> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://overleaf-pro.ayaka.space/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://overleaf-pro.ayaka.space/latex/presentations/03-posters.md). # Posters ## Introduction Scientific posters are often used to present research/information at conferences and other forms of meeting where they can facilitate presentation of your research for discussion with colleagues. This article explains the basics of typesetting a poster in LaTeX but if you are interested to quickly explore the possibilities then visit the [Overleaf Gallery](https://www.overleaf.com/gallery) to search for poster templates as your starting point: * [`beamerposter` templates and examples](https://www.overleaf.com/gallery?addsearch=beamerposter) * [`tikzposter` templates and examples](https://www.overleaf.com/gallery?addsearch=tikzposter) ## Two main options The two main options for writing scientific posters are `tikzposter` and `beamerposter`. Both offer simple commands to customize the poster and support large paper formats. Below, you can see a side-to-side comparison of the output generated by both packages (`tikzposter` on the left and `beamerposter` on the right). | | | | -------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | ![PostersEx2OLV2.png](/files/f5IkCu0N9SSLPxfphQiH) | ![BeamerPosterDemo.png](/files/ncVdMtl37w406zuHYgt6) | ## Tikzposter `tikzposter` is a document class used to generate scientific posters in PDF format. It uses the [TikZ package](/latex/figures-and-tables/05-tikz-package.md) and provides very flexible layouts. [Open an example of the `tikzposter` class in Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/project/new/template/20403?id=69813043\&templateName=Example+of+a+Tikz+Poster\&latexEngine=pdflatex\&texImage=texlive-full%3A2020.1\&mainFile=) ### The preamble and the title The preamble in a `tikzposter` class has the standard syntax: ```latex \documentclass[25pt, a0paper, portrait]{tikzposter} \title{Tikz Poster Example} \author{Overleaf Team} \date{\today} \institute{Overleaf Institute} \usetheme{Board} \begin{document} \maketitle \end{document} ``` [Open this minimal `tikzposter` example in Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/docs?engine=\&snip_name=tikzposter+example\&snip=%5Cdocumentclass%5B25pt%2C+a0paper%2C+portrait%5D%7Btikzposter%7D%0A%5Ctitle%7BTikz+Poster+Example%7D%0A%5Cauthor%7BOverleaf+Team%7D%0A%5Cdate%7B%5Ctoday%7D%0A%5Cinstitute%7BOverleaf+Institute%7D%0A%5Cusetheme%7BBoard%7D%0A%0A%5Cbegin%7Bdocument%7D%0A%0A%5Cmaketitle%0A%0A%5Cend%7Bdocument%7D) The following image shows the output produced by the code above: ![PostersEx1.png](/files/jR3DLwtrtAYAxklmzapT) ### The preamble The first command, `\documentclass[...]{tikzposter}` declares that this document is a `tikzposter`. The additional parameters inside the brackets set the font size, the paper size and the orientation; respectively. The available font sizes are: `12pt, 14pt, 17pt, 20pt` and `25pt`. The possible paper sizes are: `a0paper`, `a1paper` and `a2paper`. There are some additional options, see the [further reading section](#further-reading) for a link to the documentation. The self-descriptive commands `title`, `author`, `date` and `institute` are used to set the author information. The command `\usetheme{Board}` sets the current theme, i.e., changes the colours and the decoration around the text boxes. See the [reference guide](#reference-guide) for screenshots of available themes. The command `\maketitle` prints the title on top of the poster. If you are keen to see a more detailed example you can open [this example of the `tikzposter` class in Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/project/new/template/20403?id=69813043\&templateName=Example+of+a+Tikz+Poster\&latexEngine=pdflatex\&texImage=texlive-full%3A2020.1\&mainFile=) . ### The body The body of the poster is created by means of text blocks. Multi-column placement can be enabled and the width can be explicitly controlled for each column, this provides a lot of flexibility to customize the look of the final output. ```latex \documentclass[25pt, a0paper, portrait]{tikzposter} \title{Tikz Poster Example} \author{Overleaf Team} \date{\today} \institute{Overleaf Institute} \usepackage{blindtext} \usepackage{comment} \usetheme{Board} \begin{document} \maketitle \block{~} { \blindtext } \begin{columns} \column{0.4} \block{More text}{Text and more text} \column{0.6} \block{Something else}{Here, \blindtext \vspace{4cm}} \note[ targetoffsetx=-9cm, targetoffsety=-6.5cm, width=0.5\linewidth ] {e-mail \texttt{welcome@overleaf.com}} \end{columns} \begin{columns} \column{0.5} \block{A figure} { \begin{tikzfigure} \includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{images/overleaf-logo} \end{tikzfigure} } \column{0.5} \block{Description of the figure}{\blindtext} \end{columns} \end{document} ``` [Open this `tikzposter` class example in Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/project/new/template/20403?id=69813043\&templateName=Example+of+a+Tikz+Poster\&latexEngine=pdflatex\&texImage=texlive-full%3A2020.1\&mainFile=) The following graphic shows the output of the code above: ![PostersEx2OLV2.png](/files/f5IkCu0N9SSLPxfphQiH) In a `tikzposter` document the text is organized in blocks, each block is created by the command `\block{}{}` which takes two parameters, each one inside a pair of braces. The first one is the title of the block and the second one is the actual text to be printed inside the block. The [environment](/latex/commands/02-environments.md) `columns` enables multi-column text, the command `\column{}` starts a new column and takes as parameter the relative width of the column, 1 means the whole text area, 0.5 means half the text area and so on. The command `\note[]{}` is used to add additional notes that are rendered overlapping the text block. Inside the brackets you can set some additional parameters to control the placement of the note, inside the braces the text of the note must be typed. #### Note on figure captions and references As noted within the [`tikzposter` documentation](https://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/ctan.org/graphics/pgf/contrib/tikzposter/tikzposter.pdf), the standard LaTeX `figure` environment is not compatible with the `tikzposter` document class. Consequently, the LaTeX mechanism for [adding captions and referencing figures](/latex/more-topics/27-inserting-images.md#captioning-labelling-and-referencing) must be used within the `tikzfigure` environment, like this: ```latex \begin{tikzfigure}[Caption of the figure] \label{fig:fig1} Figure \end{tikzfigure} ``` ## Beamerposter The [`beamerposter` package](https://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/beamerposter?lang=en) builds on the [standard beamer class](/latex/presentations/01-beamer.md) and the [`a0poster` class](https://ctan.org/pkg/a0poster), making it possible to create scientific posters using the same syntax as a beamer presentation. Although there are fewer themes for this package, and it is slightly less flexible than [tikzposter](#tikzposter), you may not need to learn many new commands if you are familiar with `beamer`. **Note:** The `beamerposter` examples In this article use a custom `beamerposter` theme called `RedLion`. It is based on the theme `Dreuw` created by Philippe Dreuw and Thomas Deselaers, but was modified to make easier to insert the logo and print the e-mail address at the bottom of the poster. Those are hard-coded in the original themes. ### The preamble The preamble of a **beamerposter** is basically that of a beamer presentation, except for an additional command. ```latex \documentclass{beamer} \usepackage{times} \usepackage{amsmath,amsthm, amssymb} \boldmath \usetheme{RedLion} \usepackage[orientation=portrait,size=a0,scale=1.4]{beamerposter} \title[Beamer Poster]{Overleaf example of the beamerposter class} \author[welcome@overleaf.com]{Overleaf Team} \institute[Overleaf University] {The Overleaf institute, Learn faculty} \date{\today} \logo{\includegraphics[height=7.5cm]{overleaf-logo}} ``` The first command in this file is `\documentclass{beamer}`, which declares that this is a beamer presentation. The theme `RedLion` is set by `\usetheme{RedLion}`. There are some beamer themes on the web, most of them can be found in the [web page of the beamerposter authors](http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~dreuw/latexbeamerposter.php). The command ```latex usepackage[orientation=portrait,size=a0,scale=1.4]{beamerposter} ``` Imports the `beamerposter` package with some special parameters: the orientation is set to `portrait`, the poster size is set to `a0` and the fonts are scaled to `1.4`. The poster sizes available are a0, a1, a2, a3 and a4, but the dimensions can be arbitrarily set with the options `width=x,height=y`. The rest of the commands set the standard information for the poster: title, author, institute, date and logo. The command `\logo{}` won't work in most of the themes, and has to be set by hand in the theme's .sty file. Hopefully this will change in the future. ### The body Since the document class is **beamer**, to create the poster all the contents must be typed inside a `frame` environment. ```latex \documentclass{beamer} \usepackage{times} \usepackage{amsmath,amsthm, amssymb} \boldmath \usetheme{RedLion} \usepackage[orientation=portrait,size=a0,scale=1.4]{beamerposter} \title[Beamer Poster]{Overleaf example of the beamerposter class} \author[welcome@overleaf.com]{Overleaf Team} \institute[Overleaf University] {The Overleaf institute, Learn faculty} \date{\today} \logo{\includegraphics[height=7.5cm]{overleaf-logo}} \begin{document} \begin{frame}{} \vfill \begin{block}{\large Fontsizes} \centering {\tiny tiny}\par {\scriptsize scriptsize}\par {\footnotesize footnotesize}\par {\normalsize normalsize}\par ... \end{block} \end{block} \vfill \begin{columns}[t] \begin{column}{.30\linewidth} \begin{block}{Introduction} \begin{itemize} \item some items \item some items ... \end{itemize} \end{block} \end{column} \begin{column}{.48\linewidth} \begin{block}{Introduction} \begin{itemize} \item some items and $\alpha=\gamma, \sum_{i}$ ... \end{itemize} $$\alpha=\gamma, \sum_{i}$$ \end{block} ... \end{column} \end{columns} \end{frame} \end{document} ``` ![BeamerPosterDemo.png](/files/ncVdMtl37w406zuHYgt6) [Open an example of the `beamerposter` package in Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/project/new/template/20436?id=69926517\&templateName=Example+of+a+Tikz+Poster\&latexEngine=pdflatex\&texImage=texlive-full%3A2020.1\&mainFile=) Most of the content in the poster is created inside a `block` [environment](/latex/commands/02-environments.md), this environment takes as parameter the title of the block. The [environment](/latex/commands/02-environments.md) `columns` enables multi-column text, the environment `\column` starts a new columns and takes as parameter the width of said column. All [LaTeX units](/latex/formatting/01-lengths-in-latex.md) can be used here, in the example the column width is set relative to the text width. ## Reference guide **Tikzposter themes** | | | | | | -------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ------ | ---------------------------------------------- | | Default | ![TikxDefault.png](/files/CRcKMmndI4SfLJgAIKmM) | Rays | ![TikzRays.png](/files/cf2xItnZRhh0KQ9DoBOL) | | Basic | ![TikzBasic.png](/files/MYLHxSU3i6HSFwS0oWyj) | Simple | ![TikzSimple.png](/files/geXu5ug8v8Ujf8ckWVT4) | | Envelope | ![TikzEnvelope.png](/files/WA4yqvy3kZWdeScZ9FIr) | Wave | ![TikzWave.png](/files/dMtWyuui3e2ZEkUMT3W7) | | Board | ![TikzBoard.png](/files/9uadOH16b8J5u3LluGSR) | Autumn | ![TikzAutumn.png](/files/3ZkjnRd0hZCDTnxFCAE7) | | Desert | ![TikzDesert.png](/files/kGY0s15ChNfDp5C76j5u) | | | ## Further reading For more information see * [Powerdot](/latex/presentations/02-powerdot.md) * [Beamer](/latex/presentations/01-beamer.md) * [Bold, italics and underlining](/latex/latex-basics/03-bold-italics-and-underlining.md) * [Font sizes, families, and styles](/latex/fonts/01-font-sizes-families-and-styles.md) * [Text alignment](/latex/formatting/06-text-alignment.md) * [Font typefaces](/latex/fonts/02-font-typefaces.md) * [Inserting Images](/latex/more-topics/27-inserting-images.md) * [Using colours in LaTeX](/latex/formatting/13-using-colors-in-latex.md) * [Lengths in LaTeX](/latex/formatting/01-lengths-in-latex.md) * [International language support](/latex/languages/03-international-language-support.md) * [TikZ package](/latex/figures-and-tables/05-tikz-package.md) * [The **beamerposter** documentation](http://get-software.net/macros/latex/contrib/beamerposter/beamerposter.pdf) * [The **tikzposter** package documentation](http://ctan.mirrors.hoobly.com/graphics/pgf/contrib/tikzposter/tikzposter.pdf) --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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