Let me help you! Invite me to your lab or business where you can get directed, hands-on, instruction! Or you can download a self-paced tutorial that you can go through on your own. Additionally I am providing proven poster templates for both Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft PowerPoint (.zip).
Tutorial: Learning the basics of Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft PowerPoint
This tutorial was created using a Mac but it will also work if you are using Windows. Just use the Control key where it says Command key, and use the Atl key intstead of the Option key. You will also need to download these sample files (4.3 MB zip file) that are used in the tutorials.
This tutorial will give you all the basics you need to create an effective scientific poster using either Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft PowerPoint. It includes using two hands at the same time to control both the keyboard and the mouse, essential shortcuts, special function keys, and all items listed below:
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Basic Adobe Photoshop page 3
Open, Marquee tool, Move tool, Cropping images, Histograms - adjusting grayscale levels
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Adobe Photoshop – Bitmap channels page 7
Grayscale verses RGB images, Channels palette
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Basic Adobe Illustrator page 9
Open, Place, Zoom, Text, Shift-Option, Arrow keys, Selection tools, Rectangles, Fill & Stroke
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Adobe Illustrator - Graphing page 15
Complex Selections, Option Double-Click, Shift Arrow Keys
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Vector (Illustrator) vs. Bitmap (Photoshop) page 20
Two very different kinds of image file formats
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Images from PDF files page 21
There are two different kinds of PDFs, image PDF verses vector PDF
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Correctly inserting images into Microsoft PowerPoint page 23
Converting vector to image format, correctly calculating dpi and size
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Saving a ray file from PyMOL – Presentation page 30
Correctly calculating dpi and image size
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Saving a ray file from PyMOL – Poster page 31
Correctly calculating dpi and image size
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Creating a poster in Adobe Illustrator page 33
Poster size artboard, Formatting, Font sizes, Layout, Text boxes, Leading, Placing images, Rectangles, Adding color to fills, Strokes
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Minimum rules for poster layout and presenting poster information page 39
Author identity, Headings, Traffic flow, Appearances, Balance between images and text, Layout, Basic coloring, highlighting
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Poster examples page 43
Three sample posters
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Printing your poster (proof) page 44
Scaling when printing
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Creating a poster in Microsoft PowerPoint page 47
Poster size artboard, Formatting, Font sizes, Layout, Text boxes, Leading, Placing images, Rectangles, Adding color to fills, Strokes
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Converting a PowerPoint talk to a PowerPoint poster page 54
Slide Masters, Arranging multiple Windows
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Tips for effective scientific presentations pages 56-57
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Color basics – What is color? What colors do I use? pages 58-59
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Tips for visualizing science data page 60
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PyMOL colors page 60
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Posters – What the audience wants page 61
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FREE proven Poster templates (.zip)
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