These are recommended font sizes depending on the poster element. Ultimately, use your best judgment for how it will look based on your poster size.
Bigger is often better because it makes it easier for your readers.
| Poster Text | Recommended Minimum Font Size |
|---|---|
| Title | 60 pt |
| Author(s), Affiliations | 40 pt |
| Section Headings | 36 pt |
| Body Text | 20 pt |
| Citations, Acknowledgements | 16 pt |
| Image Captions | 18 pt |
Image Citation
Chen, A. (2019 Oct 12). The controversy of accessible type + download a pocket guide of best practices. Medium, https://medium.com/queer-design-club/the-controversy-of-accessible-type-8def04eb8808
The font(s) you pick are incredibly important. They need to be clean, professional, and readable. You will see recommendations for either Serif or Sans Serif fonts, but ultimately it is your design choice and aesthetic.
The most important recommendation is to avoid flowery fonts, cursive, calligraphy, and other fonts where it could be hard to distinguish letters. Save those fonts for your graphic design projects. See the image below for example fonts to use or avoid.
Other appropriate poster fonts are Arial, Times New Roman, and Tahoma.
Image Citation
Chen, A. (2019 Oct 12). The controversy of accessible type + download a pocket guide of best practices. Medium, https://medium.com/queer-design-club/the-controversy-of-accessible-type-8def04eb8808
This is more of an aesthetic thing. Your reader will have a better experience reading and interacting with your poster if you allow it "breathing room" and proper word and line spacing.
In the first image, there is text spaced too close together. When text is too close together, text may become blended together or the reader may overlook a portion of your narrative. It also works the other way - you don't want text spaced too far part either. Then that appears like you don't have enough content for your narrative. Adequate line spacing is between singled to doubled-spaced (1.0 - 2.0).
In the second image, there is text that is justified, or fills the whole line within the confined box space. We don't like justified text because it creates unnecessary white space that could make reading the text difficult. It is best practice to always use left-aligned text.
Images Citation
Chen, A. (2019 Oct 12). The controversy of accessible type + download a pocket guide of best practices. Medium, https://medium.com/queer-design-club/the-controversy-of-accessible-type-8def04eb8808