Using Keynote to produce a scientific poster

To change the size of a Keynote slide for a poster, go to Inspector > Document Inspector and look at the bottom of the Inspector window and choose Slide Size > Custom Slide Size.

I see that Pages was suggested for making a poster. I don't know Pages as well as I know Keynote so I can't offer a suggestion.

Ahhh, THAT'S what a research poster is! 🙂 I've seen those before at http://www.apple.com/science/poster/WWDCPosterTemplates.zip (no, I'm not that clever, that's the URL from the video loquat149 linked to) but didn't know these WWDC Posters could do double duty.

Message was edited by: Kyn Drake

I'm also looking to make a large poster 4'x3' = 3456 x 2592 pixels @ 72 pixels per inch. I'm not sure whether I should use Keynote or Pages. If I use Pages, can I get Keynote backgrounds imported? If I use Keynote how do I scale the slide beyond 1024x768 ? Recommendations?

I made a scientific poster in Keynote a couple weeks ago. I imported a Power Point template for a poster into Keynote. The slide size was 3456 X 2595 pixels. I reduced the slide size to 1024 X 768 pixels and created my poster. Then, I increased the slide size again to 3456 X 2595 and had my poster.

Because the printer I was then going to use did not recognize Keynote, I exported to PDF and printed my poster. I could have also exported to Power Point as the computer that ran the printer I was using had the Power Point application.

Hi AKAZ10, quick question regarding your Keynote scientific poster.

Why did you reduce the custom slide size (3456 x 2595) to 1024 x 768 first, and then increased it again?

In other words, do you recommend doing this, or would working with whatever original slide size obtained from PowerPoint work in Keynote?

Another question, for anyone out there that may know:

I have to create a scientific poster to fit into an easel with quite interesting dimensions (interesting b/c I am used to horizontal layouts, but this one will have to be vertical/portrait):

36 (Height) x 30 (Width)

What pixel size should I use so that my Keynote poster fits this easel size?

Thanks!!!

I've almost finished making a portrait poster 1 m x 1.5 m in Pages. I started it in Keynote because i saw the video on using Keynote in the Science section on the Apple website. However, I think it was easier in Pages. After all, that's the kind of thing Pages is made for! My only (and biggest) gripe about all of this is that as a scientist i still can't display error bars in the graphs!! It's SO frustrating that Apple is touting Pages and Keynote use to us scientists and then doesn't give us the tools that we need. I will still use Pages for finishing the poster because it looks great, however i do wish Apple would respond to the basic needs of scientists...

Grant.

I've seen this gripe before and, as a scientist, don't understand why Pages or Keynote should be expected to generate scientific plots. Why don't you just use Matlab, R, or whatever statistical package you use for your analysis to create the plots you need then import them into Keynote or Pages via PDF, PNG, etc? I made some pretty cool plots a few months ago in Matlab, exported them as PDF's to Illustrator, removed the bounding box and background, and imported them into Keynote. When I added a drop shadow in Keynote the axes, plot symbols, etc. all cast their own shadows. Subtle yet effective.

Dave

Again, if your output will be print, Pages is a much better application than Keynote to do it in. If you really need text wrapped in Keynote, one workaround is to do the layout first in Pages (using text boxes and whatever figures you need), then select all the objects and copy them to the clipboard. Next, open Preview, and in the File menu choose New from Clipboard. Save the resulting image as a PDF, and you can insert this into your Keynote slide. The text will no longer be editable in Keynote, but because it is a PDF it will be easily resizable without losing quality.

I'm a physician scientist and generate several posters a year. I'd suggest Pages over Keynote over Powerpoint. But I'd suggest InDesign over all of these. Pricey yes, but wonderful control over every aspect of the printed page.

Whichever one you choose, make sure you save/export your poster as a PDF file. Almost all print services understand PDF files, and you can preview your file (using Preview, of course) to make sure it's right before submission. PDF files preserve your fonts, etc., and that's what you want.

For scientific graphics (e.g., error bars, etc) a previous commenter is right: you need a scientific graphics program. Pick your favorite and use it. You can import the graphic as a PDF, TIFF, or EPS file, depending on the program you use. My needs are straightforward, and Deltagraph works well for me.

A final suggestion: don't start your poster the night before it's due 🙂

As far as I can see, there is absolutely no reason to use Keynote over Pages -- Pages has much better type control (such as text wrapping), and the graphics tools are pretty much identical.

As for the recommendation of InDesign, in my experience, Pages is sufficient for 95% of my professional work, is much easier to use, and is an order of magnitude cheaper.

I think they're in Keynote because they're specifically for WWDC and thus for people expected to give Keynote presentations (ie, targeted for a known set of presenters and audience).

Message was edited by: Kyn Drake

Welcome to the forums!

Is there a reason you're not using Pages? It's designed for doing print work, and Page Setup will let you specify whatever custom page size you want.

Use Pages for poster. It is the best. I always use that.

I reduced the size so I could see the entire poster on my screen then increased it for printing.