Academic Poster Design and Printing Guide

Choose a Poster Template

Choose one of our available academic poster templates to create your poster.
Type your poster content into a Word document, proofread it, and then copy and paste your content into the poster template.

Please note: Clearinghouse requests the use of one of the templates provided above in order to ensure your design meets their requirements.

Our templates use the following poster structure: introduction – research goal – methods – figures and results – conclusion – acknowledgments – references. The text in the headers can be changed to suit your project.
The NIU logo is not editable.

Choose legible fonts (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, Garamond).
Use bold or italics to emphasize a point. Underlined words can be more difficult to read.

Contrast is important. Use dark font colors on light backgrounds and light font colors on dark backgrounds (easiest to read).

Your poster tells a story and conveys your takeaway message, but avoid overcrowding your poster with content.
Use of bullets and short phrases helps keep your content concise and easy to follow.
Use graphics (i.e., figures, photos, graphs, charts) to convey most information.
Avoid using images directly from the web. The quality may be poor and may not print clearly.
Ethically use copyrighted materials or find openly licensed content. Contact your subject specialist librarian if you have questions or need help finding free-to-use images.

Save as a PDF.
Select "export" from the PowerPoint drop-down menu.
File must be no larger than 10MB in size.
File name should include your last name and keyword/s from the poster title (e.g., Reilly_PeerModeling).