it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop

Research Imaging Solutions [email protected] it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Beth Beighlie Digital Imaging Coordinator Research Imaging Solutions Information Technology Department Harvard Medical School 220 Longwood Avenue Goldenson 521a Boston, MA 02115 (617) 432-2323 [email protected]

Written by Beth Beighlie

Copyright © 2007 by Research Imaging Solutions

Version 1, May, 21 2007

WORKFLOW OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 WORKFLOW: STEP BY STEP .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Creating your ‘storyboard’ to know what your target dimensions are............................................................................... 2 Insert text blocks and edit and format text ............................................................................................................................ 3 Determine target dimension of inserted raster images: inserting image placeholders ..................................................... 4 Determine target dimension of inserted raster images: finding the numbers .................................................................... 5 Edit raster images with Photoshop........................................................................................................................................ 6 Raster Objects: Inserting them into the poster ..................................................................................................................... 6 Vector objects: Paste Specialing them into the poster ......................................................................................................... 7 How to edit vector objects within PowerPoint ..................................................................................................................... 8 Other options for inserting vector objects ............................................................................................................................................. 8

Align, Group, Save and submit .............................................................................................................................................. 9 WHERE TO GET POSTERS PRINTED ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Poster Making with PowerPoint and Photoshop Using PowerPoint is perhaps the easiest way to make a good poster. Most users are familiar with Microsoft Office and can navigate the tools with some confidence. Even easier than making a poster is making a poster that won’t print. What follows are instructions for minimizing the likelihood of an unprintable poster. You will find this process easier if you are familiar with the concepts in the Imaging Essentials guide before beginning making a poster: it.med.harvard.edu/ris and go to Guides & Primers. The following workflow is diagrammed later in this document. Workflow Overview A. Contact the organizers of the poster session to find out the submission guidelines. Find out • the size of your display space • the orientation of the display space (landscape or portrait) • consider making poster slightly smaller so you have somewhere to stand without blocking the view of your poster. B. Open PowerPoint- either a template or start from scratch (find templates at it.med.harvard.edu/ris) • set the Page Setup to the correct dimensions for your poster (if the poster is more than 55” in either dimension, set the Page Set up to one half of the target poster dimension and tell the printer service bureau to print it at 200%.) C. Insert text content into poster • if using a template, insert text content into existing Text Boxes • if starting from scratch, select the Text Box tool from the Drawing Toolbar and insert Text Boxes, then add text content • edit content so the message is conveyed with minimal verbiage • Format content • be sure to leave room left on poster for graphic elements • font should be sized to keep number of words per line to about 12 D. Determine target dimensions for raster images • select the Rectangle Tool from the Drawing Toolbar and insert placeholders where pixel based images will go • double-click image placeholder to determine target physical dimension E. Edit a copy of raster image with Photoshop to meet file type, color mode, resolution, physical dimension, etc. needs. • file type: .jpg, flattened .tif or .png files are acceptable file types • color mode: if there’s color, use RGB; if not, use grayscale • resolution: • if printing at 100%, 125-225 dpi • if printing at 200%, 250-450 dpi • physical dimension: see step D, above (the goal is to use Photoshop to create an image that is exactly the correct resolution and physical dimension you need, so that once you insert it into PowerPoint you only need to adjust placement and annotate. See the Imaging Essentials guide for ways to correctly resize images. You should not resize or otherwise make raster image edits once you have inserted the image into PowerPoint)

F. G. H. I.

Insert edited raster images into PowerPoint Adjust placement and annotate raster images within PowerPoint Paste Special or create vector-based images, if needed Align, Group and Save

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Workflow: step by step Creating your ‘storyboard’ to know what your target dimensions are Find poster templates at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Have you noticed that I keep saying raster image? That’s because you will never need to edit vector-based images in pixel-based editing applications like Photoshop. Vector-based images can be Paste Special-ed into PowerPoint and resized within PowerPoint. Go to the Vector objects: getting them into Office documents section of this document for instructions • •

Open a template or a New Presentation in PowerPoint. Set document size: Set the custom Page Setup size: Menu Bar -> File -> Page Setup…

Maximum Page Setup size is 56” x 56”. (If you need a larger poster, calculate half the desired dimension and insert those values into the size fields. You will then need to double the resolution of your inserted pixel-based images to 250-450 dpi and print the poster at 200%)

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Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop Download additional copies of this handout at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Insert text blocks and edit and format text • Insert, edit, and then format all text: Using the Text Box Tool, insert separate boxes for poster title, sections and captions. • Edit, format & size text (12 words per line is a good target) • Edit all text until you have it just right.

Note: Font choice is important. Choose a versatile, cross-platform font like Ariel, Times, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana or Trebuchet MS.

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Determine target dimension of inserted raster images: inserting image placeholders • Insert Image placeholders: using the Rectangle Tool draw place holder(s) that is (are) the approximate size for you image • Draw rectangles as placeholders for your images after you have all the text placed and edited, and after you know how much room you have for images. These rectangles will determine the size that you will edit your images to. • Be mindful of the aspect ratio of the images you intend to use (are they oriented as landscape or portrait?)

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Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop Download additional copies of this handout at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Determine target dimension of inserted raster images: finding the numbers Determine the target dimension of the images by double-clicking on the image placeholder rectangle to get the Format Auto Shape dialog box. Select the Size Tab. Make a note the size of your image placeholder. You will use these numbers as a physical dimension target when editing your image size.

You do not need to size your image to be exactly the size of the image placeholder rectangle, just use it as a guide- it is likely that you won’t want either dimension of the edited picture to exceed either dimension of the image placeholder rectangle.

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Edit raster images with Photoshop For instructions on properly resizing and editing raster images, see the Imaging Essentials guide at it.med.harvard.edu/ris. Edit a copy of raster image with Photoshop to meet file type, color mode, resolution, physical dimension, etc. needs. • file type: .jpg, flattened .tif or .png files are acceptable file types • color mode: if there’s color, use RGB; if not, use grayscale • resolution: • if printing at 100%, 125-225 dpi • if printing at 200%, 250-450 dpi • physical dimension: see prior step: how to Determine target dimension of inserted raster images: find the numbers (the goal is to create an image that is exactly the correct resolution and physical dimension you need, so that once you insert it into PowerPoint you only need to adjust placement and annotate. You should not resize or otherwise make image edits once you have inserted the image into PowerPoint) For instructions on how to properly resize raster images with Photoshop, see the Imaging Essentials guide, which can be it.med.harvard.edu/ris and go to Guides & Primers.

Raster Objects: Inserting them into the poster Delete image placeholders Insert (do not copy and paste) edited pixel-based images into PowerPoint

Adjust placement, add captions and annotate pixel-based images within PowerPoint

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Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop Download additional copies of this handout at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Vector objects: Paste Special-ing them into the poster You may have created tables, graphs, cartoons or other vector objects (see Images Defined section in the Imaging Essentials document at it.med.harvard.edu/ris) in other applications (Word, Excel or other scientific applications that generate vector objects). You can include these vector-based objects in your figures by using the Paste Special . . . feature. Because they are vector objects do not edit them within the pixel-based Photoshop application- it will rasterize the graphic and make it blurry

Because these type of images are vector objects, you can resize them and make other changes within the original application or within PowerPoint.

A. Go to your source document and select a preexisting vector object (chart, table, graph or other vector object). B. Copy it

C. Go to your target document and Paste Special. . . (using the Menu Bar > Edit > Paste Special. . . )

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Depending on which Paste As…: option you select, you will have different editing features available: some options are appropriate for simple resizing, others will allow you to change font styles and size. The most likely options include Microsoft Document Object, Picture or Styled Text. Try Picture first.

How to edit vector objects within PowerPoint Once you have done a Paste Special to get your vector objects into PowerPoint you may wish to do some minor adjustments on the image. • To resize vector objects, you need only select a selection handle, then click and drag. • To resize the image proportionally, select a corner selection handle and hold down the shift key while clicking and dragging. • There may be a greater degree of control if you Ungroup the vector— for instance, you can make changes to text style and color, fill colors and delete portions of the graphic.

In the Drawing Toolbar, Click on the Draw button to reveal Draw options, including Ungroup

Other options for inserting vector objects The steps outlined above tend to be more reliable, but you can also insert vectors in a way that is similar to inserting raster objects. With Macs you can Insert > Picture > From File… and use .eps files. With both Macs and PCs, you can do the same with Windows Meta Files (WMF).

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Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop Download additional copies of this handout at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Align, Group, Save and submit Access the Alignment Palette from within the Drawing Toolbar Click on the Draw Icon within the Drawing Toolbar. The Draw Icon is the topmost button (or, if you are using Windows OS, the left-most button is the Draw Icon). This will bring up a pull down menu from which you can access the Align Palette. You can ‘Tear Off’ the Align or Distribute Palette by Clicking and Dragging on the top of the Align or Distribute pull down menu. Doing this will allow you to place it on the desktop for easy access. Tear away from Pull Down menu to place the Align or Distribute Palette on your Desktop

Click on double-lines to tear-away any palette

Align • Select the Arrow Tool from the Drawing Toolbar and select multiple objects for alignment • Align objects by clicking on an Align button on the Align or Distribute Toolbar. Be careful that you don’t have the Relative to Slide button pushed

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Grouping Objects • Once done annotating and fine tuning all objects, Select All objects • Group all selected objects

Access the Group/Ungroup option from the Drawing Tool bar

• •

In the Align or Distribute Tool Bar, click on the Relative to Slide Button. Click on the Center Align buttons (there is one for horizontal and another for vertical)

Everything is now centered and your poster is complete!

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Making Posters with PowerPoint and Photoshop Download additional copies of this handout at it.med.harvard.edu/ris

Where to get posters printed Physical Dimension of printable area: check with service bureau For correct resolution requirements, check with service bureau, but usually it’s in the neighborhood of 125-200 dpi for photo images, bitmap images and raster images (with no scanned text or line art within). At least 300 dpi for scanned or rasterized line art, illustrations, vector objects and cartoons. If you have created your poster with PowerPoint and will be printing your poster at 100% of it’s size, the above resolutions will work well. If you are printing at 200% of it’s size, you must double the resolution of any inserted raster images. You must also remember to let the service bureau know that they need to print the poster at 200%. Before you begin making your poster, you need to know what the poster guidelines for the particular session you are attending. You should then contact whoever is printing it and get specific instructions (acceptable applications and file formats; appropriate physical dimensions and image resolutions, turn-around times, etc.). General poster printing instructions can be found at it.med.harvard.edu The following is a list of service bureaus that will print posters. This list is by no means an endorsement, instead it is only suggestion of what’s conveniently available. MakeSigns http://www.makesigns.com/scientific_posters.htm Mega Print http://www.megaprint.com/medical.html Thinkiii http://www.thinkiii.com/ Imagers http://www.imagers.com/poster.html Children’s Hospital Multi-Media Services http://web1.tch.harvard.edu/research/mrrc/mrrcmm/mrrc_multimedia_services1.htm or 617-355-6884 or [email protected]

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