Poster Software

ZorbaTehZ

So what software are people using for scientific posters atm? Personally I'm using Scribus for the design and Inkscape for the graphics. Any other recommendations/suggestions, particularly any open-source ones?

Red Alert

I used LaTeX to make two posters for conferences - the 'sciposter' class has what you need. Have you played with LaTeX at all?

2Scoops

Mostly use Adobe CS, but I'm sure Powerpoint or its OpenOffice equivalent would handle most simple posters. My philosophy is that it's the science that matters; I don't think I've ever left a conference thinking, 'Boy, that was an aesthetically pleasing, well-designed poster! I wonder what desktop publishing software he/she used??" :pac:

djpbarry

2Scoops wrote: »

Mostly use Adobe CS, but I'm sure Powerpoint or its OpenOffice equivalent would handle most simple posters.

I used PowerPoint to create a poster a while back but have since moved on to LaTex - there is simply no comparison. MS applications are an absolute pain for type-setting and manipulating graphics.

2Scoops wrote: »

My philosophy is that it's the science that matters; I don't think I've ever left a conference thinking, 'Boy, that was an aesthetically pleasing, well-designed poster! I wonder what desktop publishing software he/she used??"

I completely disagree. You can have some terrific results and data, but they can easily get lost in a badly designed (or even boring) poster/presentation. When it comes to poster sessions, grabbing people's attention is half the battle.

2Scoops

djpbarry wrote: »

You can have some terrific results and data, but they can easily get lost in a badly designed (or even boring) poster/presentation. When it comes to poster sessions, grabbing people's attention is half the battle.

Fair enough, but if your results are worthless, a well-designed poster won't change that. And no matter how badly designed or 'boring' the poster, if you have terrific results, it will apparent to educated people.

Sparks

2Scoops wrote: »

Fair enough, but if your results are worthless, a well-designed poster won't change that. And no matter how badly designed or 'boring' the poster, if you have terrific results, it will apparent to educated people.

Tufte would disagree...

2Scoops

Yes, well, I'm sure he would. I'm not arguing that you can't make a great poster better by making it well-designed or attractive. I'm simply saying that it's not a deal breaker. If you invent the cold fusion reactor and show me your results, I won't care if you do it in LaTeX or not.

Sparks

Well, maybe. But if I was trying to show you that the Geometrically Intrinsic Nonlinear Recursive Filter was a more stable and more accurate predictor than the Extended Kalman Filter, or if I was trying to explain what that even was, I think you'd appreciate a modicum of thought going into the presentation of the data and the theory and the math. Just saying.

Red Alert

I think the presentation does matter - if someone couldn't be bothered making a decent attempt at showing their results in an easy or interesting way then they mustn't think too much about their work - or they don't care that it's not accessible to the audience.

2Scoops

I completely agree with both comments directly above, but that has far more to do with your own creativity and presentation ability than what software you use.

drzhivago

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

So what software are people using for scientific posters atm? Personally I'm using Scribus for the design and Inkscape for the graphics. Any other recommendations/suggestions, particularly any open-source ones?

USe powerpoint but important to ask and to change the dimensions of ths slide to fit the allocated size for tha poster

Recently changed to PAGES on the mac and it is much more intuitive to use than powerpoint for slides, good for backgrounds etc