Estimate time to make a research poster.
Poster production is content, figures, layout and proofing. Figures cost more than on a slide — around forty-five minutes each — because they must be legible from two metres, which means rebuilding at larger font sizes rather than reusing a paper figure. Proofing adds a fifth of the content and figure time, and matters disproportionately: a typographical error on a printed poster cannot be quietly fixed.
Content and figures
Content hours = sections x minutes per section / 60; figure hours = figures x 0.75
Total production
Total = content + figures + layout hours + 0.2 x (content + figures)
Typically under eight hundred words. Posters are read standing up in a crowded hall, so bullet points, large figures and a clear visual path matter more than complete prose.
Several days before printing. Print queues, paper sizes and colour proofing all cause delays, and last-minute printing is the commonest cause of a poster arriving wrong.