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Skills@Cumbria SDM Jan2021
Font
You need to use a clear font and may use separate ones for your headings and
text. Comic Sans and SCRIPT fonts are out.
Any common sans-serif (the ones without extra curls at the end) are generally
good.
Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Open Sans, Tahoma and Trebuchet are all good and are
easy to read on a poster.
Some simple rules
1. Follow the rules! Read the briefing document / assignment specification
to properly understand what you are being asked to produce.
2. Switch off your computer! When planning a poster, start with pen and
paper. Sketch out what you plan to do before trying to build it on your PC.
3. Use the right tools! PowerPoint and Publisher make usable posters, but
consider more professional tools if posters are to be a big part of your
future.
4. Be bold, but silent! Less text usually means more visitors – can you get
across your main ideas with charts and images? Can you show a journey?
5. Big and clear! Choose your font(s) and text sizes according to the
guidelines on the previous page. Ensure your poster can be easily read.
6. Use colours wisely! 2 or 3 main colours are enough to create interest
and style. Any more and things get distracting.
7. Line it up! Keep things tidy and line things up – you don’t want your
poster to look like the content was simply thrown at the page.
8. “White” space is your friend! Leave space around the edges and
around objects to make reading easier (the space doesn’t need to be
white).
9. Leave plenty of time for printing.
Poster presentations - useful links
Colin Purrington has compiled a very useful page full of tips, dos & don'ts,
templates and advice for designing, creating and populating academic
posters: Creating Conference Posters
For further help in using PowerPoint and Publisher go to Free Microsoft Tutorials
at GCFGlobal or complete a certificated course in Linkedin Learning (university
login required).