Someone walking past at a distance of a few metres should be able to look at the poster and decide whether they want to stop for a closer look. Therefore, the poster needs minimal text and a strong visual impact to draw in the viewer.

Use as little text as possible and present it clearly. To create clean, readable text:

• use only initial capitals; do not write text, titles or headings in full capitals, which are hard to read and can be associated with shouting
• use large enough font sizes – although the actual point size will depend on the font, styling (bold/light/condensed/italic), colour and contrast, a reasonable rule is to use no smaller than 20-point font; if in doubt, print it out and check that it can be read from a few metres away
• use only 3 font sizes (large for the title, smaller for the headings and smallest for the body text).

To create visual impact:

• use design elements, such as lines, boxes and colour, to emphasise points
• use contrasting colours for background and foreground (eg black on white, dark blue on light grey); also remember that some people are colourblind, so avoid red–green or other colour combinations that will not be visible to this audience. Print your poster out in black and white to check that you can distinguish different elements
• in graphs or tables, highlight the important results or main trends to draw the reader’s attention (if interested, the reader can then look at the detail), and check that the results stand out from a few metres away
• if you have more than 1 table or figure, use consistent characteristics, such as font size and heading styles.