Poster Format Options
- Nine-panel poster made from standard US Letter paper, printed in color and glued to a blue panel
- Medium-format poster measuring 36” x 24”, printed on the library plotter (free)
- Large-format poster measuring 40” x 30” landscape, printed remotely (for a fee)
(maximum possible size: 48” wide by 36” tall).
General Instructions
Students are strongly advised to discuss their poster format with their advisers. Examples of posters from the previous year's research fair are displayed around the Kostos Building and in the lower level of the library. Regardless of which format students choose, the poster should be hung by Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. of the week of the fair to give judges time to assess the posters. Materials for hanging the posters are held at the front desk of the library. The student will then stand beside their poster during the main session on Thursday, April 16 from 11:15 a.m.–1:15 p.m. to answer questions from judges and other students and faculty.
While the Research Committee feels that standardization of posters is preferable, they recognize that these formats may not lend themselves to projects from all academic disciplines. For this reason, the Research Committee will allow for variations on the general format as needed. Students who need special equipment (such as a computer) will be accommodated to the best of our ability, but it is up to the student to make us aware of this need as soon as possible. It should be noted that a computer will not be allowed in the poster presentation unless it is actually necessary (such as projects that involve development of a computer program). Students may not use a computer simply to enhance the presentation of material that can be adequately displayed on the poster.
Students who wish to keep their projects are welcome to remove them from the cork boards (Students cannot keep the cork boards; they are re-used each year.) one week after the fair. We request that students not remove their posters immediately after the fair as we typically like to display the posters for at least several days following the event to allow viewing by as many people as possible.
PowerPoint Instructions
When you create a poster using any of the options below in PowerPoint, you must set the size of your display area. Each version of PowerPoint varies, but for PowerPoint 2016, follow these instructions:
- Open PowerPoint and select “Blank Presentation”; you can add a background later
- At the top, select “Design” and locate “Slide Size” at the far right side. If you don’t see “Slide Size” select “Customize” and then “Slide Size”
- From the drop-down menu, choose “Custom Slide Size”
- Make sure “Widescreen” is selected as well as “Landscape” for Slide Orientation
- Enter the size of your poster, depending on which option you choose from below:
a. 11 in width, 8.5 in height (nine-panel)
b. 36 in width, 24 in height (medium-format)
c. 40 in width, 30 in height (or 48” x 36”) (large-format) - On the next screen, choosing either maximize or scale to fit are fine assuming you have not added content
- The resulting slide will look like a normal slide, but it’s big! Make sure you scale down your images and text so that they are not too large (a font size of 24-28 is about the smallest you should consider if you want it to be visible).
Option 1: Nine-panel poster
The nine-panel “poster" should be presented in 9 sections, each a standard sheet of paper (8.5” x 11”) in landscape orientation (wide, not tall). The student creates these sheets using whatever method they see fit (typically using PowerPoint) and attaches these sheets to an 11” x 14” sheet of blue poster board (provided by the Research Committee at the library desk). Posters should only be assembled horizontally on the bulletin boards (not vertically) to accommodate our hanging system.
Option 2: Medium-format poster
The medium-format poster has a maximum height of 24” but can be any width. However, to avoid odd aspect ratios, we recommend a 36” x 24” size. These posters can be made in PowerPoint and brought to the library on a USB flash drive. The printing takes about five minutes and you can wait to see how it comes out. These prints are free, and should be hung upstairs immediately. Please give the library adequate time to print the poster (i.e., don’t wait until Monday morning of the fair to print!).
Option 3: Large-format poster
The large-format poster has a maximum height of 36” and a maximum width of 48” (to accommodate our poster boards). Therefore, we recommend making your poster either 40” x 30” or 48” x 36”. These posters can be made in PowerPoint and sent to a printing shop such as Staples, or the Engineering Copy Center at University Park. Note that this printing takes time and must be shipped, so please give adequate time to account for this. See this link for details on cost from the Engineering Copy Center: http://www.ae.psu.edu/academics/resources/engineering-copy-center/large…
Posters can be printed locally through Citizen Publishing Company, 262 N. Cedar Street in Hazleton. Again, please allow adequate time for the printer to get your poster in their job queue. Call 570-454-5911 from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for more information. The 40" x 30" poster is $25; 48" x 36" is $35.