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Poster Submission Guidelines

The Printer

The School of Computing's poster printer is an HP DesignJet 800PS, capable of printing on rolls of paper up to 42 inches wide.

Paper

The school regularly stocks glossy photograph paper rolls in widths of 36 inches and 42 inches.

File Types

We have experience printing Microsoft PowerPoint, Portable Document Format (pdf) and OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Open Document Presentation files. Your uploaded file must have one of the following filename extensions: ppt, pptx, pdf or odp.

Time Required

Though we will print a poster as soon as we reasonably can, we ask that you give us two working days from the time of your upload to produce your finished poster. This should allow us time to schedule some printing time, and to deal with problems that arise occasionally (sometimes with the design of the poster, sometimes with the printer). More lead time may be required for printing multiple posters, as for a conference. If you know that such an event is coming, please speak with your technical support staff about it well in advance.

Submitting Posters

Here is a link to the Poster Upload page.

Cost

If the cost of a poster is to be billed to a faculty member who was an initial contributor to the purchase of the poster printer, that cost is calculated at $2.50 per square foot. Otherwise, the cost is calculated at $5.00 per square foot. Tube containers cost $5.00 each.

Getting Started (Microsoft PowerPoint)

A PowerPoint poster is, in essence, a one-slide slideshow with non-standard dimensions. The program's Page Setup dialogue lets you specify the dimensions of the slide/poster, at least one of which should be close to (but not exceeding) 36 inches or 42 inches. You reach the Page Setup dialogue by way of the Design menu in PowerPoint 2007, and by way of the File menu in older versions. Having thus specified your poster's size, delete the existing text boxes ("Click to add title" and "Click to add subtitle") and start adding your own elements. Here is a template for a poster measuring 24 inches wide by 36 inches tall: poster24x36blank.ppt.

Common Pitfalls

  • Submitting posters late. (See "Time Required," above)
  • Neglecting to make one of the poster's dimensions (close to but not exceeding) 36 inches or 42 inches;
  • Failing to take into account the resolution of bitmaps (of, for example, the Queen's coat of arms), which may look fine in miniature on a screen, but highly pixelated when printed out;
  • Using non-standard fonts;
  • Submitting posters that are "object-rich". (See "Avoiding Problems With 'Object-Rich' Files," above.)

WARNINGS

  • The ink used by our poster printer is water soluble and will smudge easily when touched.
  • Posters printed on our poster printer have been known to fade considerably over time.

Contact

Questions about poster printing should be directed to Richard Linley.