The following guidelines for preparing presentation posters was adapted from the work prepared by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi, Prof Charles Warlow and the Medical Illustration Dept of the University of Edinburgh.

Content

• Make your title short and snappy summarising, if possible, the message of the research. “Poor management of urinary incontinence is more expensive than you think” is more inspiring than, “An observational study of the excess NHS costs associated with poor management of urinary incontinence on geriatric medicine wards.”
  
• Keep the messages minimal, maybe two points of information at the most (if you have more, then consider more than one poster presentation).
  
• The abstract you submitted to get your poster accepted is for the Abstracts Book. Your poster should not reproduce your abstract. Rather, it should illustrate and expand on your abstract.
  
• Use the smallest number of words you can get away with. A poster is NOT a paper (which should come later) and you can deal with any questions at the time of the poster session. Aim for a word count between 300 and (an absolute maximum of) 500.
  
• Don’t feel constrained by the scientific paper format of introduction, methods, results and discussion. The results and methods sections can often be merged, as can the discussion and conclusions.
  
• Do not include references unless you are desperate.

Style

• Layout: see example, (opens in separate window)
  
• Use a portrait (vertical) rather than landscape (horizontal) format, although conferences may occasionally insist on the latter.
  
• Use an A0 single sheet print out (841 x 189mm), rather than several A4 sheets.
  
• Use a white poster background.
  
• Surround the poster contents with a thick black line.
  
• Consider the photographer’s rule of thirds: very often the key bit of a photo is one third from the top or the bottom of the picture, so use 2 columns for text and one for graphs.
  
• There should be a dark stripe across the top with your logo at the right hand end, and maybe another research specific logo at the other end.
  
• In this stripe goes the title and below that, the authors and institution in smaller, white letters.
  
• The reading order of a poster should be down columns, rather than across rows.
  
• Panels for graphs should have a light grey/blue background with black letters.
  
• Use a maximum of four colours; the dark stripe at the top, the white background, the grey/blue panel background, and one other.
  
• Put the conclusions in a prominent panel at the bottom of the poster.
  
• Watermarks in the middle of a poster tend to distract. A good picture or cartoon to attract the eye, set by itself in a panel would be much better. After all, people use pictures in platform presentations, so why not on posters?
  
• Do not justify the column text if there are few words to a line.
  
• Be selective in your use of bullet points, perhaps only in the conclusion.

Font


• Poster body text must be readable from 2 metres (with the possible exception of references) and the title from 4-5 metres.
  
• Use a black sans serif font (e.g. Arial or Gill Sans) throughout.
  
• Avoid capital letters except at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns.
  
• Do not underline anything.
  
• Use a bolder, larger typeface for the main titles and headings. It can be effective to use a different typeface for headings and subheadings.
  
• To emphasise body text, use a bold or italic font.

Finally


• Check the draft of your poster very carefully to ensure there are no typographical or style errors.
  
• Request a second draft if there are several changes made to the first draft.
  
• Use matt (non reflective) encapsulation to protect the poster.
  
  
You will have succeeded if, at the conference you are asked, “Who made that great poster for you?”

Dr Richard Lindley