How to make a poster: a clear layout, bold text and the right size to print

Start with the message, not the design

Most people glance at a poster for a few seconds while walking past. Before you pick a colour, write down three things:

1. The one message. "Yard sale on Saturday", "Lost cat: have you seen Pepper?", "Live music at the Crown". If you can't say it in a few words, the poster will struggle too.
2. Who it's for. Neighbours, students, parents at the school gate, people already inside your shop. This decides the tone, the words and where it goes.
3. What you want them to do. Turn up, call a number, scan a code, visit a website. Put that action on the poster in plain words.

Then list the details people actually need: what, when, where, how much, and how to get in touch. Cut everything else. A poster isn't a leaflet, and a busy wall of text is the most common reason posters get ignored.

Choose the size before you design

Pick the paper first, then design in the same shape. If you design a square and print on A3, the printer will crop it or add white bars. Common sizes:

A-sizes (A4, A3, A2) all share the same shape, so a design made for one scales cleanly to the others. Inch sizes such as 18 × 24 are a slightly wider 3:4 shape. If you're printing at a shop, ask what size and file type they want before you start: it saves redoing the layout later.

Lay it out in three levels

Strong posters have a clear order of reading. Think of the content in three levels:

• Level 1: the hook. The headline or one big image. It should be readable from across the room and take up a large share of the page.
• Level 2: the key details. Date, time, place, price. Medium size, grouped together so the eye finds them in one go.
• Level 3: the small print. Website, booking details, sponsors, a QR code. Small, usually at the bottom.

A few layout rules do most of the work:

• Align everything to something. Pick a left edge or the centre line and stick to it. Text that floats at random positions looks unplanned.
• Use empty space on purpose. Space around the headline makes it stronger, not weaker. Resist filling every gap.
• Group related things. Keep the date, time and place close together, and leave a bigger gap before the next group.
• Keep to one focal point. One big image or one big headline leads the eye. Two competing ones split attention.

Text and fonts

Text is usually the most important part of a poster, so give it the most care.

• Two fonts are plenty. One bold, characterful font for the headline, and one plain, easy-to-read font for the details.
• Make the headline big. Often a fifth of the poster's height or more. A useful test: shrink the design on screen to the size of a stamp. If you can still read the headline, it will work on a wall.
• Keep lines short. A headline of three to six words reads at a glance. Break longer ones over two lines at a natural pause.
• Use capitals sparingly. All capitals work for a short headline or a label, but long passages in capitals are slow to read.
• Check the details twice. A wrong date or phone number is the one mistake a poster can't recover from.

Text effects such as an outline, shadow or neon glow can help a headline stand out against a busy photo. Use one effect, on the headline only.

Colour and images

Contrast matters more than any particular colour. Dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark one, reads from a distance. Mid-grey on mid-blue doesn't.

• Pick two or three colours. A background, a main text colour and one accent for the thing you most want noticed, such as the date or a price.
• Put text on calm areas of a photo. If the photo is busy, add a solid shape or a darker band behind the text.
• Use one strong image. A single clear photo beats a collage of small ones on a poster. Save photo grids for social posts and noticeboards that people look at up close.
• Only use images you're allowed to use. Your own photos, or images whose licence allows it. Don't copy pictures from a search engine.

A worked example: a yard sale poster

That's about 20 words in total. Anyone walking past knows what it is, when and where in a couple of seconds, which is the whole job.

Making a poster in Quick Design

Quick Design is a free design editor that runs in your browser. To make a poster:

1. Pick a size or a template. Tap Poster (1800 × 2400, a 3:4 shape), Flyer (1275 × 1650, the shape of US Letter) or A4 document on the home screen, or start from a template. Free templates include the Night Fest and Lost Cat posters and the Yard Sale and Birthday Invite flyers.
2. Edit the text. Tap any text to change it. The Text panel adds headings and subheadings, and Effects adds a shadow, outline, hollow, echo, glitch or neon look.
3. Add images and shapes. Upload your own photos, crop them into a frame shape, add filters, or use Elements for shapes, lines and icons. Smart guides help you line things up.
4. Try other colours. Shuffle colours (shortcut R) tries new colour schemes on the whole design. Undo takes you back if you preferred the first one.
5. Download. Choose PNG or JPG, and a size of 1×, 2× or 3×. There's no watermark and no sign-up.

For print, the 2× and 3× sizes matter. The Poster size at 2× is 3600 × 4800 pixels, enough for a sharp 12 × 16 inch print at 300 ppi, and at 3× it's 5400 × 7200, enough for 18 × 24 inches. The A4 document at 2× is 2480 × 3508, exactly A4 at 300 ppi.

Your designs and photos stay in your browser on your device; nothing is uploaded. It's free with 15 templates and PNG or JPG downloads. Quick Design Pro, $4.99 once, adds all 34 templates, PDF export, a brand kit for your colours and fonts, and magic layouts that rearrange your page in one tap.

Printing and sharing

• Print a test copy first. A normal A4 print shows typos and colour surprises before you pay for a big one.
• Check it from a distance. Stick the test print on a wall and step back a few metres. If the headline and date don't jump out, make them bigger.
• Expect colours to shift. Screens are brighter than paper, so bright neon colours usually print duller. Very dark backgrounds use a lot of ink at home.
• Use the right file. PNG for crisp text and flat colour, JPG for photo-heavy posters, PDF if the print shop asks for it.
• Share it online too. The same design works as a social post or story. Make a copy in the Instagram post or story size and move the parts around to fit.

Common poster mistakes

• Too many words. If it takes more than a few seconds to get the point, most people won't.
• A small headline. The most important line should be the biggest thing on the page.
• Too many fonts and colours. Stick to two fonts and two or three colours.
• Low contrast. Pale text on a pale background, or text over a busy photo, disappears from a distance.
• Designing in the wrong shape. A square design printed on A3 gets cropped or framed in white.
• Exporting too small. A screen-sized image looks soft or blocky when printed large.
• No call to action. Say exactly what people should do next, and how.