Poster Printing

How do I print a poster?

Follow the instructions below. Laminated copies are available in the Media Commons itself.

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  instructions for printing large format posters from preview - page 1
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  instructions for printing large format posters from preview - page 2

What should the dimensions of my poster be?

Most posters are 35”x48” (Sigma Psi), but some are larger (35” x 60” or even bigger).  You always need to make sure that your print size is 1" smaller than the width of the paper roll you intend to use.  So for a 44" roll, you should set that dimension to 43" or less, for the 36" roll, set it to 35" or less, but zero the margins in your page setup so you can use all of the space you have. The print processing system will automatically rotate your image to use the least paper possible.  Feel free to check with a Creative Media Commons Consultant (student employee) if you're worried about how something will print out.

Can I print personal work?

Printing personal work is not permitted.  You may print anything that is for a curricular purpose.

How do I design a good poster?

Take one of Doug Willen's workshops and read Colin Purrington’s blog post on poster design.

What software should I use for creating a poster?

We recommend Adobe InDesign.  It's specifically designed as a page layout tool for manipulating (primarily) text.  Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are ok.  InDesign is better for text-heavy posters.  Illustrator is better for scalable graphic posters and Photoshop is best for photographic works. Though possible to use PowerPoint or Google Slides, we recommend against doing so -- those programs are for projected presentations and are very limited for poster work.