What is an e-poster?

How an e-poster differs from a printed poster

A printed research poster is usually portrait A0 or a set size such as 48 by 36 inches, read from a metre or two while the author stands beside it. An e-poster is usually landscape, a 16:9 page sized for a television screen, and it may be browsed on a touchscreen, viewed in an online gallery or presented for a few minutes to a room. That shape is short and wide, so the layout runs in columns across rather than sections down, and the word count has to fall with it. Several congresses also let authors add narration, which moves detail out of the text and into the voice.

What organisers usually ask for

The pattern across congresses is consistent even where the details differ. One page or one slide, landscape, in PDF, under a stated file size, uploaded through the congress platform by a deadline that is often weeks before the meeting. The EAAE meeting in 2025 displayed every poster on 55 inch touchscreens at 1920 by 1080 and capped files at 5 MB; EHA accepted only one page PDFs; EAN required a 16:9 PDF with narration and gave presenters three minutes. Some meetings reject PowerPoint files, others require them, so the instructions for the specific congress always win.

Designing for a screen

A 55 inch screen at Full HD has far fewer pixels than an A0 print at 300 DPI, so fine detail disappears. Use fewer, larger elements: one main figure, a short method, and three or four findings in large type. Keep text away from the edges in case the display crops, avoid thin lines and pale colours that wash out on screens, and test the PDF by viewing it full screen on a television or monitor before uploading. Embedded videos and animations are usually not supported in a PDF, and a QR code may be banned on some platforms, so read the rules before relying on either.

Common mistakes

Shrinking a portrait A0 poster onto a landscape slide, which leaves unreadable text in a narrow strip. Exceeding the file size because figures were pasted as uncompressed images. Uploading after the deadline and missing the session list. Using the wrong ratio, so the screen shows black bars on two sides. And writing a narration that reads the text aloud instead of explaining the one result that matters.

Making a 16:9 e-poster with the product

The poster builder makes A0 boards only, portrait at 1656 by 2340 or landscape at 2340 by 1656 on the canvas, exported at twice that size as PDF, PNG or JPG. A0 has a ratio of about 1.41 to 1, not 16:9, so a landscape A0 board shown on a 16:9 screen gets bars at the sides. For a congress that wants a 16:9 page, a single 1920 by 1080 slide from the presentation builder matches the screen exactly and exports to PDF. Both exports are images of the page, so text in the PDF is not selectable; check whether the congress needs searchable text before submitting.

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