Dimensions

Photo copyright 2003 Sigma Xi
Student Research Conference

It is advisable to check beforehand on the size of the display area or boards that will be available to you, as well as the orientation (landscape or portrait). The most popular display area (not the poster) is 4x8 feet.

Do not feel the need to fill the entire 4x8 foot display area. If your poster is the width of the entire display area, then you'll most likely block the view from your audience while presenting it. Our most popular poster sizes for a 4x8 foot display area are 36" x 72" and 36" x 54".

Storyboards

Before you begin work in PowerPoint, you may want to sketch out a design on an 8.5" x 11" paper ahead of time. Alternatively, you could begin with one of the templates provided on our website. This will determine how your final poster will look.

Compatibility

Gather all of the text and graphics in one place so that it is easy to transfer all of the content to one PowerPoint slide. For example, you might have an existing PowerPoint multi-slide presentation you'd like to grab content from, or even your actual paper that may be a Word document. Try to avoid switching back and forth between a Mac and a PC. Generally speaking, this causes compatibility issues.

Don't forget about your graphics and figures such as Excel graphs and photographs taken from a surgery or through a microscope. It is best to go back and get these pictures directly from the original source, rather than transferring from one software to another. If you need to scan photographs, do so in .JPG format. Do not worry about converting your graphics from RGB to CMYK mode or vice versa. Just use the original and we will print using the best method for your graphics.

We support PowerPoint 2007! If you have a .PPTX file, don't worry about saving it in "Compatibility Mode" for previous versions of PowerPoint. We will be able to open and print your file.