Makesigns is a US printing service for scientific posters, now operating under the PosterNerd.com name after a redirect from its old makesigns.com address. The part most academics will land on first is the free template library: 26 downloadable PowerPoint poster templates aimed squarely at researchers who need to put together a conference board without learning a design program. You pick a template, change the colors, drop in your figures and abstract, and the file stays inside PowerPoint the whole way. For a graduate student staring down a deadline, that low barrier is the whole appeal.
Free template library for conference posters
The templates come in the sizes conferences actually ask for: 48x36, 48x24, 36x24, a 36x36 square, and a 36x48 vertical. Everything is built to scale within PowerPoint's 56-inch limit, because a poster that looks fine on screen can fall apart when it is blown up to wall size. Makesigns has clearly thought about that constraint instead of leaving you to discover it the night before printing. There are also partner-specific templates for particular schools and organizations, plus Billboard and Better Poster format options for people who want a layout that breaks from the dense wall-of-text tradition.
Standard sizes and custom formats
The customization is the part worth dwelling on. Each template ships with editable colors and layout blocks, so a chemistry lab and a public-health group can pull from the same starting file and end up with posters that look nothing alike. Because the work happens inside PowerPoint, there is no new software to install and no exported file format to wrestle with at the print stage. That keeps the whole exercise within a tool most academics already use daily, which is a deliberate choice on the part of Makesigns and a sound one. The 26-template count is generous for a free library; many printers offer two or three house styles and call it done.
Customization within PowerPoint
What lifts this above a plain template dump is that the downloads connect to a real print shop. Makesigns prints on both paper and a wrinkle-resistant fabric, the latter being the practical choice if you are flying to a conference and would rather roll your poster into a tube or fold it into a bag. Orders placed before noon Central ship the same day, which is the kind of turnaround that saves a presentation when revisions drag on. I have watched enough lab mates panic-print at 2am to know that same-day shipping is the difference between presenting and not.
Same-day printing and fabric options
Around the core service sit the smaller tools that round things out: poster accessories, design tutorials, and a page-size calculator and converter. The calculator is a quietly useful inclusion, since converting a slide's dimensions to a finished print size is exactly where first-time poster makers get tripped up. The design tutorials show that Makesigns expects a fair number of customers who have never built a research poster before, and meeting that user where they are is more thoughtful than dropping a blank template on them. Payment runs through Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and PayPal, so the checkout covers the usual ground without forcing anyone into a single processor.
Supporting tools and payment methods
If there is a friction point, it is the name change itself. Someone who bookmarked Makesigns or who was pointed to it by an advisor now arrives at PosterNerd branding, and that handoff can be momentarily disorienting. The redirect works, the catalog is the same, but the dual identity is worth knowing before you start clicking around expecting the old logo.
The outside record is consistent and fairly strong. ResellerRatings shows 92 reviews at a flat 5.00 stars, a figure echoed by a coupon aggregator pulling the same data. Smart.reviews lands at 4.3, and TopPRAgencies has 18 reviews averaging 4.7. A Google store page references Makesigns reviews as well, though the exact count there is not confirmed, and a Facebook reviews page exists without accessible content. PosterNerd's own testimonial page still names Makesigns directly, which points to real continuity between the two brands. Spread across several independent platforms, those scores point in the same direction, and that agreement carries more weight than any single perfect rating would.
Checking ratings across multiple platforms
Getting hold of someone is straightforward. A toll-free phone number sits in plain view, business hours are stated as Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm Central, and there is a contact form along with chat support. For a service where a printing question can hold up a poster, having a phone line with posted hours is reassuring; you are not left guessing whether anyone is on the other end. This is the listing where I would not hesitate to call before ordering, especially on a tight conference timeline.
One honest caveat on the reputation side: the 5.00-star ResellerRatings figure is unusually clean for nearly a hundred reviews, and a careful buyer might want to skim a few of those entries before taking the average at face value. The corroborating scores elsewhere soften that concern, but a perfect rating always rewards a second look. Taken together, the spread of platforms gives Makesigns a credible track record, which counts for a lot when you are mailing money to a printer you have never used.
Makesigns is listed in this business directory under printing services, and that narrow fit is appropriate: it is not trying to be a general sign shop despite the name. The service is built for the specific ritual of academic poster sessions, from the template stage through to a printed board in your hands. Everything on offer maps to that one job.
How does Makesigns compare to general printers?
A researcher comparing Makesigns against a campus print center or a generic online printer will notice that the templates, the sizing guidance, and the fabric option are all tuned to conference work in a way a general printer rarely bothers with. The free downloads also serve as a soft introduction: grab a template and build the poster without spending a cent, and only commit money when the decision to print is made. That sequence builds trust before the transaction, and it is part of why Makesigns reads as a service first and a print vendor second.
For a grad student or postdoc with a poster due and limited design time, the practical move is to download a template that matches the conference's required size, build the figures inside PowerPoint, then call the toll-free line to confirm fabric versus paper and the same-day shipping cutoff. If a draft is ready before noon Central, ask specifically about getting it on the truck that day. Makesigns has the infrastructure to make that possible; the question is whether the order gets placed in time.
