Graphics & Printing

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Graphics Services: Poster Guidelines

The Byrd Center provides large-format poster printing services in Scott Hall, Room 291. In general, our poster printing service is limited to faculty, staff and students associated with the Byrd Center, the Department of Geography and the School of Earth Sciences, although we do make exceptions for those from other OSU units. All others must contact us first to verify that printing can be scheduled and billed.

We use an HP Designjet T2300 inkjet plotter printer to make prints. This printer has a limit of 36" width, which means your poster must fit in this space either vertically or horizontally. There is no length limit, so your poster can be any length in the other direction. Because these prints require time to format, verify, print, and dry, lead time and prior notification is required before any posters can be printed. Please read the below information before submitting posters to be printed. You must contact us in advance to schedule poster printing.

Printing Time Frames

  • Printing is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • Poster requests must submitted at least 24 hours before the required completion date.
  • Time frames depend upon the number of requests currently in the print queue. If it is critical to have your poster completed by a specific date, we recommend that you submit your request more than 24 hours in advance.
  • Rush prints: requests submitted with fewer than 24 hours before the required completion date, cannot be guaranteed.

Costs

Prices are based on the size of the poster to be printed:

$60.00 for a 36" x 48" (Arch E) poster print

or

$5.00 per square foot

Rush prints (with less than 24 hours) will be charged:

$120.00 for a 36" x 48" (Arch E) poster print

or

$10.00 per square foot

Prices current as of 12/04/2019. Prices subject to change based on demand and material costs.

Payment Types Accepted

We accept payment via an OSU Account (Grant money, project funds), e-Requests (inter-departmental transfers), and cash.

All poster prints for the Department of Geography require an approved eRequest to be sent to BPRC before the poster can be printed. Customers from other departments should contact their fiscal manager for more information on making an e-Request.

We do NOT currently accept credit cards.

Accessories

  • Poster tubes are available for free with any poster print.
  • Lamination of your poster is possible through a local company, ARC. The cost is typically $30.00 for a 36" x 48" poster. We can send your poster to the company after it is printed, and will return it to you once the job is complete. This usually takes 3-5 business days.

Design & Layout Recommendations

  • If your poster is for display at a poster session, each session has different requirements. Here is a list of poster requirements (off-site) for events that we often print for:
  • Many posters are created with similar dimensions. The typical sizes are:
    • 36" x 48" (Arch E) (914 x 1219 mm)
    • 36" x 56" (Maximum PowerPoint slide size)
    • 24" x 36" (Arch D)
    • 11" x 17" (Tabloid, draft and proof prints)
  • Please include a 1" margin on all sides of your poster (except for backgrounds or other elements that you want to "bleed" to the edge)
  • Be sure to use a high-resolution image, solid color, or gradient for your background. Using a pattern or small image for your background will cause the background to become blocky or pixelated when printed.
  • Images included in your poster should be of sufficient resolution for the size you use on your poster. Most modern digital cameras can take images that will look great up to about 12" in size. Images taken from the web will most likely become blocky in the final print unless the image exceeds 800 pixels (width and height). If you're concerned about resolution, please include the original file separately from your poster file, or supply a slide, photo, or book which can be re-scanned if needed.
  • We have high-resolution logos for BPCRC, OSU, CWC, CReSIS, NSF, etc. Please see below.
  • Paragraph text should be at least 24 point. Header text should be at least 36 point.

File Formats and Requirements

We prefer PDF, PNG, or JPG in RGB color space with a minimum 150 dpi at full print size.

Please upload any files through the Byrd Center Graphics Request Form.

Contact

BPCRC Graphics Office
E-mail: <bprc-byrd-graphics@osu.edu>