Skip to Main Content

Tech Tools and Tips

This guide provides an overview of a variety of tools for creating and editing video, audio and print materials. In addition, tools to help with research and organization are also included. Check back periodically for updates.

Create a Poster

Canva

  • Canva is a great tool to create online and printable visual content. You can create posters, flyers, infographics, social graphics, postcards and many other things.
  • Canva is a free tool, though certain options and graphics require an upgrade. Most projects can be made with the free tools and content provided, and you may also upload your own images and graphics to use in your project.
  • To create a poster in Canva, choose the custom dimensions option, change the dimension settings to inches (in), and set the width and height to the desired size. Canva allows for project sizes up to 52" x 52".

custom size dimension menu

Once you've created your poster, be sure to download it as  PDF - Print.

Canva - Save file as PDF

PowerPoint

PowerPoint Slide Size Setup

PowerPoint can also be used to create a printable poster. You will need to create a new presentation and set up a custom size. To do this you will need to:

  1. Create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint.
  2. From the Design tab, select Slide Size.
  3. Select the Custom Slide Size option from the dropdown menu and then setup the width and height.
  4. Click OK.

 

Publisher

Publisher can also be used to create a poster. To do this you will need to:

  1. Select the More Blank Page Sizes option.
  2. Select the Create a new page size option and then set your width and height in inches.
  3. Click OK.

Presentations Setup

Sizing and Importing

Some online tools will save in inches, but some will save in pixels. When working with a larger printable poster size, you will want to make sure that images saved as pixels will be large and good quality for print.  To do this you will need to understand the relationship between pixels and images in relation to DPI (dots per inch). Most quality printed items will be at least 300 DPI (many may be 600 or even 1200 DPI).

Let’s say you have created a graph using an online application and you want to save it to import it into your poster project. For this example the graph should measure 10” x 8” at 300 DPI.

To figure out the correct pixels for use in your project, you will multiply the inches by the DPI:

10” x 300 = 3000px

8” x 300 = 2400px

Your image will need to measure 3000px by 2400px.

To calculate these automatically, you can use a free online calculator - Printing and Scanning Resolution DPI / PPI Calculator

Poster Examples

You may want to review some samples of research posters and infographics to get a better idea about how best to fuse the data and information pieces with the visual parts.

Images and Graphs

Free Graph Creator

Copyright Free Images for Presentations

Calculator:

Help