I have a question for all of you graphically inclined folks.
Here's the situation. My school requires all students to perform an independent science research project their sophomore year. About a third of us decided to go on to either traditional science fairs or an oral presentation or both (as most did). The oral presentations are given to the New Jersey Academy of Science. Almost every state has a state Academy of Science, where the junior members (high schoolers) can present their research to actual scientists. Those who get first, second, and third place in their cateogries are invited to the national meeting of scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The meeting is in San Francisco this year and our school district will pay the way for anyone who gets first place.
So we present a poster and an oral presentation here. They provide us with a four foot tall by eight foot wide bulletin board space for each poster. I've been advised that it is advantageous to nearly fill this space.
Now our school has a plotter that handles up to 42" paper. I need to find out if we order 42" paper or just 36". For my trifold display before I printed on ANSI D (22" x 34") and used a paper cutter to cut out large pieces. We use PowerPoint to lay out everything and print. It works suprisingly well. The difficulty is this: Powerpoint only allows a maximum size of 56" - but I'd want around 84".
So I have a few choices:
Photoshop
I was told that someone else used Photoshop and experienced lackluster results. I was told that it looked like there was some kind of resolution problem.
Question: Should I decide to use this, can you give me advice about how to setup the resolutions and other parameters? This is an HP DesignJet Inkjet plotter.
Powerpoint
Maybe somehow I can have it print two slides in a row on the paper without cutting the sheet. But optimally I'd want the title in about the middle and then it would probably end up split.
Quark/Indesign/Etc
We have indesign on the Macs at school, but the plotter is in a PC lab. I could probably get Quark and get Indesign on my laptop from school or connect to the plotter from the Mac lab. Would this make things easier?
So how would you go about doing this? As far as the content, it's text and some photos - much like any research posters you might have seen around universities. Nothing fancy.
Thanks so much.
Brian
PS - The good news is I have around 10 months to figure this out. The conference isn't until February 2007.
Here's the situation. My school requires all students to perform an independent science research project their sophomore year. About a third of us decided to go on to either traditional science fairs or an oral presentation or both (as most did). The oral presentations are given to the New Jersey Academy of Science. Almost every state has a state Academy of Science, where the junior members (high schoolers) can present their research to actual scientists. Those who get first, second, and third place in their cateogries are invited to the national meeting of scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The meeting is in San Francisco this year and our school district will pay the way for anyone who gets first place.
So we present a poster and an oral presentation here. They provide us with a four foot tall by eight foot wide bulletin board space for each poster. I've been advised that it is advantageous to nearly fill this space.
Now our school has a plotter that handles up to 42" paper. I need to find out if we order 42" paper or just 36". For my trifold display before I printed on ANSI D (22" x 34") and used a paper cutter to cut out large pieces. We use PowerPoint to lay out everything and print. It works suprisingly well. The difficulty is this: Powerpoint only allows a maximum size of 56" - but I'd want around 84".
So I have a few choices:
Photoshop
I was told that someone else used Photoshop and experienced lackluster results. I was told that it looked like there was some kind of resolution problem.
Question: Should I decide to use this, can you give me advice about how to setup the resolutions and other parameters? This is an HP DesignJet Inkjet plotter.
Powerpoint
Maybe somehow I can have it print two slides in a row on the paper without cutting the sheet. But optimally I'd want the title in about the middle and then it would probably end up split.
Quark/Indesign/Etc
We have indesign on the Macs at school, but the plotter is in a PC lab. I could probably get Quark and get Indesign on my laptop from school or connect to the plotter from the Mac lab. Would this make things easier?
So how would you go about doing this? As far as the content, it's text and some photos - much like any research posters you might have seen around universities. Nothing fancy.
Thanks so much.
Brian
PS - The good news is I have around 10 months to figure this out. The conference isn't until February 2007.
