How to Design & Print a Poster in Microsoft Word

by Celina Lim

Posters are a fantastic way to advertise your business, from a grand opening to your big sales or an upcoming event. And designing your own means you get to choose exactly what information you include and what it looks like! If Microsoft Word is your weapon of choice, here’s exactly how to make a poster in Word and set it up correctly for printing.

1.    Setting Up Your Poster

First things first, you’ll need to set up a blank poster canvas – by getting the size right at this point, you won’t need to tweak your design to fit the right poster size later.

You might notice that on our website we usually recommend you to add bleed to your artwork, which is where you extend your design out by roughly 3mm to avoid any unwanted borders after printing. With Microsoft Word, you do not have the ability to add bleed when creating a PDF. Hence, you need to make your page size 6mm bigger at the start. You will then treat the extra 6mm or 0.25" (3mm all round) as bleed, which will be removed when we trim your job. Example, if your poster is 30cm x 40cm, the size you set needs to be 30.6cm x 40.6cm.

  • Open up Microsoft Word and create a new blank document
  • Go to Page Layout > Size



  • Under "More Paper Sizes", change the size – if your size is unavailable, click ‘Custom size’.

If that's too much of a hassle, we can do this for you too at a small artwork amendment cost of $10!

 

2.    Using a Poster Template on Word

If designing a poster from scratch isn’t really for you, why not try customising one of the free poster templates available on Microsoft Word? Templates are a great option if you want more of a foundation for your design instead of a blank document. To use these:

  • Open up Microsoft Word
  • Type ‘Posters’ into the search bar at the top of the page
  • Choose from the pre-made templates available and download the one you want
     

microsoft word poster templates

  • You’ll then be able to fully customise the text, colours and images on your chosen template

edit poster edrawmax

 

3.    Adding Text and Images

Now it’s time for the fun bit – piecing together all of the content in your design! 

The easiest way to add text to your poster design is by using text boxes. To add them:

  • Go to Insert > Text Box
  • Select the style you want to use then draw the text box on your design
  • Type in or copy and paste the text you want to use
  • Change the font, size and colour under the Home tab
  • Change the text box under the Format tab

 

For images:

  • Go to Insert > Images
  • Choose a high-resolution image from your computer
  • Double click the image to insert it into your design
  • Drag and drop the image to place it
  • Use the corner handles to change the image size

 

4.    Save Your Design

Before you upload your poster design to be printed, the next step is to save it as a PDF. 

  • Click File > Save As
  • Choose a folder on your computer to save your design
  • Name your file and change ‘Save as type’ to PDF
     

how to save as PDF in Microsoft Word

 

Your design is now ready. Upload your artwork and place your order on Lightning Prints. We’ll then check this for you to make sure it’s print-ready!

And there you have it – you’ve just designed your own poster using Microsoft Word! If you need any more help or would like to get more specific advice on choosing the best poster size, feel free to call us, Lightning Prints, at: 98267596 or email us at: ask.lightningprints@gmail.com or fill up this contact form here!

Til' next time, cheers!

Back to Guides