays information

Contrast: Use contrasting colors, fonts, sizes, graphics, to highlight important elements

Avoid using Red and Green
Be careful with colors that usually have information associated with them (e.g., red=hot or stop; blue = cold; green=go)

Alignment: Make sure everything is aligned. Poor alignment makes your poster looks cluttered and messy

Space: Leave space between sections. This lets the eyes rest but also can create focal points

Do not make content too dense
Avoid paragraphs. Use bullet points or short chunks of text.

Images and Graphics

Use only high-quality images. Test the clarity by setting zoom to 100%.

Provide appropriate acknowledgement if the image is not yours.

Use only images and graphics that convey important information.

More details are on the How to Make a Poster page.

QR Codes

Consider using QR codes to lead viewers to additional information. Some examples of things these can go to:

A digital copy of the poster
Clickable links of the references
Supplemental videos or images