Scienceposters

Scienceposters: fabric and paper printing for scientific posters

Scienceposters is a printing service focused on the clinical and scientific community. It produces research posters for presentation at meetings in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The company states that its clients include most UK NHS Trusts and universities, as well as large pharmaceutical companies.

Fabric poster printing for conference travel

The fabric option is designed for researchers who need to transport posters without tubes. Posters are printed at 1200 dpi onto a woven foldable fabric material. According to the company, the material is smudge-proof and described as washable and ironable, with minimal and acceptable creasing. Fabric posters are hot-cut, a process that heat-seals the edges to prevent fraying. Each fabric poster is supplied with push pins and velcro tabs, folded and packed in a slim A4-sized cardboard box for easy transport.

Paper posters on satin photo paper

Paper posters are printed on 210gsm Xerox satin photo paper using original inks, which the company says prevents fading, at a resolution of 1200 dpi. They are supplied with velcro tabs in a sturdy cardboard tube.

Design guidance for scientific posters

Scienceposters uses its front page to address two common errors it sees as a printer of scientific posters. The first is designing a poster at actual size rather than opening PowerPoint and creating it at default dimensions; setting the correct dimensions makes design easier and ensures images print as seen rather than being scaled up by around 400%. The second is font handling: the company recommends sending a PDF with embedded fonts, or sticking to standard fonts if that is not possible. It notes that text can move around, especially in PowerPoint, due to differences between versions and between PC and Mac. If unsure about a PDF, clients can send both the PDF and the PowerPoint file so that Scienceposters can create a PDF using Acrobat Professional and cross-reference. For Mac users, the company points to a link explaining how to create an actual-sized PDF from PowerPoint, noting that Mac PowerPoint may default to an A4-sized PDF with a white border even when the slide is set to A0 or another size; in such cases, sending both files allows Scienceposters to create an actual-sized PDF.

Discount for displaying the Scienceposters logo

To qualify for a 20% discount on the print price of fabric prints, clients can add the Scienceposters logo to their poster. The company provides logos to copy and paste, or high-resolution versions available for download, which it notes cannot be opened without professional software and should be inserted as a picture in PowerPoint.