How to print an A0 poster

An A0 poster is one square metre of paper that has to survive a print queue, a flight and a conference hall, and arrive looking the way it did on screen. Most of what goes wrong has nothing to do with design. It is a file exported at the wrong size, a stock that curls in humid air, or a print ordered three days before the plane leaves. This guide works through the decisions in the order you face them. Prices and turnarounds below were read from Australian sources in September 2026 and change, so treat them as a guide and check the live figures.

Confirm the size before you export

Start with the conference instructions, not the template. A0 is 841 by 1189 millimetres, but conferences differ on orientation and some ask for a smaller sheet. Paperlust, an Australian online print shop that publishes a conference poster guide, notes that most Australian academic conferences specify A1 or A0, with A1 the most commonly accepted at domestic events. Printing A0 for a board that takes A1 means a reprint.

Orientation matters just as much. The engineering test poster example is an A0 landscape board built around an eight row failure load table, with specimen, type, load in kilonewtons and failure mode. Rotating that to portrait would squeeze the table into a column where the mode names wrap. If the conference board is tall and narrow, choose a portrait layout at the start rather than hoping a landscape one prints sideways.

Export the file the shop asks for

Every shop and university service mentioned here asks for a PDF. Paperlust’s guide lists a PDF with fonts and images embedded, set to the exact print size, with images at 100 dpi minimum at print size for its large posters. The University of Vermont libraries advise asking the printer what file type they want before sending anything, and note that most will ask for a PDF.

The A0 poster canvas in the builder is 1656 by 2340 pixels in portrait and 2340 by 1656 in landscape, and the export doubles that, to 3312 by 4680 pixels for portrait. Spread across 33.1 inches of width, that is about 100 pixels per inch, the same floor the shop quotes. Why that is enough for a board read from a metre away is covered in what DPI a conference poster needs, so it is not repeated here.

Two properties of that export are worth knowing before you talk to a printer. The PDF page is an image, so its text cannot be selected or searched, and the colour is RGB with no bleed and no crop marks. Tell the shop both when you order, rather than letting them discover it.

Choose the stock: paper, synthetic or fabric

This is the decision people skip, and the one that most affects how the poster looks on the day.

Plain or coated paper is the default. Paperlust’s guide describes coated paper in satin or matte at 170 to 200 gsm as the norm at most local events. The University of Edinburgh’s library plotters print A0, A1 and A2 on plain paper, with glossy paper on one of the two machines in its main library, which is typical of a campus service.

Synthetic stock resists moisture and scuffs. Paperlust prints its posters on 200 gsm synthetic and makes the case for it in a crowded, humid hall or a tube carried through rain.

Fabric folds flat. The University of Vermont libraries summarise the trade plainly: heavy paper gives the sharpest resolution but is awkward to transport, fabric is slightly less sharp but easier to carry. For an international flight, fabric often wins.

The table below sets the options side by side with the question worth asking before you pay.

Turnaround and cost

Work backwards from the day you travel. Paperlust quotes three to four working days after proof approval and recommends ordering at least a week before your travel date. Proof approval is the part people forget: a shop that emails a proof on Monday afternoon and hears back on Wednesday has used two of your days before printing starts.

Cost varies with size, stock, quantity and delivery. As one published reference point, Paperlust listed a single A1 poster on 200 gsm synthetic at $80.77 including GST when its price table was read on 4 September 2026, with standard delivery at $15 and express at $60 anywhere in Australia. It does not list A0 as a standard size; sizes above A1 need a custom quote. A university plotter usually charges less for plain paper, paid from a student or staff print account, but may require you to print in person at the service desk.

Check the proof before the full print

The expensive mistakes are small ones: a chart label that collides with a legend, a caption clipped at the edge of its block, a number that changed in the analysis after the poster was laid out. The University of Vermont libraries suggest checking the poster the moment you receive it, and note that some printers offer a letter sized test sheet first.

On a table led board like the engineering example, check three things on the proof. Every row of the table is present and the columns line up. The axis labels on the load against deflection chart are readable at arm’s length. The tolerances in the methods block, plate thickness 6.0 plus or minus 0.1 millimetres, have not lost their symbols. On a portrait board with a headline strip, such as the public health poster example, check that the four key numbers across the top are the same values the results text quotes.

Common mistakes

Exporting at the wrong size. A poster laid out on an A4 or letter page and scaled up at the shop prints soft and oddly spaced. Design at A0 from the first draft.

Leaving the proof unread. A proof you approve without opening is a print you have already paid for.

Printing the week of the conference. Allow for the proof, the working days and delivery, and then add a day for things you did not plan.

Ignoring the stock. Paper that curls in a humid hall reads worse than a slightly softer fabric print that lies flat. The field study poster example, a wide landscape board with a dated timeline across the top, is exactly the kind of wide sheet that bows on a board if it is rolled tightly for a week.

Sizing text for the screen. A poster that looks fine zoomed in on a laptop can be unreadable at a metre. The research poster text size guide gives the point sizes to check before you export.

Build it

The A0 poster size page sets out the two canvas sizes, A0 portrait at 1656 by 2340 pixels and A0 landscape at 2340 by 1656, and the doubled export that prints at about 100 pixels per inch. Forty layouts are authored for those two sizes, twenty each, so pick the orientation first. Export a PDF for the shop, remembering that the PDF page is an image with RGB colour and no bleed or crop marks. If you are rebuilding an older poster, the tutorial on making a flyer from a PDF or photo shows how to attach the file you already have so its words can be read out and set in a new design.