How to make a poster using microsoft powerpoint

Most people assume that Microsoft Powerpoint is to be used solely for presentations. This isn’t true. You can also use Powerpoint to design a beautiful poster. Read on to learn some tips for designing posters in Powerpoint.

Poster Dimensions

The first step is to define the poster dimensions. This can be done by adjusting the slide dimensions. The maximum size limit for a slide dimension is 56 inches x 56 inches, so you won’t be able to design anything bigger than that. If you’re designing the poster for a competition or meeting, they may have some required sizes to you need to adhere to.

Some standard poster sizes that you can use are:

• Small poster: 11” x 17”
• Medium poster: 18” x 24”
• Large posters: 24” x 36”

Once you’ve decided on a size, follow the steps below to set it up in Powerpoint:

1. From the top menu, select “Design.”

2. In the Customize section, select “Slide Size -> Custom Slide Size -> Page Setup.”

3. From the pop-up box, set the width and height you desire for your poster.

4. Powerpoint will give you two scaling options. You can choose to “Scale Up” your content or “Don’t scale” as desired.

Poster Design

The next step is to design the poster. The way you design your poster obviously depends upon you and the type of look you want to achieve. You’ll want to pay special attention to the background, text and image arrangement, etc. Make sure you use different fonts, text sizes and colors to make your poster look more aesthetic. We’ve included some general tips for proper poster design below:

1. Use a proper font and increase the size accordingly.

The font you use should be easy to read and sized accordingly, as the main goal of a poster is to be easily visible from a distance. Opt for a readable but interesting font that draws attention. For instance, if you want to portray something important, use a bold sans serif font. However, if you want to give a specific element of your poster a fun look, try a script font. Similarly, italics will make a line or saying stand out from the rest of the text. You can find a lot of free fonts on Google or DaFont.

2. Position the heading at the top or center of the poster.

Depending on the type of poster you’re designing, make sure the title stands out. Include some details about the title above or beneath it in a smaller font. Similarly, use plenty of pictures/flowcharts to help complement your text. No one likes a bare block of text.

3. The colors you use in the poster are of prime importance.

It is always recommended to use contrast, as contrast quickly catches one’s attention. You can use a contrast of bright and dark colors. If you’d like to do something daring, try a varying color contrast with a shape design. Use repetition, patterns, different positions, etc., to make your poster more attractive. You can also try playing with scale vs. size when using contrast of different text elements. All of these factors can somewhat come into play in Microsoft Powerpoint.

4. Use space efficiently.

Although we’ve mentioned many methods of design above, make sure your poster is not cluttered. The most common mistakes on scientific posters is that they’re very cluttered and the font size is reduced to a barely readable size in order to incorporate maximum text. This should not be the case. Limit the content that you’re including on the poster to only that which is necessary. It is advisable to use greater spacing between lines in a poster, as it creates an open look in general. You can also give more space between different types of text and images.

5. Make sure your poster stands out.

Using a combination of the few tips mentioned above, amd make sure your font style, size, poster design, poster color contrast and all other elements make your poster unique. Your poster will probably be hanging in an area alongside lots of other posters. So make sure your poster stands out from others and attracts attention.

For instance, you can see how color contrast, proper font size proportion and the use of a saying has made this poster stand out and be more attractive than a generic poster.

Once done, you can choose to save the poster in either a standard Powerpoint file (ppt) or a PDF file for easy sharing.

Use a ready-made template.

If you want to avoid the hassle of designing the entire poster from scratch, you can choose to use a ready-made template. Poster templates for Microsoft Powerpoint can be found easily on different websites. For instance Makesigns provides a lot of templates to choose from. Simply select the design you’d like to use, select the poster size and download the file.

Once the file opens in Powerpoint, you’ll be able to customize the title, content, photos, etc. You can also add various flowcharts and tables to make your poster look more pleasing.

That’s all there is to designing a poster in Microsoft Powerpoint. You can also create a Youtube video using Microsoft Powerpoint. If you have any additional tips for customizing a poster, let us know in the comments section below.

Related:

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Before you begin
Poster presentation size options

Before you start working on your poster presentation you have to decide what size to make your poster. Each conference publishes poster session guidelines indicating the space they are making available for poster presentations. You would need to follow their instructions or you may end up with a poster that is too big or too small for the available space.
It is common for conferences in the United States to provide a 4×8 foot space (48×96 inches) to the attendees, but not always, so be careful. Conferences outside the US most often provide smaller spaces and ask for vertical or square scientific posters (tall and narrow) in metric measurements.

If the conference is providing a 4×8 space, here is a visual example of how some commonly used size posters will fit in that space.

As you can see in the above diagram, you have many poster size options. To determine which size is best for your poster presentation you should look at the amount of information you want to present. Will your poster be mostly text, or a combination of text, graphs, charts, tables and photos? Most likely, your presentation is going to be a mix of all of the above.
Look at your source document(s). How many pages of text do you have? Assuming that you want to include pictures, tables, etc. in your poster, the table below will give you a general idea of what size poster you may be able to make without having to make the text too small or too big. Please remember that this is a VERY general guide.

How to Make a Poster Using PowerPoint

Step by Step:

1. Start PowerPoint: Make a New presentation – a blank one. When asked for a Layout, choose a blank one – one without anything – even a title.

2. Choose the size of your poster: I recommend that you select a poster approximately 48-60″ wide (across) and exactly 36″ in height (top to bottom). This applies for your individual poster even though you will print it out much smaller than this for grading purposes; doing this will allow you to have the flexibility to print your file as a large poster if your group chooses it. While HP-3000 printers can print up to 52.5 x several hundred inches, and Power Point limits you to up to 56 by 56, most printers on campus (eg: OUGL or Mary Gates) have a 36″ limit.

Note for PowerPoint Poster Gurus Only: The PowerPoint limitation can be overcome with scaling – set your slide up at half size and use scale to 200% when printing. Set the size by using the File menu/Page Setup. If rulers are not visible, you might want to enable them – use the View menu/Rulers.

3. Adding text: In order to add text, the text needs a “container” – a Text Box. Make a text box by

a.Click on the Text Box tool or selecting Text Box under the Insert menu. (PowerPoint is very flexible in how its tools are arranged. The down side of that is that your tools may be in a different place than they are described here. The Text Box tool is often found near the bottom center – it looks like a mini page with an “A” in the upper-left part of it.)

b.Click or click-and-drag where you want the text to be. After this second step, you should see the rectangular shape of the Text Box. You can re-size it at any time by dragging one of the little square “handles”. The box will also grow automatically as you type (if it needs to).

As in many programs, you can change the font and size by highlighting the text to be changed and then making the changes. A 100-point font is about an inch high. If you don’t see the size you want in the selection list, you can enter it in by hand.

To move a Text Box, position your pointer over a part of the edge of the box that is not a handle. The pointer should become shaped like a plus sign with arrows. Click and drag the Text Box to the wanted position.

You can change the color of the text, the edge, and the fill as well as other things under the Format menu/Text Box.

Make a separate Text Box for each separate piece of text. “Separate text” means a portion of text that you want to be able to move independently from the others.

1. Adding images: The two ways to add images are with Insert/Picture and with Copy and Paste:

Insert/Picture: This is the most common way of adding graphics to a PowerPoint document. If you have a file that is in one of several standard graphic formats (like JPEG, GIF, PICT, etc.), use the Insert menu/Picture/From-file and select your file. The image will appear on your document with handles. Use one of the corner handles to re-size it. (The corner handles will keep the same aspect ratio; the side handles will not.) Click and drag in the middle of the graphic to move it. You can do many other things to an image (including brightness, cropping, and resetting it to how it was originally brought in) under Format/Picture.

Image size: You need to plan ahead – in the package that created the graphic (or in program like PhotoShop) figure out the final print size of your graphic and scale it to about 200 dpi (dots per inch). The HP-3000 prints at 600 dpi, but the dithering it needs to do for most colors (all except the seven colors RGB and CMYK) takes up space – anything over 200 dpi is ignored for most colors. 150 dpi or even 100 dpi will look fine for most images.

Copy and Paste: Use this if you have something like an Excel graph you want to add to your document. Generally avoid this method if you can – Copy and Paste will often only give you a low-resolution copy of a graphic.

1. Background: You can select a background under the Format menu/Background. If you want a picture background, select “Background” off the Format menu, then click on the down arrow for more options. Select “fill effects” and then the tab for “picture”. Click on “select picture” and find the picture you want from your hard drive. You will probably want to fade or lighten the image prior to using it as background or you may risk the picture competing with your text.
2. Lines, Boxes, Arrows: There are many other things that PowerPoint can do. Next to the Text Box tool are tools to make ovals, boxes, lines, arrows, etc. When you have made one of these, you can change it (when it is selected) with the Format menu/Colors and Lines.
3. Zoom: You can control the zoom amount by clicking on the zoom choice box (if visible), or using the View menu/Zoom.
4. Printing.

If you are printing your individual poster for grading purposes only (not for display), then the following instructions apply to you: Chose “File” then “Print”. Select all to print (default setting), but SELECT the box that says “scale to fit”. You will end up with a small poster (8.5″ X 11″ or 8.5″ x 14″ if you use legal paper). To get maximum benefit from the use of color you should use a color printer, although a black & white printer will also show some gray variations that demonstrate where color is used in the document.

If you want to print a DISPLAY poster see below.

Where to go to print DISPLAY-SIZE posters on campus:

T271 Health Sciences Building (Health Sciences Academic Services & Facilities 206-543-9275). ­ up to 54″ wide by 100′ long on Hewlett Packard

DesignJet 3500 and 5000 CP Printers.

Costs for Standard Papers at HSAS&F (check for current prices and information at or )

Size Economy Bond Semi-Gloss or Matte High-Gloss

16×20 $14.00 16.00 17.00

20×24 17.00 20.00 21.00

24×36 24.00 28.00 35.00

32×40 30.00 35.00 43.00

40×60 42.00 54.00 60.00

Commons at OUGL (36″ Wide, unlimited length – $1.00 set up and $0.25 per inch of length). Keep in mind that we are using the length as “our width” and vice versa.

Posts Tagged ‘A1 poster microsoft powerpoint’

How to Make a Poster on Powerpoint

our wonderful friend Microsoft Powerpoint

Recently I had to turn in a poster presentation for a geography class at Hong Kong University. At first I thought it would be the same as in elementary and middle school, when I would buy a cardboard poster from Office Depot, stick on a few pages and graphics and call it a day. However, at HKU the professor wanted me to finish and print out the paper from the computer! I had never done this before but after doing some research and help from my classmates I pulled everything together. Here are some helpful tips if you want to print a poster using Microsoft Powerpoint ( for those that are skilled with Photoshop, your probably much more knowledgeable than just making a poster).

1. Know your poster size. i had to print out and do an A1 poster ( which is used quite commonly in Asia) which was quite confusing at first. Simply google up poster size on wikipedia and record the necessary data. You find the chart here.

2. Open Powerpoint and go throughFile->Page Setup. Under Page Setup add in the specified dimensions. Landscape makes your poster wider while portrait makes your poster longer.

3. Now you have your A1 Poster. You can know find templates to setup your project or you can just start from scratch. Something helpful for geography posters is to take charts or tables and rip them onto the poster. On a PDF file, simply go to Tools->Select and Zoom-> Snapshot. Just highlight the area and you can copy and paste it into a Word or Powerpoint file.

4. After you finish, you have to have a special printer or a print shop to print it out.

While Microsoft PowerPoint is almost exclusively used for presentation purposes, it’s also a great application for creating interesting and visually appealing brochures. Here’s how to create (and print out) a tri-fold using PowerPoint.

Making Tri-Folds in PowerPoint

Good news—there are templates! This is the quickest and easiest way to accomplish your goal, as there are several different tri-fold templates available for download online. Browse through the template library, select the one you like, and download it. Once you’ve downloaded it, go ahead and open it up and you’ll be greeted by two slides.

These slides contain boilerplate text and images, but the layout is exactly what you need for a tri-fold brochure. All you need to do is replace the content with your own. Let’s use the first column of slide two as an example.

As you can see, we have three parts here—the header (1), some descriptive bullet points (2), and an image (3). Replacing the header and bullet point content with your own is easy. All you need to do is click the respective text box, delete the boilerplate content, and input your text.

To replace the image, select it and then right-click it. Click “Change Picture” from the menu that appears.

In the sub-menu, select the source of your photo.

Once you’ve navigated to the picture’s location, select it and insert it. It will then replace the boilerplate image in the slide’s column.

Repeat these steps for the remainder of the content. The first column on the first slide will be the front page of your brochure, and the last column of the second slide will be the back page. Enter your content appropriately.

Once you’re finished entering in your content, it’s time to print it out! To print out your tri-fold, head over to the “File” tab.

Select “Print” from the left-hand pane.

Under the “Settings” menu, make sure to select “Print on Both Sides.”

Next, enter the number of copies to be printed and select “Print.”

Finally, after they’re all printed out, make sure to fold them on the dotted lines.

Note: These specifications are for students in my courses at NC State — others may have different specifications, but the basic ideas are the same.

The are instuctions for creating what’s called a “single sheet” or “strip” poster using MicroSoft PowerPoint as the main software tool, and using an ink-jet plotter for output. The plotter paper is just over 36 inches wide, so that the maximum width of your poster is 36 inches. The maximum length allowed is 54 inches. The paper can be arranged in either portrait (36″ wide x 54″ high) or landscape (54″ wide x 36″ high) mode.

Note: These instructions might vary a bit among versions of PowerPoint.

First, open a new file and choose the blank page as your layout.

To design a large poster, you must tell PowerPoint (or whichever program you’re using) how large the paper is. You can do this by going to the File / Page Setup menu — just enter the width and height you want, within the limitations given above. It should choose Portrait or Landscape automatically, based on the height and width you enter.

Once you’ve done this, press OK. PowerPoint may complain that the size exceeds that of the current printer — just say OK to continue — we’ll deal with this later. You should now be facing a blank page in the appropriate dimensions. If the rulers are turned on, you’ll see that it’s the size you asked for.

You can treat this extra large page just like a PowerPoint slide — write text, import things, create graphs and so forth. The difference is that for all but the largest font sizes, you will have to zoom in on the section you want to work with. Depending on which version of PowerPoint you have, zooming in may cause a “Slide Minature” to appear — this gives you an overview of your page. There’s really no difference between what you’ve done before on standard sized slides and what you can do here — there’s just more space to do it on.

To see how your poster looks on paper, you can actually scale it to fit on a standard 8.5×11 inch sheet of paper. I recommend that you do this, because .