First in a Three-Part Series on Common Poster Mistakes
Designing and printing your presentation poster is easy. But with a few tips, your results can look professional, persuasive and polished. This week, Mira production specialist Darren Barnes addresses three common poster mistakes and how to avoid them.
Darren Barnes sees hundreds of conference posters every month. Some stand out as stellar works, while others…not so much. “I see three mistakes most often,” says Barnes, Mira’s Production Specialist. “And they’re all easy to avoid.” Barnes calls these frequent problems The Big Three:
- image resolution
- format compatibility
- text-heavy design
Barnes reveals simple solutions to the The Big Three in this series of Mira Smart blog posts. In this first post, you’ll learn the importance of proper image resolution.
Using low resolution images on a poster, quite commonly seen with logos, makes for a fuzzy (aka “pixilated”) finished product. Most presenters grab a logo off the internet, which might look great on a small screen, but can look grainy or jagged when blown up to poster size. The reason has to do with the number of “dots per inch” that make up the image. Basically, the more dots (pixels) per inch of screen, the larger an image can be displayed. The solution, Barnes says, is to ask someone in your marketing department or registrar’s office for a high-resolution image.
Low-Resolution vs. Hi-Resolution
Photos, illustrations, infographics, and all other images likewise should be in high resolution. Barnes recommends uploading images at 300 dpi when viewed at 100 percent or actual size. “It could be a little lower,” he says, “But if you use a 300-dpi image, it will almost certainly come out well.” Most basic image editing software for PCs and MACs allows users to easily identify a photo’s file size.
If you want to preview the quality of your poster before printing, make sure you view the screen image at the true size of print. Your poster design software (PowerPoint, Word, Photoshop…) allows you to view your image at 100 percent or “actual” size. If the images on the poster are clear at the actual size, you can be fairly confident that the finished product will look good. Make sure you view all the images and text on the poster because some might be high-resolution while others may be low-resolution.
If you have any questions, you can call Mira Smart Conferencing at (866) 341-9590 Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm CST.
In the next two posts, Barnes explains how to ensure your poster stands out by making its file format compatible with Mira’s process. The third post will explain how to avoid a major design flaw: the dreaded “wall of text.” Afterall, Barnes says, “Our goal is to get you a good poster.”
