[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":214},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-affiche-qui-se-lit-de-loin-en":3},{"_path":4,"_dir":5,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":8,"description":9,"date":10,"body":11,"_type":208,"_id":209,"_source":210,"_file":211,"_stem":212,"_extension":213},"\u002Fblog\u002Faffiche-qui-se-lit-de-loin","blog",false,"en","A poster is read from five metres, not on your screen","Most posters are designed thirty centimetres from a monitor and read from five metres in the street. That gap is the whole problem.","2026-08-14",{"type":12,"children":13,"toc":198},"root",[14,22,28,33,40,45,50,56,61,72,82,92,97,103,108,113,118,124,129,141,147,152,166,187,193],{"type":15,"tag":16,"props":17,"children":19},"element","h1",{"id":18},"a-poster-is-read-from-five-metres-not-on-your-screen",[20],{"type":21,"value":8},"text",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":24,"children":25},"p",{},[26],{"type":21,"value":27},"A poster is designed sitting down, thirty centimetres from a screen, at 100 % zoom. It is read standing up, from five metres, while walking, with two seconds of attention and often under bad lighting.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":29,"children":30},{},[31],{"type":21,"value":32},"That gap explains almost every failed poster. They are not ugly — they are illegible at the distance where people meet them.",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":35,"children":37},"h2",{"id":36},"the-five-metre-test",[38],{"type":21,"value":39},"The five-metre test",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":41,"children":42},{},[43],{"type":21,"value":44},"There is a check that costs nothing and almost nobody runs: print your poster at A4, pin it to the wall, take five steps back and look.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":46,"children":47},{},[48],{"type":21,"value":49},"If you cannot tell what it is about within two seconds, the poster needs redoing. Not tweaking: redoing, because the problem is structural. Too much information sits at the same level, and the eye has no way in.",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":51,"children":53},{"id":52},"three-levels-no-more",[54],{"type":21,"value":55},"Three levels, no more",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":57,"children":58},{},[59],{"type":21,"value":60},"A poster that works reads in three stages, at three distances.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":62,"children":63},{},[64,70],{"type":15,"tag":65,"props":66,"children":67},"strong",{},[68],{"type":21,"value":69},"From far",{"type":21,"value":71},", the subject must land: one word, one image, one colour. That decides whether someone steps closer or walks on.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":73,"children":74},{},[75,80],{"type":15,"tag":65,"props":76,"children":77},{},[78],{"type":21,"value":79},"From two metres",{"type":21,"value":81},", the essentials: what, when, where. Three pieces of information, not eight.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":83,"children":84},{},[85,90],{"type":15,"tag":65,"props":86,"children":87},{},[88],{"type":21,"value":89},"From one metre",{"type":21,"value":91},", the detail: price, contact, legal lines, QR code. Nobody reads that level from a distance, and that is fine — it is not meant for that.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":93,"children":94},{},[95],{"type":21,"value":96},"If all three levels share the same type size, there are no levels at all. Hierarchy does the work, not the amount of information.",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":98,"children":100},{"id":99},"contrast-matters-more-than-colour",[101],{"type":21,"value":102},"Contrast matters more than colour",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":104,"children":105},{},[106],{"type":21,"value":107},"On a screen, light text on a light background stays readable because the screen emits its own light. On paper pinned in a badly lit corridor, the same combination disappears.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":109,"children":110},{},[111],{"type":21,"value":112},"It is the same reasoning applied to interfaces, where contrast is calculated rather than eyeballed. On a poster the rule of thumb is simple: if you have to squint at the preview, it is already lost in real conditions.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":114,"children":115},{},[116],{"type":21,"value":117},"Watch out for fine, elegant typefaces too. A high-contrast face, beautiful as a large heading on a website, becomes fragile in print at small sizes on absorbent stock.",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":119,"children":121},{"id":120},"format-and-substrate-change-everything",[122],{"type":21,"value":123},"Format and substrate change everything",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":125,"children":126},{},[127],{"type":21,"value":128},"An A3 in a window, an A1 on a board, a roll-up in a lobby and a poster pasted outdoors share neither reading distance nor paper constraints. An outdoor substrate needs moisture and UV resistance that standard paper does not have.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":130,"children":131},{},[132,134,139],{"type":21,"value":133},"For common formats, printing goes through ",{"type":15,"tag":65,"props":135,"children":136},{},[137],{"type":21,"value":138},"Copifac, rue des Arènes in Limoges",{"type":21,"value":140},": paper chosen on site, a proof you can check, and collection without shipping costs — which counts when the poster goes up tomorrow. They also print stickers and textiles, which opens options paper cannot offer: a window decal lasts months outdoors, shrugs off rain, and reads from the street without taking up space inside. For very large format or long-term outdoor use, we look together at the right supplier for the substrate.",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":142,"children":144},{"id":143},"what-gets-prepared-upstream",[145],{"type":21,"value":146},"What gets prepared upstream",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":148,"children":149},{},[150],{"type":21,"value":151},"A poster moves fast when the brand already exists. Colours are set, type is chosen, the logo has a large-format variant. All that is left is composition.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":153,"children":154},{},[155,157,164],{"type":21,"value":156},"When none of that exists, every poster restarts from zero and ends up matching neither the previous ones nor the website. That is the point of handling ",{"type":15,"tag":158,"props":159,"children":161},"a",{"href":160},"\u002Fen\u002Fbrand-identity",[162],{"type":21,"value":163},"brand identity",{"type":21,"value":165}," before the assets, rather than reconstructing it asset by asset.",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":167,"children":168},{},[169,171,177,179,185],{"type":21,"value":170},"The service is ",{"type":15,"tag":158,"props":172,"children":174},{"href":173},"\u002Fen\u002Fprint-design",[175],{"type":21,"value":176},"detailed here",{"type":21,"value":178},", and prices are ",{"type":15,"tag":158,"props":180,"children":182},{"href":181},"\u002Fen\u002Fpricing",[183],{"type":21,"value":184},"public",{"type":21,"value":186},".",{"type":15,"tag":34,"props":188,"children":190},{"id":189},"what-to-take-away",[191],{"type":21,"value":192},"What to take away",{"type":15,"tag":23,"props":194,"children":195},{},[196],{"type":21,"value":197},"Print at A4, take five steps back. It is the most profitable test in print, it takes two minutes, and it will stop you printing a hundred copies of something nobody will read.",{"title":199,"searchDepth":200,"depth":200,"links":201},"",2,[202,203,204,205,206,207],{"id":36,"depth":200,"text":39},{"id":52,"depth":200,"text":55},{"id":99,"depth":200,"text":102},{"id":120,"depth":200,"text":123},{"id":143,"depth":200,"text":146},{"id":189,"depth":200,"text":192},"markdown","content:en:blog:affiche-qui-se-lit-de-loin.md","content","en\u002Fblog\u002Faffiche-qui-se-lit-de-loin.md","en\u002Fblog\u002Faffiche-qui-se-lit-de-loin","md",1786781053357]