{"id":91,"date":"2014-08-04T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/205.186.146.189\/~envsci\/?page_id=91"},"modified":"2025-04-17T16:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T16:47:31","slug":"make-a-poster","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/how-to\/make-a-poster\/","title":{"rendered":"Make a Poster (and a 30s summary slide)"},"content":{"rendered":"<ol>\n<li><strong>General<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>We recommend you use PowerPoint (.pptx) to create your posters.<\/li>\n<li>We developed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldeo.columbia.edu\/~martins\/sen_sem\/LastnameF_poster.pptx\">template<\/a> for posters (that you may use as a starting point to ensure proper size requirement. After downloading the file, save it as .pptx file with the following file name using your last name and the first letter of your first name, e.g., StuteM_poster.pptx.<\/li>\n<li>The size of the virtual poster should be 42\u2033 wide x 42\u2033 tall (already set up in template).<\/li>\n<li>Be creative with your design, but we suggest you include less text (&lt; 50% of space), and more graphs, charts, and images.<\/li>\n<li>Save your poster as .pptx and .pdf file and post your files on CourseWorks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>If your poster will be presented virtually:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If presenting virtually, saving as .pdf file and use a software program like Preview on Mac or Adobe Acrobat Reader to zoom in on different portions of your poster as you explain it during the poster session (PowerPoint might also allow you to zoom while in presenter mode, but confirm if your version allows for this). We recommend you practice this to be familiar with the controls.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>If you think it will be helpful, you can add a few extra slides that are enlarged versions of specific figures or portions of your poster that you know you\u2019ll want to focus on in discussion. This can avoid the awkwardness of dynamically zooming in.<\/li>\n<li>We recommend you follow the formatting guidelines as if the poster will be printed, even if you are presenting your poster virtually (your poster may be printed in the future).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>If your poster will be printed:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Leave one inch on either edge of the poster to ensure proper border space for printing.<\/li>\n<li>If printing, use color sparingly because cartridges are expensive (no background color or image, for example).<\/li>\n<li>KEEP YOUR POSTER FILE SIZE SMALL. If you go over 10MB, you will increase your chances of running into jams, clogs, and errors during printing. Too large files often are related to images that were imported at much too high resolution. See \u201cImages\u201d section below for more details.<\/li>\n<li>For your printing session, save your poster as\u00a0 .pdf file, and post your files on CourseWorks.<\/li>\n<li>Each poster costs the department about $20 for paper and cartridges plus our time to troubleshoot the process. You may keep your poster after the poster session is completed.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Feel free to print your poster elsewhere, but you will need to cover the costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong> Text<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>The poster follows a structure very similar to that of your thesis, it has an abstract (optional), introduction, methods, results, and discussion, recommendations, and reference section.<\/li>\n<li>Do not overwhelm the reader with text. The main points should come through clearly, but nobody will spend 30 minutes in front of your poster reading small type text.<\/li>\n<li>Include at most a few key references (&lt; 5).<\/li>\n<li>Text should not cover more than 50% of the space on the poster.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong> Fonts<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Recommended font: Arial (or Geneva, or Calibri) because it is a\u00a0<em>sans-serif<\/em>\u00a0font (no curly or thin bits to the letters) and is easiest to read.<\/li>\n<li>Suggested font sizes:\n<ul>\n<li>Title:\u00a0 54 point bold<\/li>\n<li>Student researcher with affiliation:\u00a0 48 point<\/li>\n<li>Research mentor(s):\u00a0 48 point<\/li>\n<li>Seminar adviser:\u00a0 48 point<\/li>\n<li>Section headings:\u00a0 color of your choice, 28 point<\/li>\n<li>Text:\u00a0 black, 24 point<\/li>\n<li>Figure and table captions:\u00a0 black, 20 point<\/li>\n<li>References:\u00a0 black, 20 point<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><strong> Images, graphs, and tables<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>In comparison with your thesis, the same or more space on the poster should be taken up by images or graphs than by text, a good rule of thumb is 50\/50.<\/li>\n<li>Include captions.<\/li>\n<li>Refer to your figures\/table by number in the text.<\/li>\n<li>Review the guidelines we provide on how to\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/create-good-graphs-and-captions\/\">Create Good Graphs and Captions<\/a><\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Images<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your images should have a resolution of 200 dpi (dots per inch) at the size they will be ultimately printed on your poster.<\/li>\n<li>A 10-inch x 10-inch photo does not have to have more than (10\u00d7200 dpi) 2 = 4 megapixels<\/li>\n<li>Save images\/figures as either JPEG (or JPG), GIF, or PNG files.<\/li>\n<li>In PowerPoint, go to the\u00a0<strong>Insert<\/strong>, then\u00a0<strong>Picture<\/strong>, then\u00a0<strong>From file<\/strong>\u00a0menu, and find your image. Of course, you can change the size by dragging on the corners once the image is placed on the slide. By using the handles on the corners of the image, the software will make sure that the increase or decrease in size is proportional. You can also use the\u00a0<strong>Format a Picture<\/strong>\u00a0option in PowerPoint to change the size and position of your image.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Graphs<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When importing graphs from Excel or other software, copy the graph then go to the\u00a0<strong>Edit<\/strong>\u00a0menu,\u00a0<strong>Paste special<\/strong>, as\u00a0<strong>Picture (Enhanced Metafile)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Note: a simple drag &amp; drop of figures on a Mac might cause issues if the file is later opened on a PC (which is done for printing purposes). Saving as a .pdf at the end can be a way to ensure these compatibility issues are not a problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tables<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you do use a table on your poster, it should be very compact.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Use a table only if it would support your story more efficiently than a graph.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><strong> Printing<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Printing on regular letter paper<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We recommend you print your poster on regular letter paper to proofread it.<\/li>\n<li>Go to the\u00a0<strong>Print<\/strong>\u00a0option in your\u00a0<strong>File<\/strong>\u00a0menu. In the pop-up window, select the\u00a0<strong>Scale to fit paper<\/strong>\u00a0box, and set the paper size to<strong>\u00a011\u00d714 in<\/strong>\u00a0(or 8.5\u00d711 in).<\/li>\n<li>DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE OTHER SETTINGS!<\/li>\n<li>The font sizes are right if you can still read the text (on 11\u00d714 in paper).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>For the poster session, Env. Sci. Dep. staff will print your posters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>30s slides<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>At the beginning of the poster session we will ask you to give a 30 second long overview of your poster using one slide. Some elements of good 30s slides:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Informative yet succinct title<\/li>\n<li>Your name &amp; affiliation<\/li>\n<li>Your mentor\u2019s name and affiliation <u>(no advisor<\/u>)<\/li>\n<li>Large enough font with appropriate visual emphasis<\/li>\n<li>High contrast between text and background<\/li>\n<li>Little text (you have 30 seconds to tell the story)<\/li>\n<li>Pretty pictures (a good lure!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldeo.columbia.edu\/~martins\/sen_sem\/how_to_make_a_poster_SeniorSeminar.pptx\">how_to_make_a_poster_senior seminar<\/a><\/u><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Poster-30s-rubric.docx\">poster and 30s grading rubric<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldeo.columbia.edu\/~martins\/sen_sem\/Poster%20checklist.docx\">poster checklist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><u><a href=\"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Creating-Scientific-Posters-after-Nadav-Gazit-Spring-2021.pdf\">Creating Scientific Posters \u2013 after Nadav Gazit<\/a><\/u><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/1minslide2014-1.pptx\">30 second slide Examples<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General We recommend you use PowerPoint (.pptx) to create your posters. We developed a template for posters (that you may use as a starting point to ensure proper size requirement. After downloading the file, save it as .pptx file with the following file name using your last name and the first letter of your first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":65,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-91","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","wpautop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1590,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91\/revisions\/1590"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}