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Free Academic Poster Templates to Customize Online

Customize free scientific poster templates to show the results of your research in a graphic and visual way. get your academic poster in minutes..

Make a  scientific poster design template  to synthesize all the information of your investigation. See in an organized way what you have learned and communicate it to everyone.

Customize a scientific poster template for your academic presentations

An academic poster is an innovative way to present the results and information obtained after scientific research. It is necessary that all parts of a scientific poster are arranged in order.

Edit.org makes it easy for you to create academic poster designs and make an incredibly good presentation. You will be able to organize everything in a professional way so that your message is clear and powerful.

Our team of designers has created academic and scientific poster examples  as well as all kinds of academic posters  so that you just have to choose the one that best suits your needs.

Among the different templates, you can create:

• An effective science outreach poster with the ultimate goal of clearly displaying the information obtained.
• A scientific poster for the academic public to be captivated by your research.
• Create all kinds of templates to make scientific posters that you can design step by step thanks to the editor, very easy to use. Choose from our extensive catalog of templates and in a few minutes, you will have the result you expect, all for free!

How to edit an academic research poster template with Edit.org

• Click on any image in this article or, if you prefer, go to our editor and choose one template.
• Design and customize your design without limits! Add the text you want, choose your favorite color, and upload your logo, a thousand options at your fingertips!
• Save and share your creation with others. 
• Download it in the format you need and in the highest quality! JPG, PDF, PNG... choose yours. 

You're done!

Free academic poster templates to download and print

Thanks to the pre-designed templates, Edit.org is one of the best programs to make academic posters in a simple and fast way, but with the results of a professional graphic designer. In addition, if you wanr, you can make a design from scratch completely to your liking.

Apart from this, design anything you want in terms of educational graphic content . From organizing your lesson plan with our templates, rewarding the best student of the week with a diploma , or more socially, promoting campaigns against poverty .

Don't miss the opportunity to be a reference using Edit.org's educational graphic content.

Choose from different examples of editable Academic Posters for your presentations, visit our online editor!

Free academic poster presentation templates

Movie posters

Best examples of scientific posters

Looking for inspiration for your next scientific conference poster?

Imagine - it’s now 8 pm at a conference you’re attending.

You’re tired after sitting through five back-to-back sessions of graphs, error bars and statistics. You remember that one guy sitting in front of you from Session 2 who could barely keep their eyes open and someone else who spilled their coffee onto the floor.

People are tired.

But they also want to get excited again before the day ends. Free food and drink is up for grabs in the next session! What’s the next session you ask?

Well of course it’s the conference poster session!

The doors to the session hall open up and you’re greeted by a literal art gallery of scientific work. Or at least, some of them could be considered art. Oh boy here we go.

Ah no, not the person on poster #37 who pasted their PowerPoint slides onto an A0 sheet of paper.

And definitely not the other person on poster #49 with that intimidating wall of text made up of manuscript pages.

Where have all the good posters gone?

Unfortunately, not all scientific posters are visually attractive. As a result, these posters are at best less likely to strike a conversation with attendees - at worst making attendees run away from you!

A well-designed scientific poster tells everyone in the hall a lot about you: about the way you present your work, about your skills in graphic design, about the amount of effort you put into your story.

Your poster is your story.

But what is it that makes a poster really stand out ? What design elements catch your attention from across the room? What makes you want to start that conversation with the presenter?

In this blog, Dr Juan Miguel Balbin, Science Communicator at Animate Your Science, showcases real-world examples of good scientific posters, appraises them from a design perspective and reverse-engineers their components.

A good poster leads to a good first impression

If you believe your research is ground-breaking, then it deserves to be recognised with some added polish!

Your poster is your ultimate networking tool. It’s your secret weapon for when you’re trying to catch the eye of that hotshot professor who you want to collaborate with (or get in touch with for that post-doc position in the Swiss Alps). Unfortunately, that hotshot professor is likely a very busy person and is cherry-picking who they want to talk to before they disappear off to the bar, wine glass in hand.

You’ve got to make sure you get noticed before that happens. And what better way to show off your colours than with your scientific poster?

Poster appraisal

Here we showcase four examples of very well-made scientific posters from real-world research. They incorporate several design elements that we discuss in our How to Design an Award-winning Poster course - our tried and true recipe for success! Here, we will reverse-engineer and highlight the merits of each poster one-by-one and highlight:

first impression (gotta express my feelings about art, you know?)

colour scheme (with a palette you can use on your own poster using the Eyedropper tool )

layout ( the “skeleton” of a poster )

other features of note

what could be improved?

Let the artshow begin!

Example #1 : James Bond vs. Superbugs

First impression

Right off the bat the thing that really catches your attention is the graphical abstract designed like a comic-book strip. A poster can serve as entertainment just as much as it can communicate science! Who wouldn’t want to overturn an evil mastermind superbacterium?!

This poster was so successful and memorable that Dr Katharina Richter was contacted by attendees afterwards, referencing her as “the female James Bond”. Now that’s one way to make a lasting impression!

The results? A new collaboration, a co-authorship and an invitation to write a book!

To the point and uses catchy alliteration - from b ench to b edside. Not littered with jargon, and is between 5-15 words. It’s also positioned 2/3 to the right, which is a visual hotspot in photography theory according to the rule of thirds .

Colour scheme

Blue’s the theme here. To contrast, the splash of red as an accent really draws your eyes in onto the graphical abstract from far away. Headings are very clear with the contrast between white and blue.

The most eye-catching posters will have a picture that takes up a large chunk of the page as the focal point , which is exactly what the graphical abstract is doing.

Text is minimal and is straight to the point. With short sentences, you won’t get lost while reading.

Sections are neatly split in two columns and have a consistent margin thickness to keep it neatly aligned and tidy! Your eyes can easily follow the intended order of sections from left to right.

A small handful of figures that have your key findings are all you need.

If you’re standing by your poster, you also don’t need any pre-amble text for your figures. You do the talking, the figures will figure the rest out (pun unintended, I promise!). The figure legends are enough to inform passing readers, who will then want to follow up with you after!

Other features of note

QR codes are the symbol of a modern science poster! You’ve given people the prologue to your story, why not link them to the rest of the adventure in the manuscript?

What could be improved?

The layout would benefit from more negative space for your eyes to rest on. It can also be easy to get lost in a paragraph, so increasing the spacing between lines would also help generate more negative space.

Example #2 : Fancy a finch?

My eyes are instantly drawn to the beautiful photo of the finch from across the room - you know what the study is about without even reading the title!

Yet more clever alliteration between the words f lexible, f oraging and f inch. It neatly summarises the study within 5-15 words in a large font size for increased visibility in the conference hall!

The author of this poster was clever to base their colour scheme on the photo of the finch, thanks to the handy eyedropper tool! The earthy colours come from the head (gray-brown), cheek (white), tail feathers (gray-black) and beak (orange).

A neat white margin hugs the poster from all sides, and while aesthetically pleasing it also doubles as a bleed margin for printing.

Rectangular textboxes are staggered across the poster to neatly scaffold each piece of information - this makes it easier to follow. Do you notice how the shapes of these rectangles are sized so that they neatly surround the shapes of the finch? Even the text is justified in a way that it doesn’t overlap with the finch. This is a useful technique when you’re using adding text next to images that have an irregular shape.

This poster is a great example of what posters are meant to do - showcase the best of your data . And no this doesn’t mean all of your data! With only a handful of figures, your take-home messages are more likely to land.

The graphs also neatly incorporate the colour scheme into the data points. All praises to you if you do this, don’t be lazy!

A divider is used to package all of the meat of the poster into one block. This ensures everything outside of the divider except for the title is untouched from clutter and ensures that there’s negative space .

Having a solid colour for the poster with minimal clutter and large spacing will ensure your eyes don’t get lost, and that the photo stays as the primary focal point .

Honestly, it’s hard to critique this one! Though if I were to pick a point, it would be to have a small take-home message section that summarises your study and its conclusions. The font sizes should be consistent throughout the figures as well.

Example #3 : All about crabs!

We’re starting to sense a pattern here. You guessed it - that big ol’ crab in the middle makes for one big first impression! The poster overall is beautiful with loads of different kinds of visuals - there isn’t a single boring-looking section!

Clever use of a double meaning main title - “sizing up” referring to evaluating, or critically assessing, as well as in reference to measuring crabs in the study. The job of the main title is to catch your attention. Below that, there’s also a subtitle where you can add the nitty-gritty details of your study.

A vibrant display of three accent colours are used equally across the poster, contrasting with the black. Guess where they got the colours from? That’s right, using the eyedropper tool on the crab!

Here we have a two column layout, similar to Example #1 , with cleverly titled headings. Note that none of the headings are your typical “Introduction”, “Results” and “Conclusion”. Instead, each title is written to show some personality. Save the formal headings for the manuscript!

Like Example #2 , the text is neatly justified around the center circle so everything fits nice and snug!

Have you noticed several bits of text are accompanied by a symbol or icon ? Icons are fantastic for giving each section some visual context, i.e. a boat to describe how they collected their crabs. Pictures speak for you!

All of the data has also neatly incorporated the accent colours to ensure they stick out. And by limiting it to just two graphs , it sticks out even more!

Remember - your poster is a networking tool, so give people ways to find you! Twitter is the home of academics on social media so add your Twitter handle and a photo !

Like with Example #1 , more negative space is needed especially with a busy black background. I would merge the methods sections together and have one space to rest your eyes on. Less is definitely more!

Example #4 : Cheese is serious business!

Did you see those 3D effects on the milk around the cheese? Now that’s the sort of picture that literally pops out of the poster! I’d definitely want to follow up with this presenter.

Different parts of the title are in bold or a different colour to make each separate variable in their study stand out. From a distance, you can easily see “Bovine cheese-making milk” as the main topic, with the remainder of the text in a darker colour.

Earthy colours are, in my opinion, less distracting (and less stressful on your retinas) than brighter, more vibrant colours. Instead, it allows accent colours to pop out more, as you can see with the baby blue highlights and the vibrant yellow cheese.

With a landscape poster you can afford to scaffold your sections in more columns , in this case four. Spread out, people! And despite the relatively hefty amount of text, there’s a neat margin between sections that allow your eyes to rest on negative space .

Also much like with Example #1 , this poster respects the rule of thirds by placing the big cheese 1/3 across the page to make it more visually striking.

The graphs and table have neatly incorporated the primary and accent colours of brown and baby blue (a round of applause to the presenter for opening up their graph files to change the colours just for the poster!).

Having the graphs be large and imposing makes them much easier to read and interpret. They’ve also neatly tucked the figure legends underneath the graphs to package it all together in a neat box. You won’t be confused as to which legend goes to which figure!

If your supervisor insists on having a fairly large amount of text, do what this poster does and indent your text into paragraphs. With an indent, you’ll know where one paragraph ends and where the next one starts, and you won’t get lost in the sea of words!

Definitely chop down the words (if you can resist the temptation) and up the body text font size! You know how people win prizes for those competitions that ask you to describe something in 150 words or less? You’re also more likely to get that prize at a conference with this same tip. Let’s try with <250 words to begin with.

Take-home messages for your next poster

Make use of one big key visual to grab people’s attention.

Come up with a colour scheme of 4-5 colours and stick to it.

Less is more! Fewer words on print means you’ve got more to actually talk about

Are you excited to put some ideas into practice for your next scientific poster? We go into far greater detail about making your posters amazing in our How to Design an Award-winning Poster course , so check it out! And if you found this blog useful, please consider subscribing to our newsletter!

Until next time!

Dr Juan Miguel Balbin

Dr Tullio Rossi

#scientificposters #Twitter

Related Posts

How to Design an Award-Winning Scientific Conference Poster

Best scientific poster templates for PowerPoint

How to Select a Great Colour Scheme for Your Scientific Poster

Commentaires

Penn State University Libraries

Poster creation and presentation.

• Getting Started
• Elements of Poster Design
• Images and Graphics
• Design Guides and Rubrics
• Preparing and Presenting
• Sample Posters
• University Libraries Undergraduate Research Awards
• Additional Resources

Contact Information

Questions about this guide can be directed to

• Your local campus librarian

Standard Layouts

Sample Poster Layout

Posters are typically laid out in "landscape" (48" wide x 36 " high) , but may be done in "portrait" (36" wide x 48" high) . Decide this before you start designing your poster.

Make the flow of the poster obvious to the reader. Often there are 3-4 columns across with 1-3 blocks of text and image in each column, but there is no one right way.

Find your central point and consider the text, charts, or images needed. A good poster will convey the essence of your paper without your explanation and also serve as visual aid to support your verbal explanation.

The title of your poster may be slightly different from your paper's title. Choose a title that will attract viewers and convey your central point. Use 100+ point font for the title and keep it to 1-2 lines. Use slightly smaller font for your name and affiliation.

Follow the organization of your paper to plan the layout of your poster. The sections of your paper can be translated to blocks on your poster.

Aim for a total of 300-500 words on your poster . Do not paste large blocks of text; explain with visuals as needed. 

Creating and presenting a poster allow you to showcase how your research fits within your discipline and the scholarly conversation happening with your topic. Not only do you get to present your work, but also discuss the ways you are adding to, critiquing, responding to, or filling a gap in your field of study. A poster can be a great starting spot where you can check in with other people, get feedback on your work, and begin to think of your next steps (publishing an article, presenting at a conference, or more!).

Image on  flickr :  CAFNR ; Photo by Kyle  Spradley ,  c2014  - Curators of the University of Missouri - licensed under  CC BY-NC 2.0

Design Tools and Poster Layout

Layout software.

• PowerPoint PowerPoint is often the go-to program for research poster design. It is familiar to most people and many templates are available online. Penn State students can freely download Microsoft Office programs including PowerPoint.
• InDesign InDesign is a high-powered layout tool from Adobe available for free to all Penn State students through Creative Cloud. This program has a learning curve, but you can access free lessons from LinkedIn Learning. InDesign gives you complete control over all aspects of design and formatting of your poster and can help you creat a high-quality poster with crisp graphics. Activate your license and download the program.
• Canva A web-based layout program with free and paid options. Quick to use and learn, but some elements are limited to paid accounts and may not be standard to other programs, like font sizes and styles.

Graphic Creation

• Gliffy Create simple flowcharts and other diagrams
• Wordle Illustrate poems or critical passages of text
• Infogr.am Visualize your data
• Next: Elements of Poster Design >>
• Last Updated: Mar 1, 2024 11:48 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/posters

How to create beautiful and effective academic posters in PowerPoint

• Written by: Emily Pinch
• Categories: PowerPoint design
• Comments: 4

It’s time to show the world your research, how exciting! After all your hard work, all those hours in the lab, you can finally present your findings and talk to fellow researchers about your work! Except… you’ve left it a little late to create your poster. So, you dig out the trusty old PowerPoint template passed down for generations and fill in the gaps with your own findings. But be honest with yourself, how old even is that template? Instead of presenting the exciting poster you dreamed of, you’ve got an uninspiring wall of text which leaves your audience a little lost on what you actually discovered. Your academic posters should be keeping pace with the rate science is moving, not trailing behind! It’s time to upgrade your template and create beautiful and effective academic posters in PowerPoint.

Why use PowerPoint for academic posters?

PowerPoint is the go-to tool for creating academic research posters. If you weren’t already aware, we love PowerPoint, and for good reason! It’s easy-to-use, quick to edit and accessible to many, making poster creation a breeze. We’re going to take you through a whole host of PowerPoint poster creation tips from shaping your content into a clear and concise message, making the most of our free pre-designed poster templates to help you build effective and beautiful research posters!

Download our free templates here:

Academic research poster template – Portrait

Academic research poster template – Landscape

Tips on your content – make your poster effective

Let’s step into your audience’s shoes for a moment and consider the problem with the typical ‘wall-of-text’ poster. The reality is poster sessions attendees have very little time to see a LOT of posters. Time is of the essence and your audience are a moving target, so you’ve got to grab their attention, and fast! You can’t assume your audience will be happy to stand and read your poster for ten minutes.

Your research poster should be a conversation starter, not a wall of impenetrable text. A poster is simply a visual abstract, representing a concise and accessible summary of your research. Its purpose is to drive attention to your research, not show every detail. Think of it more like a billboard, designed to transmit key information quickly as your audience moves past.

• Cut the jargon – Consider your target audience, sure you may have attendees that are specialists in your field, but you also want your poster to be accessible to people who are new to your research. Cut the jargon and specialist terms and use plain language as much as possible to make your poster easy to understand.
• Organise your story – Separate your content into sections using headers and ensure your poster tells a flowing story that includes: Background, Question, Methods, Results, Conclusion.
• Condense your content – Decide what your audience needs to know, then consider what is just nice to know. Then get rid of the nice to know. Be ruthless and keep your content concise and clear. Aim for a maximum of 250 words, possibly <150 if you’re feeling brave! If you’re concerned about the lack of detail on your poster, you can link to a full version of your paper using a QR code – we’ll explain how to do this further on.
• Summarise your key finding – Most important of all, what did you find out from your research? Why should people care? Consider what the punchline of your research is and translate it into conversational plain English. Determine what key image or graph will support this finding and help transmit your message clearly so that your audience can quickly understand the value of your research without standing and staring at your poster for an eternity.

Layout Creating an effective academic poster is all about making it easy for your audience to quickly understand the content. A clear and logical layout is fundamental to achieving this. Consider the hierarchy of your information. You want your audience to read the most important information first – in case they don’t make it to the bottom of the poster. So, place your key finding and a supporting graph or graphic right at the top of the poster. To ensure the rest of your poster is easy to read, consider the flow of your content. In the West, we read top to bottom, left to right so make sure your content follows this flow. You could number your sections or use arrows to guide the reader and use bullet points rather than long paragraphs of text. You can read more about hierarchy here

We’ve created 4 academic poster PowerPoint template layouts to help get you started!

Data Your research will inevitably contain graphs and data, and whilst you may want to show them all off on your poster (because they took ages to make!) you need to decide which are the most important.

• Be selective – Display only essential data on your poster. Whilst pictures and graphs do help break up text, you don’t want to overload your audience with information so only include the most important graphs.
• Simplify – Simplify your graphs and, if necessary, re-label them so scientists outside of your field will understand the basics.
• Summary figure – Pick a single graphic to support your key finding and help your audience understand your punchline – fast.
• Formatting – Apply the colour scheme and fonts of your template to any imported graphs for consistency across your poster. You can find pre-designed graphs in the sticker sheet for each of our templates!

Tips on the template – make your poster beautiful

Your content is ready to go, now it’s time to make your poster beautiful! To give you a head start, we’ve created 4 different landscape and portrait academic poster PowerPoint templates each with their own unique design style! Pick your favourite and fill in the sections with your content. We’ve helped get you started with placeholders for headings, graphs, references etc. on each template but these are editable so you can customise your poster to work best for you.

Each template also has its own matching ‘ sticker sheet ’. Just copy and paste any of the elements you’d like to use on the sticker sheet on to your poster

Now, let’s run through some top tips to make sure you get the most out of these templates!

Guides are important to help align and balance your poster design. Some key things to remember are to keep the border clear and maintain the gaps (gutters) between sections to give your content space to breathe.

If you want to create your own guides, this article shows you how easy it is with our free PowerPoint add-in BrightSlide .

White space Don’t underestimate the power of what’s NOT on your poster. White space is essential for making a beautiful and effective poster. Your poster should roughly consist of 20-30% text, 30-40% figures and 40% space. Yep, you heard me, 40% ! White, or ‘negative’ space is all about creating areas of contrast, with clear focal points to draw your attention to the important parts, and create a flow and hierarchy across your poster. Learn more about the power of white space

Try to avoid using photos in the background, it can clutter the poster and make it difficult for your audience to read the text or understand the graphs.

Colours We’ve predesigned our poster templates with carefully selected colour schemes to make them simply beautiful! But we’ve got some tips on how to best apply the set colour scheme to your content. Each template has a colour palette of 6-8 colours. We recommend using a bright colour as your accent colour to draw attention to key information on your poster. It’s important to use this accent colour in moderation to ensure it holds its attention-grabbing function! Make sure you apply the colour scheme to all the text, images and figures you’re using to keep your poster design consistent

If you have to use specific colours, or fancy creating your own colour palette, here are some top tips:

• Use 3-5 colours – 2-3 shades of a primary colour, an accent colour that stands out, a background colour and a couple of text colours (one light one dark).
• Use the eyedropper tool – Find an image with colours you love and use the eyedropper tool in PowerPoint to extract the colours. To use the colour, draw a shape on a PowerPoint slide, select it, head to Shape Format > Shape Fill > Eyedropper and click on the colour from the image.

• Use a colour contrast checker for accessibility – Poor colour contrast can mean your poster becomes less accessible to a whole range of people. Luckily, while this is a common error, it’s also a very simple thing to fix. Check out the free colour contrast checker in our brilliant PowerPoint add-in, BrightSlide .
• Update your colour theme in PowerPoint – The best way to handle colours in PowerPoint is to set your template correctly and use a colour theme. Then it’s easy to use the same colours over and over again. Once you’ve chosen your colours, read this article to learn how to change the theme colours in PowerPoint .

Fonts Less is more when it comes to fonts, we recommend picking just one or two fonts . Using a second font can help to clearly distinguish your body text from your titles and headings, but this can also be achieved by making your titles and headings bold . Our poster templates have pre-set fonts but if you’re striking out on your own, here are some other fonts we recommend:

Read more about our recommended presentation fonts.

Font size is also important. Your poster needs to be readable from a meter away, and your title and headings need to stand out. For A0 posters, try sticking to these font sizes:

• Titles – 90pt
• Headings – 60pt
• Body text – 36pt

Check your font sizes by zooming in to your poster 100% and stand a meter away from your screen to test if you can easily read the body text and distinguish the headings.

Graphs We’ve created some pre-designed graphs, tables and diagrams in the sticker sheet to copy and paste on to your poster and insert your own data.

However, we recognise that you may not be using Microsoft Office to create your charts and graphs. In this case, we recommend exporting the graph from whatever software you’re using (Origin, for example) as an EMF image , and pasting that into your poster template. You can then ungroup the image and format the elements of the chart to match your poster template fonts and colours. Don’t forget to regroup the graph afterwards to make it easier to move and resize!

To make the most of your graphs and data, focus your audience’s attention on key information by using PowerPoint shapes or arrows. Edit the line colour, fill colour, and transparency to highlight important trends or values on your graphs.

If you’re using Office 365, you’ll be able to access PowerPoint’s native presentation icons, and we have a blog post showing you how to insert these PowerPoint icons . Whilst PowerPoint has a LOT of icons to choose from, you may be looking for something more specific for your research. If you’re in the environmental sciences, the IAN image library is a great free library of graphics. Another great generalist website to find free illustrations and icons is Freepik .

If you’re really after something custom or specific, Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool for creating illustrations. Though it’s a paid software, there are lots of free resources out there to help you create exactly what you need. If Adobe Illustrator isn’t the right choice for you, PowerPoint can be used to create surprisingly sophisticated illustrations as this post explains.

QR codes Adding a QR code to your poster is a quick way to provide your audience with access to your full paper or a digital copy of your poster. This allows the attendees to walk away with as much information as they like. You can be more confident condensing your content for your poster, safe in the knowledge that your audience can still access your full paper through your custom QR code. You can head to Canva or qrcodemonkey to create a QR code. If you want to link to multiple files or locations, it may be worth using Linktree which allows you to connect your audience to multiple locations through a single link from your QR code. You can then add that QR code to your academic poster in PowerPoint before exporting the it ready to share.

Finishing up I hope your poster is coming together nicely now! But… you’re not quite finished yet. Here are a few tips to make sure you, and your poster, are ready to go!

• Is the layout clear and easy to follow?
• Did you understand the key finding quickly?
• Can you double check my spelling and grammar, please!

It’s important not to miss out this feedback phase, and do it sooner rather than later, so you can implement any changes in good time! Trialling your poster will give you more confidence to present at your poster session too.

• The final check! – It’s a good idea to test print your poster before printing it full size. Print your poster A4, or A3 if possible. Check everything looks how you want it to, that the resolution of your graphs and images is up to scratch (300dpi is recommended), that there is enough space in the margins, and nothing is cut off and do a final proofread of all the text.
• Be prepared to present – Your poster won’t do all the talking for you, it serves as a conversation starter, so you’ll have to be prepared to talk about your research. Don’t panic! We’ve got LOADS of presentation tips to help you prepare.

Download all the free academic poster PowerPoint templates to get started!

We’d love to see the academic posters you make in PowerPoint using these templates, please send them to us or share them on twitter and tag us @BrightCarbon .

Emily Pinch

Senior consultant; group visualisation lead, related articles, trade show booth ideas you can make in powerpoint.

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Mastering high-impact conference presentations

• PowerPoint design / Visual communication

Conference presentations are really hard to get right compared to day-to-day presentations. How do you tackle bigger stages, bigger rooms, bigger audiences and higher stakes?

A really fantastic set of resources and advice. I’ve been running seminars for our PGRs on this topic for a few years. It’s both reassuring to see that I’m not the only one saying PowerPoint will do the job and it’s made me revisit my own support content to review and update my advice! Many thanks Jon

I would like to learn more on how to create an academic poster

Thankyou your information was invaluable

Thank you for this great advice!

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We delivered this to over 100 people today, and everyone LOVED the presentation and story. We have received wonderful feedback, and have four opportunities already. Sarah Walker Softchoice

Stop spending hours resizing and aligning boxes on your poster.

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Using Poster Builder is a really, really nice experience— it only took me a day to put together a poster . The same poster would probably take me a week to do in PowerPoint.

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How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

What is a Research Poster?

Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their program.  Research posters summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. 

The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.

What Makes a Good Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

A Sample of a Well Designed Poster

View this poster example in a web browser .  

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected], via Penn State

Where do I begin?

Answer these three questions:.

• What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
• What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

What software can I use to make a poster?

A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. ( Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint ).

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign

Feature-rich professional software that is good for posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.  NYU Faculty, Staff, and Students can access and download the Adobe Creative Suite .

Open Source Alternatives 

• OpenOffice is the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its PowerPoint alternative).
• Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.
• For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts .
• A complete list of free graphics software .

A Sample of a Poorly Designed Poster

View this bad poster example in a browser.

Image Credit: Critique by Better Posters

• Next: Design Tips >>
• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 5:34 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

• UNC Libraries
• Design & Creation
• Designing Effective Posters

Poster Templates

Designing effective posters: poster templates.

• Classes and Tutorials
• Getting Started With PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign
• Layout and Text
• Images and Graphics
• Adding and Revising Content: PowerPoint
• Adding and Revising Content: InDesign
• Evaluation Checklist
• Before & After Examples
• Printing Your Poster
• Archiving Your Poster

Media & Design Center

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These templates are free for you to use as starting points for any research poster you need to make. Feel free to experiment with different colors, fonts, and layouts! 

Be sure to find out the size and orientation requirements of your poster before you begin designing. Most digital posters are either in the ratio 4:3 (standard size) or the ratio 16:9 (widescreen). The most common size for print posters is 48 inches wide by 36 inches tall. See our Getting Started page for more information on how to adjust the size of a slide.

All of these templates include a general UNC logo as part of the design. Although you are welcome to use the general logo, many schools encourage students, faculty, and researchers to use the logo that is specific to their school. You may not edit the logos in any way (other than resizing the logo in its entirety). Please see our page on using UNC Logos before including a logo in your poster. 

Standard (4:3 ratio; 48 in. x 36 in.)

• Standard 4:3 (48x36) Poster Template - Style 1 PowerPoint Template
• Standard 4:3 (48x36) Poster Template - Style 2 PowerPoint Template
• Standard 4:3 (48x36) Poster Template - Style 3 PowerPoint Template
• InDesign Template

Widescreen digital (16:9 ratio; 56 in. x 31.5 in.)

• Widescreen 16:9 Poster Template - Style 1 PowerPoint Template
• Widescreen 16:9 Poster Template - Style 2 PowerPoint Template
• Widescreen 16:9 Poster Template - Style 3 PowerPoint Template
• Last Updated: Feb 21, 2024 11:06 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/posters