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If you are doing a PowerPoint presentation or Web page or transparency or anything else which would appear on a screen (electronically) instead of paper, then you should choose plain, san serif fonts like these:

Arial,

Helvetica,

Impact,

Trebuchet,

Verdana.

These are the most popular fonts currently available and the ones you should use because "...the user must actually have that font installed and running on her system for your text to be displayed using" the same font you have chosen.

~Willard, Wendy. (2001). Preparing content for the web. Web design: a beginner's guide. Berkeley, CA: Osborne/McGraw Hill.

"On the whole, the Web design community voices a mixed response to the use of serif [like Times New Roman] and sans serif fonts online...we find san serif fonts easier to read online as well as more visually appealing."

~Millhollon, Mary and Castrina, Jeff. (2001). Looking like you know what you're doing: web page and web design. Easy Web Design. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.

Font Sizes

40-point type (depending on the size of the room) (mine)

avoid ornate fonts; difficult to read

44-point type for main points/major headings, 40-point for subheads, 36-point for body text (mine)

no more than two different typefaces in a single visual aid

avoid all caps; use upper- and lowercase

do not overuse bold, underlining and italics

to emphasize a work, use color instead of bold, underlining, italics (mine)

    ~O'Hair, Dan, Stewart, Rob and Rubenstein, Hannah. (2001). Presentation Aids. A Speaker's Guidebook. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Font Colors

high contrast between fonts and backgrounds is a must particularly because projection screens diminish colors and contrast

for backgrounds, use blue, greens and neutral colors (tans, whites)

for fonts and graphics, use colors that contrast but do not clash or blend into the background

for highlighting, yellow, orange and red rank highest in visibility depending on the background color

to de-emphasize, use softer lighter colors

use not more than four colors in a single graphic; two or three are even better

stay within the same family of color hues

   ~O'Hair, Dan, Stewart, Rob and Rubenstein, Hannah. (2001). Presentation Aids. A Speaker's Guidebook. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Font Designs

4-6 lines of type per single graphic

40 characters per line

phrases not sentences

uppercase and lowercase typefaces

AVOID all caps

simple, block style typefaces

bullets should be flush left, not centered (mine)

same space at top of visuals

   ~Hamilton, Cheryl. (1996). Designing your visual message. Successful Public Speaking. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

How many slides?

    Length of speech + 1 = maximum number of visuals

                2

   ~Hamilton, Cheryl. (1996). Designing your visual message. Successful Public Speaking. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

"I suggest leaving the first slide blank. That way the speaker can begin the slide show without revealing information until s/he is ready."

    ~Paula Dixon. (2005). Multimedia & Public Address Class Lecture. Emmanuel College. Franklin Springs, GA.

Animation & Sounds

"Avoid overdoing these. These effects are meant to enhance one's presentation, not distract from it. If one uses too many special effects, then there's nothing special about them."

    ~Paula Dixon. (2001). Oral Communication Class Lecture. Emmanuel College. Franklin Springs, GA.

Paula K. Dixon, M.A. Communication

PD's PowerPoint Guidelines

The following information also applies to presentations using Web pages or transparencies.

PowerPoint Tutorial

PD's Speech Checklist

Font Choices

Font Sizes

Font Colors

Font Designs

How many slides?