There are a wide variety of web tools to help you design beautiful and professional looking posters. One that I have been using for the last couple of years is Canva. This is a simple and easy to use platform which offers access to a huge library of pre-designed templates, graphics, shapes, and different text types to use in creating posters and infographics. A good alternative, though not as rich in features as Canva, is Google Drawings.
Google Drawings is completely free of charge (Canva has a premium plan) and has all the tools and features you need to get started creating educational posters and visuals to use in your teaching. If you have a Google Account then you already have access to Google Drawings. In this post, I share with you a step by step guide to introduce you to the basics of poster creation in Google Drawings.
Here is how to create a poster on Google Drawings:
1- Head over to Google Drive, click on New → More → Google Drawings.
2. Next, type in a title for your poster and customize the background of your poster. To do so, right click anywhere on the canva, click on Background and select a colour.
3- Now that your background is set, insert elements into your poster. You can add text, images, icons, shapes, line, arrows, tables, charts, diagrams, word art, etc. To do so, click on the Insert button from the authoring bar and select which kind of element you want to add
4- Once your poster is complete you can easily share it with others using various sharing options. You can share it through a unique code. You can choose whether you want anyone with the link to access it or restrict it to specific people. You can also edit permission settings to your preferences (e.g., viewer, editor, commenter).
5- You can also email your poster or download it in different formats (e.g., as PDF, PNG, JPEG, or Scalable Vector Graphics). To do so, click on File → Download and choose among the displayed options.
