Software for posters?
By xpectro at Wed, Jun 13 2007 7:05am |
Hi All,
I was looking at the science posters from WWDC 2006, and, besides the interesting topics, some of the layouts are really cool.
I'd appreciate if you could tell me if there is specific software for making posters.
thanks.
Pablo
Keynote
I personally use Keynote to prepare my posters. I find it extremely convenient to use for this purpose.
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I'm not telling you that you should believe me. Learn the facts, and the origins behind the facts, and make up your own damn mind. That's why you have one.
Keynote
Apple supplied keynote templates for the posters, so I think most people probably used Keynote.
Drew
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Drew McCormack
http://www.maccoremac.com
http://www.macanics.net
http://www.macresearch.org
OmniGraffle
While I know many people who use PowerPoint (and/or Keynote) for making posters, I find it a bit clumsy -- units in Keynote are in pixels, not inches or centimeters. It's really optimized for on-screen display.
I much prefer to use OmniGraffle () which easily exports to PDF or other graphics format, and has all the nice features from Keynote (alignment lines, shadows, etc.) and then some.
One feature I really like from OmniGraffle is "magnets" to connect diagrams. The connection lines will stay connected even if you adjust the diagram pieces. There are also a huge variety of OmniGraffle stencils.
There are also layers, so you can lay out the "framing" of a poster, lock that layer, create a new layer for the text and figures, and not have to worry about selecting the title or author list while editing.
Once upon a time (i.e., when I bought my PowerBook G4), Apple included OmniGraffle with Macs. Now, I think fewer people know about it, but it's my secret weapon for presentations and posters.
Great product
I agree that OmnniGraffle is a GREAT tool. I use it only for diagrams, graph and similar things, but I'll try the poster approach next time I'll have to prepare one.
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I'm not telling you that you should believe me. Learn the facts, and the origins behind the facts, and make up your own damn mind. That's why you have one.
OmniGraffle
I concur also. The Omni* apps - OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner - came bundled with my PowerBook in 2002 and I have used them, professionally and personally, since then. I'm sorry to hear that they are no longer included. When I know that someone is using a Mac, I have been sending the full files. I guess I'll have to be more careful.
Adam
Most people (around me) seem to use MS PowerPoint ..
Hi Pablo,
my colleagues all seem to use *** MS PowerPoint *** (all of them on Windows PCs) for their posters
advantages:
- you can connect graphical objects "dynamically" by the connector lines
- everyone knows how to use it (or at least thinks he does)
- templates for posters are often made with PPT
drawbacks
- only 2 layers (slide master in the background and the "normal" layer)
- no automatic hyphenation (especially painful when you have small columns with text which look extremely ragged)
- problems with graphics quality
Up to now I always made my posters with PowerPoint (and a bad feeling that this is not good at all), but as I already had the old poster as a basis and always did not have much time, I stuck with this approach. :-(
Some colleagues seem to use Corel Draw not only for graphics but for creating the whole posters.
I thouhgt about the following alternatives:
A "real" layout software like ** Adobe Indesign ** should be better suited for such a task - especially for text flowing from colum to column, arranging of objects, ...
(OmniGraffle might also be an interesting alternative, but as it does not run on my PC at work, I can't use it for something like that).
Maybe, RagTime could also be an alternative.
For those who prefer free software:
What about Scribus (www.scribus.net)? It is not as intuitive as the Adobe apps, but it is very powerful - also for arranging text fields, graphics, etc. It can create a pdf ....
For creating vector graphics or manipulating pixel images, you can use Inkscape and the GIMP.
Finally, my LaTeX could also be an option. The beautiful typesetting surely would be an eye catcher.
Martin
i would recommend either adobe illustrator or adobe indesign
well templates for wwdc posters are done with keynote. but for the sake of quality i would stick to either adobe illustrator or adobe indesign. both a superior in handling, quality and output. ok you have a hard learning curve at the beginning but in the end you will be glad .
layers for proper seperation of elements. proper typography (the lack of especially powerpoint and freehand outputs). proper line arts ( zoom in one powerpoint output - pretty unclean ;) ). easy positioning of element - its more like a construction and alignment then placing like in e.g. powerpoint or keynote. overall you are more in controll with illustrator or indesign. additionally you have colormanagement for secure output. and in the end you have built-in pdf exporter for proper print masters. the list could be continued for hours ;))))
well overall i just can recommend take your time to learn one of those two programms and then benefit of its powers.
Illustrator
Illustrator gets my vote, although I didn't have Keynote last time I made one.
Here's a poster made entirely (including drawings) in Illustrator:
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/labrats/images/Lorne2007.jpg
OmniGraffle
Here too, OmniGraffle. I am still sticking with version 2.x which came with my TiBook back in 2001, but it still runs on my MBP. Once I need to create more posters or foils I'll definitively pay for the new 4.x version.
Making posters with PowerPoint is ridiculous once you've used OmniGraffle, definitively worth a try!
LaTeX for posters
The LaTeX suggestion is a good one.
Remember that PSTricks is very powerful. It lets you do some pretty cool graphics stuff and is very easy to use. In fact, you can use pst-node to connect graphical objects (and even non-graphical objects -- like anchors in the middle of text!) "dynamically" (that is, it keesp them connected even when they move around).
PSTricks has lot sof graphing features as well (it will evaluate functions; it can also read data out of a file and plot it in a number of different formats).
Of course, there are other specialized graphics packages (for example, you could use PSTricks to draw a chess board, but there's a special package for doing exactly that).
Also, for presentations (or posters that look like presentations), check out powerdot, which is an update of HA-prosper (which was an update of prosper) that has features you'll find in beamer and more.
I really see little reason do to any sort of typesetting outside of LaTeX. It's much safer to stay within it. It can be easier too. Imagine having to do a variation on a presentation several times. Rather than building multiple presentations, just build one and flip on and off parts of the presentation at the top of your LaTeX document.
The world is so much better once you abandon WYSIWYG/WYSIWYW.
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http://www.tedpavlic.com/
Ted Pavlic
http://phaseportrait.blogspot.com/