10 Best Sites for Free PowerPoint Poster Template Downloads

In the academic, scientific and research communities, presenting your findings and research on large format posters during conferences is common practice. Often, these posters are set up with key research findings and lead into a discussion with attendees. A well-crafted poster can start the conversation the right way and get others to pay attention and participate in a discussion.

PowerPoint Poster Icon

While apps like Adobe InDesign and Scribus dominate the professional layout world, PowerPoint is easy enough to use because you can quickly draw content boxes and fill it in with your key ideas.

Use one of the featured free PowerPoint research poster templates found in this tutorial for your next poster presentation. Also, for premium options that really stand out, look at the many professionally-designed premium PowerPoint best poster presentation template found on Envato Elements or GraphicRiver and use it as a basis for your poster presentation.

Use Premium Templates to Save Time

Whenever I build a PowerPoint presentation, it’s rare that I start with a blank slate or with one of Microsoft’s built-in designs. Both of these options take more time and wind up with results that aren’t as good as using a pre-built academic poster template.

Free academic poster templates that are creative, professional and well-designed aren’t easy to come by. Premium poster design template PPT not only make poster presentation creation a breeze, but also set you apart from the rest of the presenters. This is something free scientific poster templates can’t guarantee.

Time is always of the essence. Gearing up for a PowerPoint poster presentation session is all about putting together your key ideas, creating visuals that support those ideas, and preparing to share it with others. 

envato elements presentation templates
Envato Elements includes access to thousands of presentation templates that are easy to customize and update in tools like Microsoft PowerPoint.

That’s why I turn to a couple of services that help me skip ahead in the slide design process. Using a template is as easy as finding a good starting point, customizing it with the details that are specific to your presentation.

One of these sources is Envato Elements, which is a flat rate, all-you-can-download site for creative assets. For a single monthly subscription rate, you unlock the entire design library that includes everything from presentation templates to stock photos to video footage. If you find yourself regularly in need of fresh academic poster template designs, Elements is a great deal!

GraphicRiver also includes an incredible library of presentation templates but you only pay for the individual items that you choose to download and work with
GraphicRiver also includes an incredible library of presentation templates, but you only pay for the individual items that you choose to download and work with.

Another option for presentation templates is GraphicRiver. Instead of unlocking the entire library, you can choose files and purchase them one at a time. When you know what you’re already looking for, GraphicRiver might be the perfect choice to just buy a single PowerPoint template that helps you make an impression with a presentation.

Envato Elements and GraphicRiver doesn’t have templates that are the perfect fit for the traditional PowerPoint poster presentation design, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t useful templates. Use a template from Elements or GraphicRiver for handouts or slides that you can give out.

Top 5 Premium Templates (Envato Elements)

Before we get into our free academic poster templates let’s have a look at some popular premium templates that are icon and graphics rich. These templates will help you create professional poster presentations that are more visual and less wordy. 

1. Graphic Infographic PowerPoint Presentation Template

Graphic Infographic PowerPoint Presentation Template

This graphic infographic PowerPoint presentation comes with 1000 icon sets. It’s simple and easy to customize by adding your own data. Create beautiful and colorful visually appealing poster presentations quickly and easily.

2. Infographic Solutions PowerPoint Template

Infographic Solutions PowerPoint Template

This is a multipurpose collection of more than 200 icons. You can copy/paste every infographic solution slide to your own presentation, and it’ll automatically change colors into new theme colors, making editing just so much easier. This well-organized template is easy to edit, customize, recolor or change size.

3. Medical – PowerPoint Infographics Slides

Medical - PowerPoint Infographics Slides

33 unique slides and loads of features you can use for any medical research poster presentation. Perfect for those who want to present their findings in a simple and interesting way.

4. Chart Infographics PowerPoint Presentation Template

Chart Infographics PowerPoint Presentation Template

Here are 1000 icon sets at your disposal. This is a great must-have-template as you never know when it would come in handy—especially if you’re someone who creates poster presentations that need a lot of charts and graphs to represent your findings visually with lesser words.

5. Environment Infographic PowerPoint Template

Environment Infographic PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template comes stacked with 20 unique slides of educational and science-related graphics and diagrams. If you’re someone who researches or conducts studies about the environment, pollution or anything nature related, this template is ideal for you.

Principles of Poster Design

Before we start designing our poster, let’s review some of the principles that make for successful posters. 

The posters that we’ll build in this presentation will typically follow a common format that you’ll see at conferences. There’s a well-understood format that most audiences will recognize:

  • Titles. It’s not unusual that a poster will accompany a research paper, so it’s helpful to have an official title in case others want to reference or applaud the contents of your poster presentation.
  • Introduction. A plain language version of your research findings is crucial so that anyone can spend just a few seconds and understand the purpose of the research performed.
  • Methods and Procedures. Most research features a structured approach to finding the results
  • Results. Share the data that was an outcome from the results and procedures that you performed.
  • Conclusions. Ultimately, share the findings of your research in a concise conclusion that sums up and conveys your outcome.
  • References. If your research is built on critical assumptions, make sure to reference them in a section of the poster in case viewers want to cross-reference with other original works.

The research poster templates featured in this article typically have these key features. They might be labeled slightly differently, but the general placeholders are there. Just fill them in with your research work, and you’re on your way to a successful poster session!

Not every educational PowerPoint presentation has to fit the traditional poster design template PPT format. If you want to create something educational but eschew the poster format, check out the tutorial below to see 15 of the best poster presentation templates to create learning-centric PowerPoint presentations:

Top Sites for Free PowerPoint Poster Templates

Luckily, there are many talented creatives and researchers that share their hard work in the form of free PowerPoint research poster templates. Many of these sites also offer printing services for the science poster templates. That’s helpful because the science poster templates are non-traditional print sizes that can’t be printed on most consumer printers. 

Let’s check out some of the top sites that offer free poster templates: 

1. PosterPresentations.com

Leading off, the aptly named PosterPresentations.com has a deep library of free download poster presentation templates in an incredible number of printing formats. Just click on any of the thumbnails to download and start customizing these PowerPoint research poster templates in over 20 sizes. You can also use this site to upload the finished science poster template and print the poster.

Don’t miss out on the A0 and A1 format poster templates on this site as well. These are page formats that are fit to be printed on standard sized printing paper. You can use these for handouts to the audience.

PosterPresentationscom
PosterPresentations has more than 20 free poster templates for your next PowerPoint poster.

2. MakeSigns

MakeSigns offers up some of the more modern design options in this PowerPoint poster template round-up. There are 24 separate templates at the link above, each of which has six different sizes and formats that you can print directly through the site. This best poster presentation template free download is easy to use. Just Download the template, add your content, and prepare to print a poster that grabs the audience’s attention.

MakeSigns
MakeSigns keeps it simple with clean designs and all the needed placeholders for a PowerPoint poster.

3. PosterSession.com

This site has over 22 different size formats for printing a PowerPoint poster template. It includes all of the standard poster sizes that’ll fit right at home on the exhibition tables of a showcase or conference. The simplicity of this design can focus the audience on the content instead of overwhelming them with unnecessary design elements.

PosterSessioncom
PosterSession features the same straightforward design on over 20 different size formats that you can choose from.

4. Template.net

One of the best things about this selection of templates is their flexibility. There are eight different choices that you can use to set up your printed poster. The sections in several of the templates aren’t labeled, so make sure to use the list of suggested sections above to build in all of the proper content for your printed poster.

Template PowerPoint Poster Template
Jump to the Template.net round-up of PowerPoint poster templates to choose from one of the eight different templates that you can use to build a printed display poster.

5. Microsoft Office Template Library

The Microsoft Office template library always has a useful set of starting points for your next presentation. You can grab a free scientific poster template like the Science Project template you see below for one of the best ways to build a PowerPoint poster. It’s one of the easiest templates to customize thanks to Microsoft’s attention to detail.

Microsoft Office Template library
Microsoft maintains their library of free poster templates that are free to download and use, including this slick and effective Science Project poster design template PPT.

6. Craft of Scientific Posters

The PowerPoint research poster template format doesn’t get any simpler than the options on this site. All of these make nice use of white space so that the viewer’s eye follows the content from left to right.

It’s important to remember that keeping your free scientific poster template design simple is one of the most important aspects of a successful poster presentation. In reducing the number of design elements, the audience is more likely to focus on the content.

Craft of Scientific Poster Template
Find science poster templates at the Craft of Scientific Posters site.

7. Colin Purrington

Colin Purrington is a Ph.D. and professor at Swarthmore. He also happens to be kind enough to share some excellent PowerPoint poster templates that you can check out at the link above. They’re simple and easy to update.

Make sure to check out Colin’s excellent article on Designing Conference posters. In it, he shares some of the principles that can help you succeed in designing the content for your poster.

Colin Purrington PowerPoint poster template
Colin Purrington shares some excellent PowerPoint poster templates on his website along with additional tips he’s forged from his own experience.

8. ResearchPosters.com

This is another site that allows you to tie into printing academic poster templates with a printing service called Genigraphics. There are six major categories of designs, each of which has dozens of sizes so that your poster will fit in with the standards of any conference. Again, this is another great selection because the conference poster templates are clean, easy-to-update, and include all of the placeholders you need to present.

Research Posters PowerPoint template
Templates on ResearchPosters.com are ready-made for printing through an affiliate service, Genigraphics, and helps ensure that you can print a professional poster that’s ready for presenting.

9. Call4Posters

For our international readers, this might be one of the best poster presentation template free download option in this article thanks to the dimensions that align well with the international dimensions typically expected at conferences. You can download one of these conference poster templates, customize it, and then print it through the same outlet that provided the conference poster templates. 

Call4Posters Template
Call4Posters has some additional slide templates that might be the perfect fit for internationals sessions.

10. Posters4Research

Make sure to check out the link above to see the sheer number of free scientific poster templates that this site offers. This site includes both colorful and straightforward poster templates that you can use to prepare for a big poster session. As you can see in the screenshot below, this best poster presentation template free download has all of the critical elements you need for a successful poster session that grabs your audience’s attention and 

Posters4Research Session
This is one of the more colorful options available through the link above, which includes many poster design template PPT in a variety of print sizes.

Keep Learning

In this article, we checked out some of the best sources for free poster templates. These templates are your key to quickly preparing poster presentations that’ll engage an audience and lead to discussions around your research.

There are plenty of other templates for PowerPoint for nearly every design occasion. Check out the other links in the round-up below to see other ideas for designing presentations and slides that engage an audience:

How do you prepare for your poster presentations? Do you use one of the conference poster templates in this round-up, or do you design your own? Let me know in the comments section below.

Ready to Create a Presentation? Download a Professionally Designed Template Today

We’ve just explored best free poster presentation templates in PowerPoint. But if you need to create a presentation, there’s no better place to get started than with a professionally-designed PowerPoint template such as those found on Envato Elements or GraphicRiver

When you use a template to make your presentation, you save time because you start with top-notch slide designs. Quickly customize the slide templates by adding your own information and images. Why not get started on your next presentation now?

Editorial Note: Our staff updates this post regularly—adding new, exciting and creative academic poster presentation templates with the best, trending designs.

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