Creating a research poster in InDesign: Free for All: Files: Creating Research Posters: All Training Topics: UITS IT Training Content Library: Indiana University

On this page, you’ll learn how to create a poster in Adobe InDesign, including creating a new file, adding images and text, and exporting the final poster as a PDF. These instructions were developed using Adobe InDesign 2024, and should work as written in most recent versions of InDesign.

NOTE: These instructions assume that you’re familiar with Adobe InDesign. If you haven’t worked with InDesign before, it’s highly recommended that you review the content in the course InDesign: The Basics before creating your poster.

Things to note about creating a poster in InDesign

InDesign is a powerful page layout program, but it can be overwhelming for new users. As InDesign is primarily geared towards making print documents (like posters!), it offers robust options for laying out text and images as well as styling a document’s text. If you have prior experience creating layouts in InDesign, creating a poster involves using the same tools you may have used for making smaller print documents like flyers or newsletters. Following are some things you should be aware of when creating a poster in InDesign:

InDesign can import text files of all types, including Microsoft Word documents — however, if you format the appearance of text in your Word document using Microsoft Word, InDesign may import that formatting as well, so it’s important to be aware of this behavior when importing text.
InDesign allows you to choose how many columns of text you want in your poster and the spacing between those columns as part of the new document creation process, which eliminates the need to make individual text frames for each column. However, you aren’t limited to only including text in those columns, and can create additional text frames as needed that overlap the columns of text if desired.
InDesign also allows you to set a specific page margin during the new document creation process, which will provide the needed space between the poster’s content and the edge of the poster to make sure nothing gets cut off when printing or trimming a poster. (A margin of at least 1/2 inch is recommended.)

Setting up the poster file

The first step in the process is to create a new file to build the poster in, and to ensure that the page size is the correct size for your poster before you start adding content. You can set the poster size as part of the new document creation process, as well as the margins and columns for the document.

Open InDesign.
To create a new file, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Point New, Click Document…
To indicate you want to create a print document, in the list of preset categories across the top of the New Document dialog box,
Click Print
To change the unit of measurement used in the document, in the drop-down menu to the right of the Width field,
Click , Click Inches
To set the width and height of your poster, in the Width and Height fields,
enter the desired width and height for the poster
To change the number of columns on the poster, in the Columns field,
Press & Drag value, enter desired number of columns
To set the margins for the poster, in the Top field under the Margins heading, if necessary,
Press & Drag value, enter the new desired margin size, press: Tab key

NOTE: By default, all of the margin values should be linked and will change to match the value entered in the Top field once you press the Tab key. If this doesn’t happen, make sure the option to link all margin values is active by checking the “Make all settings the same” icon to the right of the margin value fields. If it displays a broken chain (img-link-broken), Click the icon to re-link the margin values.

To finish creating the new file, in the lower right corner of the New Document dialog box,
Click

We now have a new document with one page that's the size of our poster. Before adding content to the poster, let’s set up the workspace to make it easier to align items on the page. This involves turning on the document grid and rulers.

To turn on the document grid, on the Menu bar,
Click View, Point Grids & Guides, Click Show Document Grid
To display the rulers, if necessary, on the Menu bar,
Click View, Click Show Rulers

Using guides to help with content layout

Guides can be used to accomplish a number of different tasks in InDesign. For example, they can be used to break up the poster into different sections (such as the header area and content area), or to help align images and text boxes with other elements on the poster. The following accordion contains steps for adding a guide to the document.

To start adding a guide to the document, in either the horizontal or vertical rulers at the top or left side of the workspace,
Point inside the ruler
To add a guide to the document page,
Press & Drag from inside the ruler towards the center of the page until the guide is in the desired location

Adding content to the poster

Here, we’ll focus on two separate tasks: adding text and adding images.

Adding text

As mentioned previously, you can place Microsoft Word documents as well as other text documents into a document in InDesign. This is done using the Place command. There are two ways we can add text to a poster: we can have text automatically flow through all of the text columns in the poster, or we can manually place text into each column until we run out of text.

The following video demonstrates how to add text to a poster in InDesign using both the autoflow and manual flow processes. Both processes demonstrated in the video are outlined in steps in the accordion folds below the video.

Place text into a poster using both the autoflow and manual flow options in InDesign. NOTE TO SELF: ADD TRANSCRIPT ONCE VIDEO IS UPDATED

To start placing text in the poster, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Place…
Navigate to the folder that contains the text file you want to place.
To select the file containing the text you want to add to your poster, in the Place dialog box,
Click the file

NOTE: If you’re importing a Microsoft Word document that already contains formatting and want to control how the text and formatting is imported, click the Show Import Options checkbox at the bottom of the Place dialog box. This will display the Import Options dialog box before the text is imported into the document, where you can change how your text is imported into InDesign.

To finish importing the file, in the lower right corner of the dialog box,
Click
To automatically flow the text through all of the columns in the poster, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Shift key, Click in the upper left corner of the first column

The text will automatically flow through all columns of text in the poster.

To start placing text in the poster, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Place…
Navigate to the folder that contains the text file you want to place.
To select the file containing the text you want to add to your poster, in the Place dialog box,
Click the file

NOTE: If you’re importing a Microsoft Word document that already contains formatting and want to control how the text and formatting is imported, click the Show Import Options checkbox at the bottom of the Place dialog box. This will display the Import Options dialog box before the text is imported into the document, where you can change how your text is imported into InDesign.

To finish importing the file, in the lower right corner of the dialog box,
Click
To add text to the first column,
Click in the upper left corner of the first column

The first column will fill with text. The text frame may display a red plus icon at the bottom right side of the frame. This means there is overset text — in other words, there’s more text in the frame that can currently be displayed. This can be fixed by adding more text frames that are connected to the frame you just added — we’ll do this using the Selection tool.

To activate the Selection tool, in the Tools panel,
Click
To start placing the overset text, in the bottom right corner of the first text frame,
Click
To place the overset text into the second column,
Click the upper left corner of the next column
Repeat steps g and h until there is no more overset text to place.

Formatting text

To format your poster’s text, you’ll use the Control Panel, which is located at the top of the screen when using the Typography workspace — when the Type tool is active, the Control panel displays options for formatting text, as shown in the following image:

Control Panel showing options for formatting text.

Different options than what’s shown here may be visible, depending on your screen size. By default, the Control Panel shows the Character Formatting Controls when first activating the Type tool — to switch between the Paragraph Formatting Controls and Character Formatting Controls, click on the appropriate icon on the left side of the Control panel.

For more information on formatting the appearance of text in InDesign, view the Adobe Help article Formatting text in InDesign.

NOTE: If the text you placed in your poster only took up one column before formatting the text, you may need to manually flow the text to the other columns on the poster. To do this, follow steps f through i in the accordion Adding text using the manual flow process in the previous section.

Adding images

Adding images to a poster in InDesign is also done using the Place command. Remember, when adding images to your poster, don’t enlarge them after they’ve been placed — if they look too small once added to your poster, you may want to check and make sure they’re an appropriate size and resolution for your poster. For more information, read the section Changing your image’s resolution on the page Gathering high quality images.

The following video walks you through adding images to a poster in InDesign, and the process demonstrated in the video is outlined in steps in the accordion below the video.

See how to add images to a poster in InDesign, as well as how to wrap text around placed images. NOTE TO SELF: ADD TRANSCRIPT ONCE VIDEO IS UPDATED

To ensure nothing is selected in the document, if necessary, on the Menu bar,
Click Edit, Click Deselect All

NOTE: If Deselect All is grayed out, that means nothing is currently selected in the document.

To start adding an image to the poster, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Place…
Navigate to the folder that contains the image file you want to place.
To select the image file you want to place, in the Place dialog box,
Double-Click the file

At this point, InDesign will display a thumbnail of the image you selected next to your cursor.

To place the image into the poster,
Click the document page

Wrapping text around an image

At times, you may want to wrap text around an image you’ve placed in your poster. In InDesign, this is done using the Text Wrap panel.

To activate the Selection tool, if necessary,
Click
To select the image you want to wrap text around, with the Selection tool active,
Click the image
To open the Text Wrap panel, on the Menu bar,
Click Window, Click Text Wrap
To wrap text around the selected image, at the top of the Text Wrap panel,
Click the icon for the type of text wrap you’d like to apply
To adjust the spacing between the image and the surrounding text, underneath the text wrap option buttons in the Text Wrap panel,
Click the up and down buttons to the right of the icon for each side of the frame to increase or decrease the amount of space

Preparing your poster for printing

Once you’ve completed your poster, you’ll want to make sure that it’s saved as a PDF. This ensures your poster will look exactly the way you want it to when it’s printed, and will package all of your images, fonts, and text into one file that can be opened and printed using any computer.

In InDesign, you can export a copy of your poster as a PDF.

To start the process of exporting the poster as a PDF, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Export…
Navigate to the location on your computer you want to save the poster in.
If necessary, in the File Name field, type in the name for the file.
To change the file type to PDF, in the Save as type drop-down menu,
Click , Click Adobe PDF (Print) (*.PDF)
To continue the process of saving the poster, in the lower right corner of the Export dialog box,
Click

The Export dialog box will close, and the Export Adobe PDF dialog box will appear.

To save the file using the High Quality Print preset, in the Adobe PDF Preset field at the top of the Export Adobe PDF dialog box,
Click , Click [High Quality Print]
To finish exporting the file as a PDF, in the lower right corner of the dialog box,
Click

Once your poster is exported, it’s ready for printing!

Creating a research poster in InDesign

Things to note about creating a poster in InDesign

Setting up the poster file

Step 1. Open InDesign and create a new file with a document page size that matches the size of the poster you’re creating.

Step 2. Turn on the document grid and rulers.

Using guides to help with content layout

Adding a guide to the document

Adding content to the poster

Adding text

Adding text to a poster using the autoflow option

Adding text using the manual flow process

Formatting text

Adding images

Adding images to a poster

Wrapping text around an image

Wrapping text around an image in a poster

Preparing your poster for printing

Exporting a poster as a PDF in InDesign