Using Keynote to produce a scientific poster

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 🙂

Interesting thread, as I'm just in the process of making a scientific poster. I started in Pages. Is there any reason I should use Keynote? Why are Apple's templates in Keynote rather than Pages?

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