Creating your poster

Also see here

Keynote

Some templates are located at here. Remember to use Page Setup to change the page size and orientation. The number of pixels can be set in the document pane of the document inspector to ensure high enough resolution.

PowerPoint

LateX

Posters in LateX are easy to make and produce much more reliable output than PowerPoint, for example. You will need the A0poster class installed. Here are two excellent webpages with examples of what you can do:

http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/latex/

http://www.acronymchile.com/poster.html

Here is an example of a LaTeX poster based on the first link, that was presented at NAM 2008. The LaTeX source code can be found here. The poster was created using pdflatex, which allows jpgs etc. to be included. Notably, pdflatex doesn't do ps files, but these can be trivially converted to pdf, as has been done here.

Printing your poster

Now you have created a no-doubt garish poster of which you are most proud, you will want to export it to a PDF ready for printing. You must ensure you have changed the page size to your desired settings. For example, A0 portrait (118.90x84.10cm) with 2384x3370 pixels. This should allow you to read the poster comfortably when blown up to A0.

Printing in Geography

This seems to be the default option. Barry Phillips in the Photographic Unit in Geography can print your A0 poster for £22.50. Some posters printed there are scattered around the department if you want to see a sample. Take the PDF on a USB memory stick to Barry in room C249 in Amory (tel: 4071) or e-mail to b.r.phillips@ex.ac.uk. He can usually print and return the poster the same day if you bring it in early enough, though 24hrs is best to allow the ink to completely dry. Try not to leave it till the last minute, things can easily go wrong and you'll end up leaving without a poster! Sine Barry seems to be the only person in the Photographic Unit, you can't guarantee he'll be there, especially during the summer.

Paying in Geography

If you have a grant code which will pay for the poster take this down with you or e-mail it to Barry. You should be able to get this from the School Office. I'll update this when I have managed to do so...

Printing at the University Print Shop

This is located near Northcote House and the Great Hall. Turn to the right as you face the main entrance of the Great Hall. This seems to be run more as a buisness than Geography so you may find it easier to find someone to print your poster. A0 printing costs £25 (poster tube £1.90). The posters from here and Geography seem to be of the same high quality. As long as they are not busy printing takes ~30 minutes, though you should probably leave it a bit longer to dry completely. The same caveats on not leaving it till the last minute to print apply as above.

See http://www.exeter.ac.uk/printservices.shtml for contact details.

Paying at the University Print Shop

They take card (preferred) and cash. They will give you a receipt with which you can reclaim the money from a grant. They may be able to take a purchase order from the School of Physics. If you manage that, write about it!

Printing at Peninsula Printing

This is a professional printers in town. It seems they are not used to doing individual A0 posters but can do a very good job. They are near the the Iron Bridge and Lower North Street. Costs is around £60-£70 for an A0 poster.

Printing at Service Point UK

This is another professional printers in town near the top of Fore Street. They laminate (plastic applied to single side) and Encapsulate (sealed in plastic - D/S) at A0 size. Exeter University Net Pricing: A0 Laminate - £12.00 ex vat, A0 Encapsulate - £15.00 ex vat, Poster printing - A0 £20.00 ex vat, A1 £12 ex vat. The print quality is very high, certainly better than any of the on-campus options. You generally get a free poster tube as well, although that's not always the case.

Time scales are dependant on the work going through their colour imaging department but lamination is usually a couple of days and encapsulation 3 to 4 days, but they try to accommodate you if you require something quicker. You can email them a PDF and they'll email you back when it's ready to collect and are willing to accept payment on collection.

Printing in IT Services

This is located in the main library. Turn right as you go in the main entrance to the IT Helpdesk. These posters can be printed quickly (again if the one person who can work the A0 printer is around!) but are of a much lower quality than Geography or the Print Shop. A0 printing costs £15 for which you'll get a receipt. I do not think they will take School purchase orders.