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So, I have to create a poster (unfortunately) and of course use my favourite tool LaTeX - but here is where it gets problematic:

How does text or typeset size in TikZposter work - because it makes no sense to me...

So let me elaborate: I use a0paper - and just start writing stuff. If I use 12pt, I can fit what seems a reasonable amount of text on it (for A0) - and trying to compare it with plots sized explicitly (say 10cm wide) suggests this would be a an OK size (about twice the height I would expect from 12pt on normal A4 paper). But then the point measurement makes no sense - that is supposed to be absolute??

If I use 25pt or similar (because typeset on a poster should be large) the amount of text that fits on the poster is miniscule - which feels wrong given how large A0 is...

The PDF is sized correctly when I look at the milimetre measurements - so that seems OK, but zooming in to 100% gives me maybe half the size it should be on my laptop... (100% is maybe 40cm wide when A0 would be 89cm wide in portrait mode)

*So, how do the point sizes in TikZposter work?

Should I maybe use a different poster class? (assuming they are easier to work with)*

The most basic example for creating a poster:

\documentclass[a0paper,25pt]{tikzposter}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\block{Background and Motivation}{
A test poster regarding text size. There is no space here for nay reasonable explanation of content...
}

\begin{columns}
\column{0.3}
\block{}
{
Especially with 3 columns there is no horizontal space for content... - this is width 0.3
}
\end{columns}

\end{document}

Once on uses 3 columns, suddenly a single sentence won't fit into it any more...

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  • A0 is 84.1cm × 118.9cm, beside this I don't understand your question, the default sizes (25pt on A0) looks reasonable to me. So you should better show a complete example. (Side remark: tikzposter should'nt use the ae package). – Ulrike Fischer Jul 20 '16 at 8:27
  • Yes, but if I set the fontsize to 25pt I get the impression I can fit about 6 words on a line and that's it - and that feels wrong.... I didn't think an example would be necessary, but I will cook one up. – DetlevCM Jul 20 '16 at 8:30
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A0 is as wide as 4 A4-papers. So your column is more or less as wide as an standard A4 paper.

You can try out the fontsize in A4: 

\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\begin{document}
Especially with 3 columns there is no horiEspecially with 3 columns there is no hori

\fontsize{25pt}{30pt}\selectfont Especially with 3 columns there is no hori
\end{document}

enter image description here

On A4 a 12pt font is okay, if you have only one column, with 2 columns it will imho be a bit to large. This means that on A0 a 25pt font (~ double size than 12pt) is okay if used in columns which use a size from 0.5 to 0.35 of the textwidth but can be too large if the columns gets significally smaller.

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  • Thanks for the answer. It doesn't make my life easier when it comes to choosing a size as I will need to explain some science as well, but it clears things up in terms of how it works. - And prevents me from trying to somehow badly judge the size using relative proportions on my screen. (Why did I never think of the 4 A4 pages next to each other? ...) - So all in all, a perfect answer. Thanks again. – DetlevCM Jul 20 '16 at 9:04
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    @DetlevCM: I would advise to make some example poster, to print it out (in A4-bits) and to glue this parts together so that you get fealing about the real proportions and sizes -- it is very difficult to judge how it will look in reality only by looking at a screen. – Ulrike Fischer Jul 20 '16 at 9:19
  • I think we did that with a friend/colleague when I was back in the UK for him. Here it won't work for me as I can work on the poster during my holiday (and I didn't think of it too) - but yes, again good advice. – DetlevCM Jul 20 '16 at 9:22

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