A poster is read standing, from one to three metres away, often in passing. That changes the rules compared with slides: the title must be readable from across a room, the content must work without a speaker, and the structure must be obvious at a glance — usually three or four columns read top to bottom, left to right.
Step 1: set the poster size
Set the size before anything else. PowerPoint allows custom slide sizes up to 56 inches (142.24 cm) on each side, which covers A0 and the usual US conference sizes.
| Size | Centimetres | Inches | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | 84.1 × 118.9 | 33.1 × 46.8 | Conference posters in Europe |
| A1 | 59.4 × 84.1 | 23.4 × 33.1 | Event and school posters |
| A2 | 42 × 59.4 | 16.5 × 23.4 | Notice boards, small events |
| A3 | 29.7 × 42 | 11.7 × 16.5 | Flyers, office printers |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91.4 | 24 × 36 | US posters |
| 36 × 48 in | 91.4 × 121.9 | 36 × 48 | US conference posters |
Set a custom poster sizeWindows and Mac
Open a blank presentation
Create a Blank Presentation and delete the placeholders on the first slide, or choose Home → Layout → Blank.
A blank slide with the Blank layout Enter the size
Choose Design → Slide Size → Custom Slide Size (Mac: Design → Slide Size → Page Setup). Type the Width and Height from the table, set Orientation to Portrait or Landscape, and click OK.
Custom Slide Size for A0 portrait Check the conference’s rules
Many conferences fix the size and orientation, and some limit the sizes further. If a size exceeds 56 inches, build it at half scale (exactly half both ways) and ask the printer to scale it up 200 %.
Step 2: lay out a grid
A poster needs a visible structure. The classic research poster has a title band across the top, three or four columns below it, and a footer band with logos and references.
Build the poster’s gridWindows and Mac
Show guides
Choose View → Guides and View → Ruler. Drag guides to a margin of about 2 to 3 cm on every side and to the edges of your columns (right-click a guide → Add Vertical Guide).
Guides marking margins and three columns Draw the title band
Insert a rectangle across the top (Insert → Shapes → Rectangle) in your main colour, with the title in a text box on it, and authors and affiliations beneath.
Create section boxes
Draw one text box per section — Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion — inside the columns. Give each a heading in the same style. Use Shape Format → Align and Distribute to keep the gaps equal.
Group what belongs together
Group each section’s heading, text and figures (Ctrl+G / Cmd+Option+G) so you can move a section without breaking it.
Text sizes for posters
| Element | Size |
|---|---|
| Title | 72 to 120 pt |
| Authors, affiliations | 36 to 48 pt |
| Section headings | 40 to 60 pt |
| Body text | 24 to 32 pt |
| Captions and references | 18 to 22 pt |
For A1 scale these down by about a third. Keep the word count low: a research poster usually reads better with a few hundred words than with a thousand. Bullets and short paragraphs beat long abstracts.
Step 3: sharp pictures and charts
A picture that looks fine on screen can print blurred on a poster. Aim for 150 to 300 pixels per inch at the printed size: a photo printed 20 cm (about 8 in) wide needs 1,200 to 2,400 pixels of width. Charts and diagrams made in PowerPoint itself are vector graphics and stay sharp at any size.
Stop PowerPoint from compressing picturesWindows
Open the image settings
Choose File → Options → Advanced and find Image Size and Quality.
File → Options → Advanced → Image Size and Quality Keep full quality
Tick Do not compress images in file and set Default resolution to High fidelity. This applies to the current file; set it before inserting pictures.
Insert originals
Insert pictures from Insert → Pictures → This Device, not by copy and paste from a browser, which often gives a smaller version.
On a Mac the same option is under PowerPoint → Preferences → General or in the Compress Pictures dialog on the Picture Format tab, depending on the version. Insert charts with Insert → Chart rather than as screenshots, and use the theme fonts so the chart text matches the poster.
Step 4: export and print
Export a print-ready PDFWindows and Mac
Proofread at 100 %
Zoom to 100 % (View → Zoom) and scroll the whole poster. Small errors are invisible at the fit-to-window size and very visible on paper.
Export as PDF
Windows: File → Export → Create PDF/XPS, then Options, and choose Optimize for: Standard (publishing online and printing). Mac: File → Export, format PDF, and choose the best quality.
Publish as PDF with Standard optimisation Check the PDF
Open the PDF and zoom into a photo and small text. Confirm the page size in the PDF’s properties matches your poster size.
Send to the printer
Large formats need a print shop or a plotter. Send the PDF, state the size and paper (matte paper avoids glare under lights), and ask for a proof if time allows.
Poster presentation ideas and templates
- Lead with the finding. Make the title the main result (“Short breaks improve recall by a fifth”) rather than the topic.
- One big figure. The most important chart large in the centre column, so it reads from a distance.
- A QR code to the paper, the data or a video, made with a QR add-in or generator and inserted as a picture — test it from a metre away.
- A clear reading path: numbered sections or arrows if the order is not obvious.
- White space between sections; posters crammed to the edge are skipped.
- A handout version on A4 for people who want to take it with them.
For templates, search “poster” under File → New in PowerPoint; many universities also provide poster templates in their branding. Check a template’s size and fonts before you fill it, and replace sample pictures with your own. Our guide to infographics in PowerPoint helps with the visual parts.
Common poster mistakes
- Building at slide size and scaling up. A 16:9 slide stretched to A0 has text sizes and pictures made for a screen. Set the real size first.
- The abstract pasted in full. A dense paragraph at the top of the poster is where readers stop. Write a three-line summary instead.
- Too many fonts and colours. One font family, one main colour, one accent — as on slides.
- Logos competing with the title. Put institution and sponsor logos in the footer band, small and in a row.
- Dark full-colour backgrounds. They use a lot of ink, can print unevenly and make text harder to read under room lights. A light background is the safer choice.
- No contact details. Add your name, an email address and the QR code where people can find them when you are not at the poster.
Ask a colleague to stand two metres from your screen with the poster shown at its real size (or the PDF printed on A4 and held at arm’s length) and to tell you, after thirty seconds, what the poster is about. If their answer matches your title, the poster works.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
Posters and poster talks with ExpertSlides
ExpertSlides makes 16:9 decks, not print posters, so it does not replace the steps above for the poster itself. Where it helps is around it: the short talk you give at the poster session, the slides you show when the poster is presented in a session, and the content. Attach your paper as a PDF and ask for a summary deck — question, method, results with charts, conclusion — and the AI writes it from the paper without inventing figures.
Those slides are also a good draft for the poster: the charts are real charts with their data, and in the PowerPoint export (Pro and Business) you can copy them onto your poster slide in PowerPoint, where they stay sharp at any size.
Related: slide sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels, presenting data, and turning a document into a presentation. Designs for the talk are in Design Templates.
Questions, answered
How do I make a poster in PowerPoint?
Set the poster size with Design, Slide Size, Custom Slide Size, lay out a grid with guides, add a title band and section boxes, use large text sizes and high-resolution pictures, and export a PDF for printing.
What size should a PowerPoint poster be?
Use the size the poster will print at, such as A0 (84.1 by 118.9 cm) or 36 by 48 inches. PowerPoint allows up to 56 inches per side; for larger posters build at half scale and print at 200 percent.
What font size should a poster use?
For an A0 poster, roughly 72 to 120 pt for the title, 40 to 60 pt for headings, 24 to 32 pt for body text and at least 18 pt for captions.
How do I keep pictures sharp on a printed poster?
Use pictures with 150 to 300 pixels per inch at printed size, and in PowerPoint tick Do not compress images in file and set High fidelity under File, Options, Advanced.
Can ExpertSlides make a poster?
ExpertSlides makes 16:9 decks, not print posters. It can turn your paper into a short talk with charts for a poster session, and on plans with PowerPoint export those charts can be reused on a poster in PowerPoint.
