Printing Guidelines

SURF Posters

1. SURF faculty advisors should email Ms. Wirth (bwirth@rmc.edu) the names of their SURF students who will have their posters printed for the Research Day (or SURF Day). The SURF Program pays for the cost, so it is important to inform Ms. Wirth.

2. The size of the poster depends on the board it will be hung onto. SURF posters will be displayed on 56”W x 36”H boards; therefore the PowerPoint slide may not exceed 56” x 36”. Feel free to use our layout template for 56"W x 36"H posters [download].

3. We require 2-business-day notice. Submit your PDF file via the Form. Sign in using your R-MC email and password to access the form (refer to this information for troubleshooting). Do not email your file.

4. No poster will be reprinted, so poster authors must proofread their work carefully prior to submitting the file. 

Non-SURF Posters

Course instructors who require the student presentation be printed on one large poster paper: 
In most cases, the poster size is 48”W x 36”H, the same as the trifold cardboard stand. Some departments prefer 56"W x 36"H, to be hung on the wall. The instructor should email Brian Faggin Batista or Lily Zhang with the information:
A) student names who will submit posters for printing;  B) payment methods - by the department or students.
     Guidelines:

1. The cost of poster printing may be covered by a College office, department or the student. Please email us (see above for details).

2. The size of the poster depends on the board it will be hung onto. The trifold board is 48”W x 36”H (the left panel being 12"W, the central panel 24"W and the right panel 12"W). Your PowerPoint slide may not exceed 48” x 36”. Feel free to use our layout template for 48"H x 36"H posters [download],  or for 56"W x 36"H posters [download].

3. We require 2-business-day notice. Submit your PDF file via the Form. Sign in using your R-MC email and password to access the form (refer to this information for troubleshooting). Do not email your file.

4. No poster will be reprinted, so poster authors must proofread their work carefully prior to submitting the file.

Students who are given the option of printing out individual PowerPoint slides for the poster presentation may use the color laser printers in the Library.

Design of Research Posters

- Read detailed guides on poster design.

- Quick tips:

• We recommend using PowerPoint for creating the large-sized poster.
• Set the PowerPoint slide size to 56"W x 36"H, or 48"W x 36"H.
• Use these PowerPoint features: Ruler and Zoom in/out for poster layout and content details.
• Use visuals (e.g images and graphs) to balance and illustrate the text.
• Stick to clean fonts; text sizes should be large enough for reading from a few yards away;
  • Common sans-serif fonts: Arial and Calibri
  • Title of the poster: large (90 points or up), bold and interesting
  • Text for the headings: 36 points or up
  • Body Text: 24 points or up
• The poster should have no or very light background in order to make the text legible and stand out.
• Use spaces and PowerPoint Shapes to group content and to direct visual flow (refer to the Mock-up below).
• Randolph-Macon College Logos can be downloaded on the Marketing/Communications page.
• Save or export your PowerPoint file to PDF. Submit the PDF file for printing.

 Research Poster Mock-up

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Quick Links:

• Poster Design Tips
• Makerspace Homepage