Katherine Blundell

Tips on making posters in GLE

First time set-up:

1. You need to install GLE on your computer, or
2. If GLE is already installed, you should put into your path the following: /usr/local/bin/gle (probably by editing your ~/.login file).
3. copy the following files into the directory in which you are making the poster:
   template.gle
   text1.tex
   text2.tex
   text3.tex
   fig1.eps
   fig2.eps
   fig3.eps
   posterize.pl

Putting the poster together:

1. It's best to make a scaled down version of the poster first, which fits on an A4 page. This is easy to do with the template.gle file since it contains two alternative headers - the extract below will give an A4 page:!! uncomment the following two lines to get an A1 version of poster
!size 21*3 29.7*3
!begin scale 3 3
!! uncomment the following two lines to get an A4 version of poster
size 21 29.7
begin scale 1 1
You are recommended to leave the header as above until you are ready to send your poster to the Physics Photographic Unit (aka PPU).
2. Check that the template.gle file compiles correctly by typing at the command line: gle template.gle You can then admire this using ghostview as follows: gv template.eps & It is a good idea to set the gv options so that (1) Watch file is set, (2) Landscape is selected as the orientation and (3) Respect DSC is not selected.
3. You are now ready to begin adding your text and figures. To see how this works, uncomment all the lines in template.gle which begin with the word postscript. Re-run gle template.gle at the command line and you should find that that the gv window automatically updates with the new version of the figure (when including large figures, it is often necessary to click Redisplay on the left menu of the gv window).
4. It is now time to edit the text files, so using e.g. emacs text1.tex & and edit that file so that it contains whatever LaTeXese you want to write. To turn this into an encapsulated postscript file which gle can read you need to do the following:latex text1
dvips -E text1 -o text1.eps Since it would get a little tedious to remember to do all of these steps for each of three text boxes, a little perl script has been put together for your convenience; you run this by simply typing: perl posterize.pl
5. The next step is to iterate on your choice of the text and figures in the various boxes. Note that you can simply print off your proto-poster onto your usual A4 printer to proof-read.
6. A note on the figures which you incorporate: it is a good idea as far as possible to use only encapsulated postscript (.eps files). Some applications create worse postscript than others, and if you are incorporating not-great postscript then you will need to view your proto-poster using gv with the Respect DSC option set.
7. For applications which write bitmapped postscript, make sure you have enough pixels for when the image is scaled to its final size; e.g. when using LWPLA in AIPS, you might experiment with ASPMM.
8. For figures which display contours, make sure that the contours are thick enough (e.g. lpen=3 in LWPLA in AIPS, or VIEW CONTROL in KVIEW) and there are not too many contours (contours separated by sqrt(2) may be too dense; factors of 2 are probably preferable). Aim for bright bold colours if you are overlaying on a predominantly dark greyscale.
9. A very useful description of other capabilities of GLE may be found in the Users' Manual. Some excellent examples of gle scripts are also available.

When you are ready to print the final version:

1. Check that your A4 page is an exact scaled-down version of what you want to end up with; especially check that no figures or text fall off the edge of the page.
2. To transfer your template.eps file to PPU, either 1) ask them for a card with info about how to ftp your file to their machine or 2) put your file on a web-page from which they can download your file.
3. Ask PPU if they will print this onto A1, and laminate it with matt laminate (the shiny laminate is a little irritating to read in most lighting conditions).
4. If it is necessary to roll your poster, it is a good idea to roll it ink-side on the outside.