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Making Scientific Posters?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg92393] Making Scientific Posters?
• From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
• Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:36:25 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Stanford University

Have to make a couple of scientific meeting posters (on the order of 44" 
X 44") for the very first time ­­ would appreciate advice and counsel 
from more experienced "old hands"  on best way to approach this (or 
pointers to recommended tutorials).

Each poster's contents will be primarily 8 or 9 pieces of vector artwork 
(labeled plots, blocks of text, none of them especially complex) that 
can be generated separately and will be of varying sizes but each one 
roughly letter-sized.  May contain a few raster files (jpeg, tiff) also.

Available tools include Illustrator, Mathematica, Acrobat Standard, and 
Photoshop Elements, all on Mac OSX.  Final copy will be printed (only 
one copy needed) by a commercial service.

Questions include:

1)  Is best approach to just set up a full sized artboard in 
Illustrator, then drag individually proofed vector and raster files onto 
it?  If so, embed these files, or just link to them?  What's the best 
format for the individual vector files:  PDF, Postscript, EPS, or .ai?  
Any good reason to embed individual files on different layers in the 
master file?

2)  Since individual vector files are mostly Mathematica-generated, at 
least initially, would any Mathematica aficionados advise instead merging or 
linking all the individual Mathematica notebooks into one master notebook, with 
adjustable (x,y) offsets for each graphic, then generating and exporting 
the whole poster in one massive Mathematica graphic?

3)  Any preference between making the final file be an AI or PDF file, 
containing largely vector content, or converting that file into a huge 
jpeg or tiff copy at the final printer's known resolution, and then 
proofing and printing that?

Thanks for any advice.