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[anon11]

I'm creating a poster for poster session at a conference, and our printing department has asked us to prepare posters with design software as opposed to PowerPoint. Time is limited so I don't want to spend much time learning a new software. There's a steep learning curve with with some Adobe products, I've heard.

Does anyone have any experience with PosterGenius, or have any other suggestions? 

Thanks in advance.

[voxprincipalis]

I'm creating a poster for poster session at a conference, and our printing department has asked us to prepare posters with design software as opposed to PowerPoint.

Hmm... do you know why this is?

If it's because of the kind of file that you send them for printing, then if you want to continue using PowerPoint (about which I make no comments; bad design happens just as much outside of PP as in it), I would just send them the file as a PDF. If you have a version of PP that doesn't print/save to PDF (I'm on a Mac and I don't know what PC versions do or don't do), then the purchase of Adobe Acrobat Professional would solve the problem, as it can make a PDF of just about anything.

Is there a particular format in which they want to receive the files?

VP

[science_expat]

I'm with VP on making a pdf from Powerpoint.

Also, you might check to see if the meeting venue has a facility for printing posters. My annual conference does this and it's cheaper than having the work done in-house and means that I don't have to carry the d@mn thing to the States.

Asking you to learn new software is out of order, IMO.

[anon11]

I'm creating a poster for poster session at a conference, and our printing department has asked us to prepare posters with design software as opposed to PowerPoint.

Hmm... do you know why this is?

Is there a particular format in which they want to receive the files?

VP

I am not sure. We used to have a tech-guru who handled all of this, but the position was cut. If departments don't have their own equipment, the posters are being outsourced to a private company that bid a contract for this work. My guess is that the poster company designer wants to be able to tweak things that might look OK on the screen but would not look good on a poster. 

The person at the company suggested that files be prepared in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Dreamweaver, but these have so many more capabilities than I need, so I'm looking for another quick and easy program.   

[cranefly]

Try Adobe InDesign. 30 day free trial online. It's pretty WYSIWYG... you should be able to figure it out in a night, and it's useful for all kinds of projects.

[sir_lancelot]

I use Adobe Illustrator. If you have used other software that let's you draw and place text boxes etc it shouldn't be much of a problem. My students use Powerpoint and pdf it as well. It's the least trouble for them.

[galactic_hedgehog]

You can also get a free virtual printer like PDFCreator or doPDF to print from any program (say, PowerPoint) directly to a PDF.  Also, OpenOffice.org (which is also free) works very much like PowerPoint and has a built-in PDF exporter.

[frogfactory]

Don't use Photoshop if you can get Illustrator instead.  It'll do in a pinch, but it's the wrong tool for the job.

[anon11]

These seem like great ideas - thanks!

[voxprincipalis]

all of the above will work I use microsoft publisher just because it's included with ms office, my next choice would be photoshop.

REGARDS...

JOHN PETERSON

I love it when spammers forget to include the actual spam.

VP