Second in a Three-Part Series on Common Poster Mistakes
Darren Barnes, Mira’s Production Specialist, is guiding us through how to dodge what he calls The Big Three – the most common poster mistakes conference presenters make. In the first post in this series, he explains the importance of using high resolution images – he recommends 300 dpi – for logos, photos and other graphics. In this post he reveals the simple solution to ensuring your poster looks great in its final format.
The second mistake in Barnes’s list of The Big Three – format incompatibility – occurs when elements of your poster look odd when pulled up on a different computer. “We have behavior issues between different machines,” Barnes explains. “The elements don’t flow correctly, sometime fonts don’t convert correctly.” He sees this problem most often with posters made from PowerPoint slides. While the charts and graphics appear exactly where you want them on your computer, they might not work on your printer’s computer. Some fonts can be tricky, especially ones with symbols or Greek letters. If your printing company doesn’t have the exact same specialized font installed, your characters might show up as little white boxes – not, to be sure, the message you intended.
When such format incompatibilities occur, Barnes says, “You’re losing a lot of information.” The solution is simple: Convert your poster to a pdf.
If you’re working from most versions of PowerPoint, converting to PDF just means saving the file as a pdf file type. But no matter what program you use, it’s a good idea to save your finished work as a pdf. You can then preview exactly what the poster will look like on other computers by zooming to 100 percent. The zoomed preview will give you the opportunity to go back and address any problems you see before you pass on a final version. Barnes and associates at Mira can help with any adjustment you want to make.
If you have any questions, you can call Mira Smart Conferencing at (866) 341-9590 Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm CST.
In the next post, Barnes explains how to use simple design tricks to ensure your poster isn’t too text heavy, the third of The Big Three mistakes. After all, Barnes says, “Our goal is to get you a good poster.”
