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For a scientific conference I would like to make a poster. I have noticed that there are three more or less popular classes for that: umbcposter, baposter, tikzposter.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the classes compared with each other?

Edit: I am not talking about just a list of LaTeX packages with which one can make posters. I am looking for advantages and disadvantages (as already mentioned). This is not provided by How to create posters using LaTeX

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    I think you'll find the answer in: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/341/…
    – Ignasi
    Sep 24, 2015 at 15:41
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    No, I don't. I found lists and tutorials but no comparison via advantages and disadvantages.
    – Make42
    Sep 24, 2015 at 16:34
  • Posters are big things with quite a few (but important) information. That leads to one conclusion: Place stuff by hand. All automated placement needs fixing either way. Choosing a class/package really is a matter of taste. It doesn't matter, if you generate boxes with TikZ, tcb or pstricks.
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 24, 2015 at 16:37
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    Voting to reopen because this isn't a duplicate. Even if comparing the options is hard/opinion-based (as I think @Johannes_B is insinuating), this should not be closed as a duplicate.
    – Adam Liter
    Sep 24, 2015 at 16:47
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    Place stuff by hand = use PowerPoint? Or choose package... which one is providing what you are saying? It may be that its a matter of taste, but I can't have taste about something that I haven't tried yet, and for now I wanted to draw on the knowledge of the community instead of trying out every available class (which is what stackexchange is about, I guess). advantages/disadvantages are not about opinion.
    – Make42
    Sep 24, 2015 at 16:48

1 Answer 1

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Please feel to correct or add aspects!

tikzposter

Advantages / Pros

  1. Recently worked on - last time in 2015 (in CTAN is a 2014 version so far)
  2. Supports block columns
  3. Supports "notes" to blocks

Disadvantages / Cons

  1. Conflicts with package hyperref* (= fixed bug, but fix is not yet in CTAN)
  2. Package ragged2e shifts the title in unexpected way*.
  3. Conflicts with package microtype* (= fixed bug, but fix is not yet in CTAN
  4. No free floating blocks supported

|* Own experience

Tips

For package xcolor use \PassOptionsToPackage to pass options to xcolor. Wether you also \usepackage{xcolor} or not makes no difference since tikz already loads xcolor. Because of this options may clash if they are passed directly to a \usepackage{xcolor}. An example:

\PassOptionsToPackage{usenames,dvipsnames,svgnames,table}{xcolor}

baposter

Advantages / Pros

  1. Got a lot of praise

Disadvantages / Cons

  1. Not included in CTAN (but can be rather easily downloaded and included).
  2. Not recently worked on - last time in 2011
  3. I had trouble getting it to work.

a0poster

Advantages / Pros

  1. Feature: Supports large canvases
  2. Provides appropriate font sizes from /tiny (12pt) over \normalsize (24.88pt) to \VERYHuge (107pt)
  3. Support from A0 to A3

Disadvantages / Cons

  1. Does not support any ways of setting blocks
  2. Does not support the change of the definition of \normalsize

beamerposter

Advantages / Pros

?

Disadvantages / Cons

?

tcolorbox

Advantages / Pros

?

Disadvantages / Cons

?

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  • Can you give references for your points? I know for sure that tikzposter is not conflicting with xcolor in any way.
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 26, 2015 at 11:24
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    By the way, tikposter has been last worked on in 2015, but the changes did not made their way to CTAN so far. bitbucket.org/surmann/tikzposter
    – Johannes_B
    Sep 26, 2015 at 11:25
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    TikZ poster is based on TikZ which uses xcolor as its main color provider. There cannot be a clash whatsoever. You probably used dvipsnames or similar keys for the package which is not defaulted with TikZ. For that add \PassOptionsToPackage{dvipsnames}{xcolor} before \documentclass. Also they definitely don't clash with hyperref or microtype they must be user errors but not package errors. ragged2e is not even a measure for judging any package. It has a very specific task which is not necessarily meant to support every package out there. These are pretty questionable conclusions.
    – percusse
    Sep 26, 2015 at 23:32
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    A bad way of selecting a product on Amazon is no better as a way of selecting software. According to your summary, it gets a lot of praise but you had trouble getting it to even work. Does the praise outweigh the non-workingness? Presumably not. And 'I had trouble getting it to work' could mean anything - it isn't a disadvantage without more detail. (Maybe you had trouble getting it to work because your computer blew up or your cat kept walking over your keyboard during testing.)
    – cfr
    Sep 30, 2015 at 21:00
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    Can you please add your document that leads to these errors? I cannot replicate any of your errors with your description. Also I used these before a lot and neever happened to me either. And again having a specific bug is not an advantage/disadvantage. I can fill the page with baposter bugs. Also where is this praise you are mentioning. I actually seearched and found nothing. And you are missing beamerposter
    – percusse
    Oct 1, 2015 at 20:35

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