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I am in the process of making a poster to be presented at a scientific conference. What line width would you recommend for elements like arrows, graphics, and frames around text?

I am using 28 point Arial for the body, and 48 point for the subheadings. I am at the moment using a line width of 1.1 mm, but it’s hard for me to judge if this will look right once printed. Of course it would be best if I could just make a mock up and print it on A0, but let's assume this is not an option.

If it matters, this will be a mathematics conference, most of my graphics will be abstract shapes, like cylinders, tori, and loops.

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    Print it onto a a4 and view it as far as you would view the poster!
    – joojaa
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 9:25
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    Arial – Why choose the most stale font in existence? (Okay, given that your audience is mathematicians, Computer Modern may be even more boring, but still.)
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 16:51

1 Answer 1

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An A4 sized paper is 1/4 the size of an A0 poster.

Work on a a4 paper, print it and view it.

Calculate that it will look the same as an A0 poster viewed at 4 times the distance.

If you can see it ok at 1 m, the poster will look the same at 4 m. Make decisions based on that.

enter image description here

P.S. The font size you are using, for example, 28 pts, will be 7 pts... too small.

You probably need to print the poster twice the size, in two parts or something like that.

For a methodological test. Make a quick chart using different sized fonts and lines, something like this (the fonts are not at real size)

12pts

24pts

36pts

48pts

Print it and work based on this tests.

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