How to Make a Poster with Your Computer

Remember the days when your homework was making a poster of your state, what grows where, where minerals were found all sorts of thing the teachers would dream up.  It was down to the store to get the poster paper or poster card and then raid the magazines to find the pictures to add to show your theme.  Lots of poster paste, colored markers, pencils or crayons and poster paint to make your poster picture and usually much help from Mom or Dad or both.

Enter the computer and the whole ‘make your own poster’ has become much easier.

Your Supplies

You will need to buy poster paper or poster board.  Some assignments allow for you to present your poster in class via a computer or as a Powerpoint presentation.

The simplest way to make a poster with the help of a computer, is to search the internet for your information and any graphics you need or  you can also scan into the computer any pictures or photos you may already have.  You can set out everything to see how it will look before you print out your information and graphics.  By doing this, you will be able to get what you feel will be the best design.

A few things to remember when setting out your poster.  Your poster needs to be:

Readable,
To make a poster readable is to ensure the ideas flow from one item to the next and it is easy to read.  No grammatical errors, not complex and no misspellings.

Legible,
Make sure to use fonts that are not too small, they need to be read from a distance.  A poster should be able to be read from eight to ten feet away.

Well organized,
You want to grab your audience so don’t have them searching for the next piece of information, organize your information so it is easy to find.

Succinct.
No matter what you do when you are trying to get someone’s attention, you only have seconds to do it.  Make sure your headline or grabber line is prominent so your audience will be forced to stop and think.

Once you are happy with the lay-out, then you can print our everything including the text and paste it to your poster paper to match your design.

However if you are in a graphic design class, then you may be asked for more than this.  If you make a own poster with software, then you will need to print it out and this will require a large printer.  There are print stores and photocopier stores where you can have this done for you.  You will need to burn you poster to a CD and the store can then copy it for you.  Some assignments will state what size the finished poster should be.

Your Software

Most computers today will have Powerpoint installed and unless you need to use a particular piece of software for your course, Powerpoint will more than likely suit your needs to make a poster.  To use Powerpoint fo make a poster, start with a blank slide and set the size you require.  Then all you need to do is, add your headlines, graphics and text where you would like them.  It is easy to experiment, move things around until you are happy with the lay-out and you can do all this without a template.

If your poster is for other than an assignment, it may be a fun thing or something to advertise your business or a function, then by searching online you will find companies where you can make a poster with their graphics and text fonts and have them print and deliver it to you.  You could even download the finished poster to your computer, once again burn it to a CD if it is too large for your printer and have it printed for you.

No matter how you make a poster, there are copyright laws and you must abide by them.  Some sites have free graphics but there are many you have to pay to use.  You can search for these online too, often times they allow students and schools to use them free as long as there is no monetary gain. So it is best not to abuse these site.

There are other ways to make a poster using a computer.  A search online will give you many options to make a poster apart from software programs. You can use Microsoft Word or even Excel.  Excel has the same commands as Word and if you search you will find tutorials on how to make a poster in many ways.

Whatever you choose to make a poster, your own poster remember the basics, make it readable, legible, organize it well and have it succinct and you will have a great poster.