Fabric vs paper research poster

How each material is made and handled

Paper posters are printed on large format inkjet printers onto coated poster paper, sometimes laminated, and rolled for transport. Fabric posters are printed onto a polyester fabric, often by a process that bonds the dye into the fibre rather than sitting on top. Megaprint, which sells research poster printing at postersession.com, describes its fabric as wrinkle resistant and says it does not crease, coming out of a bag with only the slightest hint of having been folded. It also says the fabric gives the same accurate colours and vivid pictures as its paper posters, and customers quoted on the page describe it as more durable, so the case for it rests on handling rather than on sharper printing.

The travel argument

Anyone who has flown to a conference with a poster tube knows the problem: it does not fit in overhead lockers on some planes, it gets crushed in checked luggage, and it is easy to leave behind. Colin Purrington's poster design advice puts the fabric case plainly: a fabric poster can be stored in a briefcase or backpack, which minimises the chance of leaving it at the airport. For a local meeting reached by car or train, that advantage mostly disappears, and paper's lower price and faster turnaround usually win. A poster presented at two meetings in the same year tips the balance back towards fabric, because one print serves both.

Check the board size before choosing either

Material does not change the size rules, and those vary more than most people expect. SPIE, for example, gives a maximum poster space of 44 by 44 inches at its North American events, 84 by 119 centimetres at its European events and 90 by 120 centimetres at its Asian events. An A0 portrait board, 841 by 1189 millimetres, sits within the Asian space, matches the European one almost to the millimetre, and is too tall for the North American square. Fabric is slightly more forgiving if a board is marginally too large, because its edges can be folded under and pinned, but a tidy fit still means printing at the size the organiser states.

Mistakes with fabric and paper

With fabric, the usual mistakes are ordering too late, since many printers ship from a central site, and folding it tightly around sharp objects in a suitcase, which can leave marks. Hanging it in a humid hall right out of the bag can show fold lines for the first hour, so unpack it early. With paper, the mistakes are choosing high gloss for a brightly lit hall, skipping a tube and relying on a cardboard roll, and printing without checking a proof. With both, printing the file at the wrong proportions is the costly one: an A0 file sent to a 36 by 48 inch order gets cropped or padded.

Where it shows up in the poster builder

The export works for either material. An A0 portrait poster exports at 3312 by 4680 pixels and a landscape one at 4680 by 3312, which is about 100 pixels per inch at full A0 size. That density suits a board read from a metre or more away on either material, and it is what a large format printer normally works with for posters; the export does not reach 300 DPI and does not need to. The file is RGB, with no bleed, no crop marks and no CMYK conversion, so tell the printer that and let them handle colour. The PDF places each page as an image, so its text is not selectable.

How to decide in one minute

Ask three questions. Is the poster flying, or presented more than once? If yes, fabric. Is the deadline under a week and the venue local? If yes, paper from a nearby print shop. Does the budget come from a student allowance that barely covers registration? Paper again, printed on matte stock. When the answers split, the travel question usually decides it, because a damaged or lost board costs more than the price difference. Whichever material you choose, order a small proof or check a full scale crop of the key figure before the full print goes ahead.

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