Technical Help
We provide these helpful tips as a resource for you. If you don’t
find the information you’re looking for, please give us a call 846-1055
or e-mail us at spgm@ncifcrf.gov.
Tips for Preparing Presentation Materials
No matter what kind of visual presentation materials you’re preparing,
some basic good design principles apply.
For All Materials:
Color
Choose a simple color theme, and use it consistently throughout your
materials. It often works well to choose a main text color, and an accent
color or two. Always make sure that your color choices don’t distract
from your message
Fonts
If your materials will ever be used on another computer, or sent to
an output device through another computer, font substitution problems
can occur. We recommend that you use common fonts, especially TrueType
fonts, and if the option is available, embed them in the file.
For Scientific Posters:
Fonts
Large amounts of text - Serif fonts like Times and Times New Roman
are more readable for large blocks of type. Save the bold or fancy fonts
for your title and headlines. For posters, try to keep the body text
at least as large as 20 points tall.
Headlines – Helvetica and Arial were specifically designed to
be headline typefaces, and they’re very good for that purpose.
They also look very good in color, because of their simple design and
solid strokes.
PowerPoint Posters
For Onscreen (PowerPoint) Shows or Slides:
Brevity
Avoid paragraphs of text, and even full sentences, wherever possible.
Use keywords and phrases. You want your audience listening to you –
not straining to read the screen.
Fonts
We recommend using a sans-serif font like Arial for most text in onscreen
shows and slides. This is because the tiny thick and thin strokes of
serif fonts (which make them more readable in print) don’t hold
up well when projected. In this case, save the serif fonts, like Times
New Roman, for use as headlines, where they can be used at a larger
size.
PowerPoint Onscreen Shows
Multi-piece posters
The benefits of a multi-panel poster are that it is usually quick
and inexpensive to produce and it can travel flat, usually in your briefcase
or ordinary luggage, whereas one-piece posters have to be packed separately,
in a tube or box.
We can produce a multi-piece poster for you, from your text and images,
or help you turn your onscreen PowerPoint presentation into a poster.
In either case, bring us your Microsoft Word, Word Perfect and/or PowerPoint
files.
- If you build your presentation in PowerPoint, it’s best to
use TrueType fonts. If you use a PC, be sure to select the “embed
fonts” option on the “save” options tab under “tools”.
- You should change the page layout size to the actual size you want
your poster panels to be printed – usually 8-½”
x 11” (letter) or 11” x 17” (tabloid). This way
you can take best advantage of the actual size and proportion of the
page you’ll be working with.
- Remember to take into account the extra space (usually ½”
all around) taken up by the mounting board.
- Default paper sizes aren’t always space efficient. If you
know the size of the display board you’ll be assigned, it’s
a good idea to figure out how your panels will fit on the board. Sometimes
it works best to plan for a custom panel size to take best advantage
of the space.
Poster Titles
We can make your poster title in color or black and white, and it
can be made to roll up, or to fold flat.
- Bring us your text file and your size and space requirements.
- If you’re planning a multi-piece poster that you know will
be a tight fit, we can help you plan how to fit your panels together,
and make your title a custom size which will take best advantage of
the space available.
- If you’re producing your own poster panels, we’ll do
our best to match your fonts and colors. Just tell us what you need!
|
