How to Prepare your Poster?

General Guidelines

PDF is the ONLY File-Format we accept

From your software of choice, please save/convert/export as PDF. PDF usually captures/include many information such as font and images within the file.

Expediting the process

Tho expedite the process, we do recommend for you to come to our store and we can double check everything before printing. This will ELIMINATE most questions that may arise when we're printing it. Starting from size, quality, margin, color, etc.

Image Quality

Please ➡️ download FREE Adobe PDF Reader from adobe to review your exported PDF and 🔎 zoom in 100%. UCI Logo, Department's logo, supporter's logo, and other images you download from the web may not be the best quality. Please be sure before submitting to us that that is how you wanted it. FYI - Make sure when you export, the software of your choice may/may not compress your image(s).

Size Check!

Now that you already downloaded the Adobe PDF reader above, do a simple "Control-D" on Windows or "Cmd-D" on a Mac to check the size. If it is not 48" x 36" or the size that you want, you may have to go back and update the poster design size.

Please see below:

NOT Too Close to the Edge

Please give content (text, logo, sample images) at least 0.5" distance from the edge of the poster. If you have a solid-color background, it is OK. "Just the content"

Content Quality Assurance

Before submitting, please check for typos and everything else. If you're using a software that has spell-check, beware of the red squiggly lines. It is very likely to show on the exported PDF.

Color

Please set color to CMYK. This option might not be available if the software is designed for screen use only. If it is saved as RGB, color will have a slight color change.
Color accuracy may not be able to duplicated from how you see it on your screen. Expect color shades be different.

Image & Poster Resolution

Please set to 150 DPI (minimum) - 300 DPI (maximum) as image resolution.

File Naming Convention

It'll be easier for us if you save it with this format: youruciusername@uci.edu-48x36.pdf

so basically: <uciid@uci.edu>-<size>.pdf

Multiple files? <uciid@uci.edu>-<size>-<#>.pdf

Power Point

This is the software of choice for most students

Starting from a blank page? Set it first to 48" x 36" before putting your content in.
When downloading/re-using a template and before you're too far ahead creating your content, make sure to check the poster size is 48" x 36" by going to Design > Slide Size > Custom Size > Width: 48" x Height: 36"
Export to a PDF [ 👉 Instruction]