Building an Academic Poster in PowerPoint

A poster is not just a written report on a large page. It is a visual summary that should help viewers understand your work quickly and clearly.

Good poster design helps you:

• communicate key information clearly and quickly
• use headings, images and charts to guide the reader
• present your work professionally in coursework, research or conference settings

Poor poster design can make your work harder to read, harder to follow, and less effective.

Watch out for these common poster-design mistakes.

• Not setting the poster size at the start. Changing the size later can distort text and images.
• Fonts that are too small. Poster text needs to be readable from a distance.
• Low-resolution images. Images that look fine on screen may print blurry or pixelated.
• Crowded or cluttered layout. Too much text or too many images make posters hard to scan.
• Poor alignment. Misaligned text boxes, images or columns make the poster look messy.
• Weak colour contrast. Poor contrast makes content harder to read and harms accessibility.
• Too much text. Posters should summarise key points rather than reproduce long paragraphs.
• Forgetting a final print check. Problems often appear when exporting to PDF or viewing the poster at full size.

Check that:

• the poster size is set correctly from the start
• font sizes are large enough to read clearly
• headings and sections follow a clear layout
• images are high enough quality for print
• colour contrast is strong enough throughout
• text is brief and easy to scan
• objects are aligned neatly
• the PDF export looks correct before submission or printing