Make a Poster

A poster is an excellent way to get your point across quickly. We'll show you a few ways to get started making a poster with PowerPoint, by hand, and with Photoshop.

Steps

Sample Posters

Doc:Birthday Party Flyer,Student Council Campaign Poster,Event Flyer

Make a Poster By Hand

  1. Get out your coloured pencils! Making a poster by hand can be a lot of fun, and there are no real rules to follow. We'll show you a couple things that will help your poster look great.
  2. Get a blank piece of paper or poster board. When you are creating a poster by hand, there's no real limit to how big it can be.
  3. Make 3 light lines. A little bit down from the top, draw a line across the paper. This will be where you'll put your title. Do the same a little bit up from the bottom. This is where you'll put information about things you want people to do next: a number to call, a date for an event, or a "call to action" like "Buy our cookies!"
  4. Make a heading. Using your pencil, lightly draw the words in the heading.
    • For example, if you're doing a poster for Earth Day, you might put something like that at the top.
    • By drawing out the letters with light pencil first, you'll be able to adjust so that the size is right. If it's too big or too small, erase and start again. This is just a guideline, so don't worry about making it perfect.
  5. Make a footer. Do the same on the bottom—lightly draw in pencil what you want to say on the bottom, using the line as a guide.
  6. Fill in the middle. Whatever the primary idea of your poster is, it goes in the middle. For our Earth Day poster, we'll do a picture of earth. The same thing goes if it's a student council poster (your picture) or any other topic. You may have a collage or a single picture, so just sketch in lightly where things will go.
  7. Fill it in! Now that you have your poster all planned out, and you're sure it looks like how you want it to look, carefully draw in the letters with marker or colored pencil or crayon—however you want to add color to your text.
    • Remember that very light colors on a light background will be hard to read.
    • If you're doing a collage, cut out and glue on any pictures you will be using.
  8. Post your poster! This was a general guideline, so feel free to experiment. Most of all, have fun making your posters.
  9. Finished.

Make a Poster on PowerPoint

  1. Launch PowerPoint. Open a blank PowerPoint document. While not as flexible as a full-fledged graphics editor such as Photoshop, PowerPoint is a very capable application.
  2. Change the slide orientation to portrait. The default layout is landscape, but since posters are usually portrait, let's go ahead and change this.
  3. Choose a slide layout. The default layout is usually just a title and subtitle, but other options include a title with an image, a title and two images, and blank. This example uses the picture with caption layout.
  4. Choose a slide theme. PowerPoint has ready-made themes that can be used as-is, or customized.
    • If you don’t like the themes available, more are available online. Note that you can also use a theme as a template and then heavily modify it.
  5. Add visual content. Click within the content boxes to add images, charts, or even drawing boxes for you to draw inside.
    • If you're adding a photo, browse to a saved photo on your computer and click Okay or Insert.
  6. Add a title. Click in the appropriate box and add text. Don't forget, this is a key selling feature, so make your title catchy, big, and bold.
  7. Add secondary information. Click in the appropriate box (or insert a new text box) and add text. Keep it clear and concise but convey as much of the important information as you can, including details, what, when, and where.
  8. Finalize the slide. Edit text, adjust the font size or spacing, change colors, sizes, or borders, etc. Print the completed poster!

Make a Poster with Photoshop

  1. Fire up the computer. By far the easiest and most effective way to create a poster is with your computer and a graphics application such as Photoshop, which we'll use for our first example. If you don't have Photoshop, there are a number of other alternatives, including GIMP and Pixlr, both of which are free. While the steps here are specific to Photoshop, most graphics applications will have the same, or similar functionality.
  2. Fire up Photoshop. When it's fully loaded, create a new document, and use the following specifications:
    • Width: 8 inches (20.3 cm)
    • Height: 10.5 inches (26.6)
    • Resolution: 300pixels/inch
    • Color Mode: CMYK
    • Background Contents: White
    • What we've set up is a page the size of a standard letter-sized piece of paper, at 300dpi (pixels per inch) so that it will be nice and crisp when it's printed. We chose CMYK for the Color Mode, because printers are designed to use those ink colors, whereas monitors are designed to use RGB. If your graphics app does not support CMYK, don't worry—the colors you print out will not be exactly the same as on screen, but they'll still look great.
    • Note that if you have access to a large-format printer, like the kind you can find at most print shops like Kinkos, you don't have to stop at normal paper size. Give the print shop a call and ask them what is the maximum paper size they can print, and size your document accordingly.
  3. Choose a background color. Make it bright and eye-catching, but not so bright that it will overwhelm the message. Don't worry if it doesn't work—you can always change it later. If the poster is for a particular event, you can use a color scheme to match. For example, your school colors might be maroon and gold, and gold would make a nice, bright background.
  4. Add pictures or graphics. If you're not confident of your drawing or illustrating skills, look online for images in the public domain that you can use or alter for your work.
  5. Choose a memorable main message. Place this message in large lettering that will attract attention. More detailed information can also be added in smaller lettering.
    • Make the poster easy to read. Consider your font color and size, and whatever you do, do not mix more than 2 or 3 different fonts together.
  6. Add the secondary information. Now that you're got their attention, it's time for the "fine print," as they say. If there's a secondary message, make that as strong as the headline. It may be a longer phrase, so you may have to shrink the font a bit. But keep it concise. The fewer things your poster tries to convey, the stronger the message!
    • Notice as the text got smaller, there were fewer embellishments. At top, there is a strong yellow border. In the "Wear a Tie Week" section, the font is smaller, and the border is much thinner. Finally, the dates have no border or shadow at all.
    • Also not the spacing of the fonts: everything is centered left to right, and within their sections top to bottom. It's important to keep things aligned for a smooth, professional appearance. Of course, if that's not your goal—go crazy!
  7. Proofread the poster. Have your information checked by a fresh set of eyes, such as a friend or teacher. (If it’s a professional poster, find someone with expertise in the subject. It might be someone who works or volunteers in a non-government organization or public office, for example.) Be sure to spell-check the information as well.
    • Include an address or other contact information. If the poster is directing people to an event, be sure to include the event address. If it’s meant to be informational, include contact details (such as a phone number or an e-mail address) so that people can learn more.
  8. Put up your posters. Try to find locations where lots of people will pass by but where they will not get lost in the crowd.

Tips

  • Use nice bright colors and contrast to get attention. Black on white or white on black or blue look great. Avoid bright letters on bright backgrounds like yellow letters on white paper.
  • Take time to organize the poster to effectively present your ideas.
  • Use glitter pens, markers, oil pastels and colour pencils to make your work look bold and colourful.
  • Write text in complementary shades.
  • The organizations involved in the issue you are supporting may have posters that you can use for ideas and public events.
  • Don't go overboard with the images; they can be an eyesore.
  • Do what you want but plan it out first so it doesn't look bad.

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  • Create a Summer Holiday Poster
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