Skip to Main Content

Designing Academic Posters: Images and Graphs

Using Images

Using images on your poster

Use pictures that are:

  • Relevant – reinforce the topic with pictures, clarifying concepts, etc.
  • Consistent – use the same style, colour palette, camera angle, lighting, filters, people, etc.
  • Include people – images of people generate more interest (if their use is appropriate).

Suggested file formats:

  • JPEG - good for photos; no transparency.
  • PNG - line art, clip art; offers transparency.

Proper resolution is important!

Remember, your poster will be 24" x 46" (or larger) in size. Images will also be large!

  • High-resolution photos mean they are not pixelated / do not appear fuzzy when enlarged.
  • Use 300 dpi resolution for printing.
  • You can gauge adequate resolution and size by looking at the file size of an image. Use images that are at least 2MB in size to ensure high quality.
A close-up of a woman's hands playing the piano.
This photograph of a woman's hands playing a grand piano demonstrates a high-resolution image. The piano and the woman's hands are fully in focus. There is a red circle on the sheet music she is reading. Two red lines connect the music sheet to a zoomed-out view of the music in a second red circle. The notes are clear and are able to be read when zoomed out.
A close-up of a woman's hands playing the piano.
This same photograph of a woman's hands playing a grand piano demonstrates a low-resolution image. The piano and woman's hands are much blurrier in the full view of the image. The edges of the piano keys and the floral pattern on the woman's blouse are jagged. The zoomed-out view of the sheet music is blurry and pixellated. While it can be read, it is much more difficult to do so.

Using Graphs and Charts

Using graphs, charts, and tables on your poster

  • Follow the general guidelines of simplicity, design your charts, graphs, and tables without any complicating elements.
  • Remove unnecessary labeling, shading, backgrounds, or colour gradients.
  • Highlight important elements and values.
Good example
An example of a well-formatted chart.
This chart is easy to read. The background is white, the data columns are clearly defined with solid colors, and axes are colored and labelled well.
Bad example
An example of a poorly-formatted chart.
The chart background color is a dark black and gray gradient which makes it lower-contrast. The columns on this chart use different textured backgrounds (crumpled paper, gravel, wood grains) which are distracting to the eye and detract from the data. Due to the dark background, the lines of the axes are illegible.