Posters and billboards are ubiquitous in our daily lives: advertising boards, bus stops, pedestrian zones – information is disseminated and advertisements are placed everywhere. To ensure a poster appears professionally designed and compelling, certain rules must be followed during its creation.
PowerPoint is the market-leading software for creating presentations. But Microsoft PowerPoint can do much more than "just" present. Among other things, the Microsoft software is the ideal tool for creating PowerPoint posters, including for university use. Here's how:
Creating a PowerPoint poster: Defining the size
It's often difficult to visualize digital images as physical prints. Knowing the actual available space is therefore all the more helpful. This way, you avoid unsightly scaling errors or distorted proportions on the final poster. PowerPoint allows you to set the poster dimensions beforehand.
Here's how to define the sheet size in PowerPoint:
Open a PowerPoint project and go to the " Design " tab at the top of the screen. On the far right, you'll find the " Slide Size " option. Here you can set a " Custom Slide Size... "
Here you can define the height, width , and orientation of the poster with millimeter precision. We have conveniently listed the most common paper sizes for you:
- DIN A4 : 210 mm x 297 mm
- DIN A3 : 297 mm x 420 mm
- DIN A2 : 420 mm x 594 mm
- DIN A1 : 594 mm x 841 mm
- DIN A0 : 841 mm x 1189 mm
Once you have defined the format, you can design the PowerPoint poster as usual with text boxes, images, or graphs.
4 professional tips: Designing a professional poster in PowerPoint
To make your PowerPoint poster more compelling, you need to truly understand the poster medium. It's neither an information-packed handout nor a presentation supported by verbal narration . A poster must be understandable on its own and project a professional and convincing image . Here's how to achieve this:
1. Slogans, graphics and short texts
Eye-catching, concise, and to the point – that's how your poster will quickly achieve its goal. Posters often need to be easily grasped and understood in just a few seconds by passersby. Even in the case of a poster presentation at university, the information and text should be understandable without a presentation.
Therefore, it's important to get to the point as quickly as possible . Formulate a clear statement, a call to action , or your (company-internal) motto. Alternatively, you can replace your text with symbolic images or graphics, or combine them. You can find more information on the effective use of images and short texts in this article .
2. Consider the target group and environment
Even before you start creating the poster, you should develop a concept to guide you. Two questions are particularly important at this stage: Where will the poster be displayed and who is its target audience?
Are you giving a poster presentation at university ? Then you usually know your audience. Address their needs and design your PowerPoint poster so that your topic is explained clearly and interestingly.
If your PowerPoint poster is later displayed as an advertising poster, for example at a bus stop , potential readers usually have more time to read detailed texts than if they were just passing by. It's also important to consider whose interest you want to capture with the poster. You know your customers and target audience best and should tailor your content to their specific needs as much as possible.
3. Creating a poster: Sensible scaling
The proportions of titles, logos, and informative text must be coordinated not only with the overall size of the PowerPoint poster but also with each other. Generally speaking, the more important the element, the more space it should occupy on the poster .
Besides keywords and slogans, logos are particularly important elements . They represent the poster's author(s) and serve as a distinguishing feature. Therefore, logos should never be too small or placed too inconspicuously. You can find more information about logo placement here . In the case of a university presentation, you should primarily include your basic information (name, seminar, etc.). Read more about this here .
Avoid overcrowding your posters. Generally, less is more . Use different font sizes to quickly highlight particularly important words. Opt for a simple, easily readable font. You can find more information on choosing the right font here .
4. Correct design - Professional color scheme
Choose a specific main color, a color palette, or at most a handful of well-harmonizing shades to use in your poster design. If it makes sense, feel free to use your company colors, or adapt the color scheme to the content or intention of the poster. Also, select a suitable layout .
If you're advertising agricultural businesses, sustainable energy, or attractive hiking trails, you could use predominantly nature-inspired shades of green and yellow. For a university presentation, however, align your design with your subject matter or opt for less vibrant colors so that the content remains the focus.
You can best highlight keywords, logos, or other eye-catching elements on your poster by using high contrast. In the example above, you could use particularly high-contrast shades of blue for titles and text against a yellow background. The higher the contrast, the stronger the focus on the highlighted element.
How to properly save and print PowerPoint posters
To preserve all the dimensions and fonts of your poster, you should create a PDF file. This way, the PowerPoint poster will look the same on every computer, including the computer of the printing company that will be producing your poster.
To do this, click on the “ File ” tab, then go to “ Export ” and complete the process by clicking the “ Create PDF/XPS document ” button.
Tip: You can easily print your PowerPoint posters at home with a simple trick. PDFs offer the option to print posters in separate sections. You can then assemble the printed sections to create the complete image. To print the PDF, open it, go to the " Print " option, and select the " Poster " option. This will split your poster across multiple A4 pages.
Conclusion: Create PowerPoint posters quickly and easily!
Thanks to the ability to resize your poster, you can create it quickly and easily in PowerPoint. No matter what your PowerPoint poster is for, you can apply our tips from this article and create an eye-catching poster ! Get started today!
Should you need help designing your personal (business/university) poster, please don't hesitate to contact us. With years of experience as a PowerPoint agency, we support you with all issues related to PowerPoint and the act of presenting itself. Feel free to contact us anytime by email at becker@presentationload.de !
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