Create your own poster at home.
Posters are used to advertise, inform or just to express enthusiasm for a certain subject. You can create your own poster if you can't find the specific image in the store--or if you just want to make your ideas for a poster become a reality. To make an aesthetically pleasing, professional-looking poster, you will need to know a few basic things about color, space and focal points, especially if your poster is about a specific subject such as a movie or a person.
Instructions
1. Open a graphic editing program and create a new document that is the size of a standard piece of paper (8.5 by 11 inches). Create a background for the image by filling the whole document with color. Use a neutral background color or a pattern that won't distract from the main focus of the poster.
2. Click on "Image," then "Canvas Size" or something similar in the graphic editor you are using. Enlarge the canvas or the blank area surrounding the background by doubling the width of the document you created. Double it again by height.
3. Copy and paste the background you made into each new quadrant that you made for your poster. You may need to rotate it so that the edges blend seamlessly in the center. Turn this background into one layer by going to "Layers" and then "Merge" in your program.
4. Open a new image into your program that will be the main focus of your poster. Pick the image (or even two or three images) that will help sum up what you want your poster to say. Crop the images down to the main focus, copy and paste them onto the background and arrange them the way you want. Place them in the middle. Add effects such as blending or colorization if you wish.
5. Copy and paste any minor images into the poster and arrange them so that the poster has an equal amount of "weight" on each side. Make the minor images smaller than the main focus images so that they don't distract from them.
6. Choose the text-editing tool in the graphics program and click on the area of the poster where you would like to place the title. Type out the title in the text box and choose sans-serif font. Size it so that it grabs the viewer's attention right away and so that it will be easily read at six to 10 feet away. Make it a color that contrasts from the background and images. Type in a subtext below it somewhere if you wish.
7. Click on "Layers" and then "Merge" or similar to merge the entire poster when you are satisfied. Crop each quadrant and save them all as a separate document. Click "File" and then "Print," and in the print settings, make sure the document spans the entire piece of paper and that there are no margins. Print each quadrant of the poster, then tape them to the wall together or paste them to a poster board.
