Once upon a time, the only way I could find posters for my classroom was to buy them at a school supply store or order them from a catalog.  

Then I became a STEM Lab teacher and I needed some really specific posters and could not find them anywhere. So, I started making them!  

And it is probably the most fun I have in creating for my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  

Have I learned anything from making my own poster sets? Well, of course! And I have some fabulous tips for you to print the best posters ever!

The tips I am including are all about creating the most vivid and gorgeous colors possible and making your posters durable! I don’t know about you, but I want items to last- for more than one school year!

Use a heavier weight of copy paper – like a 24-30 lb. with a high brightness level. The best paper I have ever found for posters is from Staples- Premium Color Laser Gloss paper, 96 bright and 32 lb. Posters print beautifully on this paper.

But, be cautious with the glossy paper. The ink does not dry as quickly and will smear easily. 

I also use the Instant Ink program which means you pay a monthly fee for the number of copies you think you will use. When your ink begins to run low, HP automatically sends you a new box. It arrives before you run out of ink. You recycle the used cartridges and keep printing.

So, what’s the tip? I am much more likely to print color pages because of this printer and the ink program. The colors are vivid and bright! Trust me: I print every poster set before uploading it to my store to make sure the colors work well, so having a great printer solution is a big deal!

If you are interested in the Instant Ink program (you have to have an HP printer) here’s my affiliate link: INSTANT INK  By using the link you will receive a free month!

If you are not interested in purchasing a printer to use at home, you can also get an office supply store to print posters for you. This adds to the cost of the posters, but they look fantastic!

If you are laminating brightly colored posters don’t do it at school! I can’t tell you how many times the school laminator has wrinkled or ruined something I was feeding through.

I have a personal laminator (the one in the photo) at home and it works great! The lamination is a heavier plastic and trims well- if you need to do any trimming.

Hanging in a Line (that is not crooked)!

I learned a long time ago to not try to make the letters on my boards in a straight line. I almost always make each letter turn a little- so the crookedness is much harder to detect.

TIP: What if you want your letters to stay in a line? I used to measure and draw a pencil line, but now I just use blue painter’s tape. I spread my letters out on a large table and use the edge of the table as the guideline. When the letters are in place I lay the tape over the top of them and then tape it to the board. Staple all the letters in place and remove the blue tape! Tip #2- the blue painter’s tape will not work on paper letters! Laminate them first. I learned this the hard way:(

I start with the border! Then I find colored paper to match the colors of the border and make the letters from the paper. I also have a big bin of pom-poms, tissue paper, banners, large fans, and more. From that bin, I choose some decorative items in the same colors and BAM I have a well-coordinated board. My tip is to save all those items when you pull them off the board and reuse them later!  

Tip #2 – I never staple decorative items or posters to bulletin boards. Eventually, the board has to come down and I find the staples much harder to remove and sometimes I will tear something that I wanted to save. I use pushpins instead!

Yes, construction paper or card stock will work, but scrapbook paper comes in more colors!

Tip: If you decide to try printing smaller, print the first item in black/white to make sure it works for your frame or wherever you plan to put the poster. I had to adjust the size of the poster in my frame several times before I got it just right.

Look carefully at the viewing window above. Have we enlarged the poster? NO! Even though this one uses two pieces of paper (you can see a dotted line in the center), the size of each half does not fill the page- meaning this poster will not be any larger than normal. You want the poster pieces to fill more of the white space. (By the way, those dotted lines are where the two sides of the image will overlap.)

Above is an example of a larger poster.      

I changed this one to 120% and you can see how much more space is filled.  It still uses 2 sheets of paper. After cutting out the two sides of the poster you must tape them together. (There is an overlap edge on both sides when these print.)

Let’s make it even larger!

The next step is to trim. Posters made like this will have overlapping edges. For this poster, I trimmed off the sides of the left two posters and trimmed off the bottom edges of the top two posters. (The green arrow is pointing to trim lines that are on the printed poster. You can use those as a guide for your paper cutter.)

The next step is to trim. Posters made like this will have overlapping edges. For this poster, I trimmed off the sides of the left two posters and trimmed off the bottom edges of the top two posters. (The green arrow is pointing to trim lines that are on the printed poster. You can use those as a guide for your paper cutter.)

A final tip about enlarging: If you try enlarging a page I would suggest you change the percentage to something that will only use 2 pieces of paper. Lining up the edges for 4 sheets and getting them taped in place is harder!

Have fun printing your posters and I hope my tips will save you time and money (by not wasting paper or ink)!