Expert insights. Personalized for you.
One of the questions that comes up often in my workshops is "How big of a font should I use?" These two presentations have set the record for smallest font used on a slide in my experience. They used a five point font. So how do I answer the font size question? I did the research to come up with a way that I could determine an appropriate font size. Now I can answer the font size question based on research, not on a feeling. MORE
One of the most popular sans-serif fonts is Helvetica. Helvetica is an excellent font for presentation slides for several reasons: It is simple and elegant. Here is the trailer for the film to give you an idea of just how prevalent the font is in our daily lives. MORE
As of early November, 2011, Microsoft has provided notification of a serious security vulnerability that are transmitted via TrueType fonts. Office documents can include embedded fonts that automatically install themselves when the document is opened, so PowerPoint, Word and Excel files should be considered risky. MORE
Font Size. Sometimes you want your text to have different font sizes. In the image above, however, there is a problem with the font size. Font Style. Another common problem is that slides often have text with multiple font styles. MORE
Right-click one of the labels of the axis and choose Font. In the Font dialog box, select the current font in the Size box. Here’s the resulting slide after increasing the font size of both axes and removing some irrelevant junk. MORE
Dave Paradi did the research so you can always know how to determine the right font size for your PowerPoint! Read his post and then click the link to download his handy table which breaks down appropriate font size by screen size and the distance to the furthest person in the room. MORE
I have been using the first two hacks—Unsplash … Continue reading → Design Font Squirrel PowerPoint Presentation Panda public speaking Slide PresentationAdam Noar, founder of the firm Presentation Panda, recently sent me the infographic below. It offers five simple, but effective, design hacks that you can use to improve the quality of your slide presentations. MORE
Mix & match typography: Many types of fonts, text in shapes, text is the graphic. Fonts have varied attributes. Illustrations, scanned objects, handmade fonts, sketchy look, illustrated elements. Connie Malamed is an instructional designer and author. MORE
I was mortified to discover this weekend that the fonts on my blog were all mismatched. I had no idea that I had three different fonts going on; of course it looks different on my computer, because my default is set to Arial. I hope this looks better and I hope you forgive me for putting out such a mess of fonts until now. Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet ? MORE
Charts, tables & diagrams Text & fonts Equation Editor equations formulasSometimes, you need to display a complex formula or equation in PowerPoint. For years, PowerPoint has had this capability, but not many people know about it. MORE
Charts, tables & diagrams Text & fonts SmartArt As you probably know, SmartArt (available since PowerPoint 2007) is a way of converting bulleted text to a diagram, or at least a visually attractive graphic. MORE
1. Dense sentences in small (6-8) point font : If you have to make your font that tiny to get all the information on the slide, you’re saying too much. . 3. Impenetrable number slides: Numbers are important elements of a business presentation; but when they appear in long columns of 6 point font they do nothing but overwhelm an audience. . . Part 1: The Seven Deadly Sins. . During the last month I have seen some seriously challenged PowerPoint Slide decks. MORE
Of course, you can manually reduce the size of the font; sometimes you have to. But reducing the font size should be a last resort, so you shouldn’t let PowerPoint do it automatically. Content Text & fonts autofit Options dialog box select entire word text MORE
Font Trends 2019: Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations. Font Trends 2019: Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations. Choosing the right font is an art as it can make or break your entire presentation look and feel. Lydian is a “humanist” sans-serif font. MORE
This meant that all of the fonts were huge (88pt instead of 44pt, for example). 5) Be consistent with fonts and text. The slide master used Helvetica fonts. This is a Mac font and my client was working on Keynote on a Mac. MORE
Text & fonts line spacingI did a makeover of a slide that included a quotation from the man who discovered the circulatory system. I was SO pleased to get a public domain image of a portrait of him — considering the quote was from 1628! MORE
That font doesn’t match those shoes.&#. For years, people in black clothes and matching square-frame glasses have told you that font choice is important for successful communication. But how important are fonts, really ? “Please. MORE
Change font, font style (bold/italic), and font size. For example, you can change the font, the font style, and size. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled new new features for PowerPoint, Morph and Designer. MORE
Recently I’ve read a number of articles or online comments that exhort presenters to abandon boring fonts like Arial or Calibri. The argument is these fonts are overused and instead, you should search for and use a cool font that makes you stand out. One article even suggested what search term you should use to locate an appropriately cool font. For the presenters who live in the corporate arena, choosing a cool downloaded font is a bad idea. MORE
Charts, tables & diagrams Design principles Shapes & text boxes Text & fonts skude rykesm skude desugb Slide design can be very subjective but there are some rules that are objective. These rules ensure that your slide is easy to understand and remember. MORE
Design principles Shapes & text boxes Text & fonts bottom-justify slide titles text placeholders top-justify By default, most PowerPoint themes align slide titles midway between the top and the bottom of a text placeholder. MORE
I have been using the first two hacks—Unsplash … Continue reading → Design Font Squirrel PowerPoint Presentation Panda public speaking Slide PresentationAdam Noar, founder of the firm Presentation Panda, recently sent me the infographic below. It offers five simple, but effective, design hacks that you can use to improve the quality of your slide presentations. MORE
Turns out, a recent security update caused Open Type fonts not to display in PowerPoint. We had the same problem! It wreaked a bit of havoc before The PowerPoint® Blog released a fix. The fine folks at the PowerPoint® Blog identified the problem (Microsoft Security Update KB2753842) and a offered a solution (remove it.). All the info you need is here. Good luck! Design Diary Event News Technology Tips error fix issue microsoft patch ppt security The PowerPoint Blog update MORE
Are you a font freak? Do you just LOVE interesting fonts? I must admit that I’m a font idiot who can hardly tell the difference between Arial, Tahoma and Verdana, unless they’re right next to each other. Embed fonts. PowerPoint lets you embed fonts. MORE
Text & fonts collaborate comments reviewPowerPoint doesn’t have as complete a set of collaboration tools as Microsoft Word does. For example, you can’t track changes. But you can insert and reply to comments like you can in Word. MORE
Tip: The font size is 192! When you choose a text size from the Font Size drop-down list, the highest value is 96, but you can type a larger value. PowerPoint Tips Text & fonts animate text graphic graphic text text MORE
Don’t use custom fonts and don’t embed fonts. Embedding fonts is a way to use custom fonts so that others who don’t have the font can view it. But occasionally, an embedded font can lock up a file (and not all fonts are embeddable anyway). MORE
Do you open a new presentation and constantly change the font, font size, font color, alignment and more? One of my readers asked this question because the organization wants presentations to use the Arial font, but the default always comes up using Calibri. MORE
Fonts. Not all fonts are suitable for presentations, but if you know the font and it is common on computers, use it. If not, try something else, because you don’t want font problems. Embedding fonts often doesn’t work. MORE
DaFont is a site for free fonts. It always helps to include an original font (as long as it’s appropriate for the topic and legible). Resources Design fonts images videoJon Thomas, in his blog, Presentation Advisors , has written a post, “ My Five Favorite Free Presentation Design Tools ,&# and I thought I’d share them with you. Compfight is a tool to search for images on Flikr. MORE
You should customize the font, font color, font placement, font size and any graphics you want to put there. I had a client who gave day-long training courses and his presentations were 200-300 slides long. MORE
Then, on the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Character Spacing’s down arrow and choose an option, such as Tight. (If If you want finer control, you can choose More Spacing to open the Font dialog box with the Character Spacing tab on top. Text & fonts MORE
PowerPoint Tips Shapes & text boxes Slide layout Text & fonts capitalization slide layout slide titles SmartArt text boxes textboxes uppercase I see lots of slides that clients create and then ask me to help them make over. MORE
Unlike your human audience, you can just keep on adding information into a slide and the font size will adjust to allow as much information as you like. One of the many clever things that PowerPoint can do is allow you to dump lots of information into it. MORE
A lot of presentation designers have made comments in the last year or two about what font you should choose for your PowerPoint slides. Almost every designer suggests that you abandon the built-in fonts like Arial or Calibri. They claim that by using a standard font, you won't stand out. Instead of the fonts that they claim are overused, they suggest you find a cool font to download and use that instead. In the world we live in, a downloaded font is a bad idea. MORE
Slide layout Text & fonts date and time footer slide time Let’s say that you’re running a meeting and want to keep everyone on track so that the meeting ends on time. These days, fewer people wear watches. (My MORE
At almost every sales writing or email etiquette workshop I present someone asks me which is the best font to use. The research is inconclusive and often contradicting so here are my thoughts and an overview of recent findings: • Instructions written in a plain Arial font are more likely to be completed than those written in a script-like font. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched its default font on its e-mail system to save money and be more eco-friendly. MORE
Don’t worry about the text size, font, or color right now. At this point, make the following slight adjustments: Change the text size, color, and font. Would you like to create your own logo, product image, or course symbol in PowerPoint in a few minutes — following some easy steps? MORE
Of course, keeping all of the text against the blue of the sky in this case would mean reducing the size of the font, which is never desirable in a presentation slide. Tags: PowerPoint Dave Paradi font size looking at pictures and text photographs I recently came across this short video. In it, Dave Paradi explains why photographs in a presentation can be more effective than reams of text when it comes to getting a message across to our audiences. MORE
Content Text & fonts Notepad outline paste text PowerPoint presentations slides text WordI recommend writing what you will say in Word first, because it’s easier to focus on your message. In another post, “ Organize content with an outline ,” I provide some more details. MORE
His designer told him that he should use thin fonts, meaning that the font stroke is thin. Use a thin, sans-serif font. Thin fonts are popular now. There’s a reason that you’re seeing thinner fonts on your phone. MORE
Public speaking, media training, presentation training, crisis communications Home Live Video About TJ Products & Services FAQs « Scott Brown Thanks David Koch for Money, and then Asks for More How Big Should Font Size be on PowerPoint Slide? MORE
Public speaking, media training, presentation training, crisis communications Home Live Video About TJ Products & Services FAQs « NPR CEO Vivian Shiller Resigns CEO of American Apparel Sued for Using Teen Employee as Sex Slave » How Big Should Font Size be on PowerPoint Slide? MORE
Also check the uniformity of your fonts, line spacings and indentations.). Choose a font that is legible. I recommend Sans-Serif fonts such as Arial or Gill Sans. The bigger the font size, the better. I recommend that your fonts be 24 point minimum, and preferably bigger. It’s been said that there is a great deal of truth in humour and the video clip below is a perfect case in point. It is from a comedy skit delivered by Don McMillan. MORE
Font Related Topics PowerPoint Tips
OCTOBER 11, 2014
Are you a font freak? Do you just LOVE interesting fonts? I must admit that I’m a font idiot who can hardly tell the difference between Arial, Tahoma and Verdana, unless they’re right next to each other. Embed fonts. PowerPoint lets you embed fonts.
PowerPoint Tips
DECEMBER 25, 2012
Then, on the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Character Spacing’s down arrow and choose an option, such as Tight. (If If you want finer control, you can choose More Spacing to open the Font dialog box with the Character Spacing tab on top. Text & fonts
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Manner of Speaking
MAY 15, 2011
One of the most popular sans-serif fonts is Helvetica. Helvetica is an excellent font for presentation slides for several reasons: It is simple and elegant. Here is the trailer for the film to give you an idea of just how prevalent the font is in our daily lives.
Can You Hear Me Up the Back?
FEBRUARY 1, 2010
That font doesn’t match those shoes.&#. For years, people in black clothes and matching square-frame glasses have told you that font choice is important for successful communication. But how important are fonts, really ? “Please.
TJ Walker Interactive
MARCH 9, 2011
Public speaking, media training, presentation training, crisis communications Home Live Video About TJ Products & Services FAQs « NPR CEO Vivian Shiller Resigns CEO of American Apparel Sued for Using Teen Employee as Sex Slave » How Big Should Font Size be on PowerPoint Slide?
Speak Schmeak
MARCH 17, 2008
I was mortified to discover this weekend that the fonts on my blog were all mismatched. I had no idea that I had three different fonts going on; of course it looks different on my computer, because my default is set to Arial. I hope this looks better and I hope you forgive me for putting out such a mess of fonts until now. Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet ?
PowerPoint Tips
NOVEMBER 13, 2011
As of early November, 2011, Microsoft has provided notification of a serious security vulnerability that are transmitted via TrueType fonts. Office documents can include embedded fonts that automatically install themselves when the document is opened, so PowerPoint, Word and Excel files should be considered risky.
Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog
MAY 1, 2012
A lot of presentation designers have made comments in the last year or two about what font you should choose for your PowerPoint slides. Almost every designer suggests that you abandon the built-in fonts like Arial or Calibri. They claim that by using a standard font, you won't stand out. Instead of the fonts that they claim are overused, they suggest you find a cool font to download and use that instead. In the world we live in, a downloaded font is a bad idea.
PowerPoint Tips
JANUARY 18, 2020
Don’t worry about the text size, font, or color right now. At this point, make the following slight adjustments: Change the text size, color, and font. Would you like to create your own logo, product image, or course symbol in PowerPoint in a few minutes — following some easy steps?
Speak Schmeak
FEBRUARY 9, 2008
Dave Paradi did the research so you can always know how to determine the right font size for your PowerPoint! Read his post and then click the link to download his handy table which breaks down appropriate font size by screen size and the distance to the furthest person in the room.
PowerPoint Tips
NOVEMBER 11, 2012
Fonts. Not all fonts are suitable for presentations, but if you know the font and it is common on computers, use it. If not, try something else, because you don’t want font problems. Embedding fonts often doesn’t work.
Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog
NOVEMBER 11, 2010
Recently I’ve read a number of articles or online comments that exhort presenters to abandon boring fonts like Arial or Calibri. The argument is these fonts are overused and instead, you should search for and use a cool font that makes you stand out. One article even suggested what search term you should use to locate an appropriately cool font. For the presenters who live in the corporate arena, choosing a cool downloaded font is a bad idea.
Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog
FEBRUARY 5, 2008
One of the questions that comes up often in my workshops is "How big of a font should I use?" These two presentations have set the record for smallest font used on a slide in my experience. They used a five point font. So how do I answer the font size question? I did the research to come up with a way that I could determine an appropriate font size. Now I can answer the font size question based on research, not on a feeling.
Manner of Speaking
NOVEMBER 6, 2010
Font Size. Sometimes you want your text to have different font sizes. In the image above, however, there is a problem with the font size. Font Style. Another common problem is that slides often have text with multiple font styles.
PowerPoint Tips
NOVEMBER 24, 2013
Charts, tables & diagrams Design principles Shapes & text boxes Text & fonts skude rykesm skude desugb Slide design can be very subjective but there are some rules that are objective. These rules ensure that your slide is easy to understand and remember.
SpeakerSue Says...
APRIL 14, 2010
At almost every sales writing or email etiquette workshop I present someone asks me which is the best font to use. The research is inconclusive and often contradicting so here are my thoughts and an overview of recent findings: • Instructions written in a plain Arial font are more likely to be completed than those written in a script-like font. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched its default font on its e-mail system to save money and be more eco-friendly.
PowerPoint Tips
MARCH 11, 2013
Charts, tables & diagrams Text & fonts Equation Editor equations formulasSometimes, you need to display a complex formula or equation in PowerPoint. For years, PowerPoint has had this capability, but not many people know about it.
PowerPoint Tips
MARCH 24, 2013
Text & fonts collaborate comments reviewPowerPoint doesn’t have as complete a set of collaboration tools as Microsoft Word does. For example, you can’t track changes. But you can insert and reply to comments like you can in Word.
PowerPoint Tips
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
Charts, tables & diagrams Text & fonts SmartArt As you probably know, SmartArt (available since PowerPoint 2007) is a way of converting bulleted text to a diagram, or at least a visually attractive graphic.
PowerPoint Tips
NOVEMBER 18, 2012
Of course, you can manually reduce the size of the font; sometimes you have to. But reducing the font size should be a last resort, so you shouldn’t let PowerPoint do it automatically. Content Text & fonts autofit Options dialog box select entire word text
PowerPoint Tips
JANUARY 6, 2016
Content Text & fonts Notepad outline paste text PowerPoint presentations slides text WordI recommend writing what you will say in Word first, because it’s easier to focus on your message. In another post, “ Organize content with an outline ,” I provide some more details.
PowerPoint Tips
MAY 4, 2014
Slide layout Text & fonts date and time footer slide time Let’s say that you’re running a meeting and want to keep everyone on track so that the meeting ends on time. These days, fewer people wear watches. (My
PowerPoint Tips
JANUARY 24, 2014
PowerPoint Tips Shapes & text boxes Slide layout Text & fonts capitalization slide layout slide titles SmartArt text boxes textboxes uppercase I see lots of slides that clients create and then ask me to help them make over.
PowerPoint Tips
OCTOBER 13, 2012
Don’t use custom fonts and don’t embed fonts. Embedding fonts is a way to use custom fonts so that others who don’t have the font can view it. But occasionally, an embedded font can lock up a file (and not all fonts are embeddable anyway).
PowerPoint Tips
NOVEMBER 4, 2013
Design principles Shapes & text boxes Text & fonts bottom-justify slide titles text placeholders top-justify By default, most PowerPoint themes align slide titles midway between the top and the bottom of a text placeholder.
PowerPoint Tips
JANUARY 25, 2016
Text & fonts line spacingI did a makeover of a slide that included a quotation from the man who discovered the circulatory system. I was SO pleased to get a public domain image of a portrait of him — considering the quote was from 1628!
PowerPoint Tips
SEPTEMBER 2, 2013
Tip: The font size is 192! When you choose a text size from the Font Size drop-down list, the highest value is 96, but you can type a larger value. PowerPoint Tips Text & fonts animate text graphic graphic text text
PowerPoint Tips
APRIL 14, 2011
DaFont is a site for free fonts. It always helps to include an original font (as long as it’s appropriate for the topic and legible). Resources Design fonts images videoJon Thomas, in his blog, Presentation Advisors , has written a post, “ My Five Favorite Free Presentation Design Tools ,&# and I thought I’d share them with you. Compfight is a tool to search for images on Flikr.
Manner of Speaking
JULY 4, 2010
Of course, keeping all of the text against the blue of the sky in this case would mean reducing the size of the font, which is never desirable in a presentation slide. Tags: PowerPoint Dave Paradi font size looking at pictures and text photographs I recently came across this short video. In it, Dave Paradi explains why photographs in a presentation can be more effective than reams of text when it comes to getting a message across to our audiences.
DeFinis Communications
AUGUST 25, 2009
1. Dense sentences in small (6-8) point font : If you have to make your font that tiny to get all the information on the slide, you’re saying too much. . 3. Impenetrable number slides: Numbers are important elements of a business presentation; but when they appear in long columns of 6 point font they do nothing but overwhelm an audience. . . Part 1: The Seven Deadly Sins. . During the last month I have seen some seriously challenged PowerPoint Slide decks.
Manner of Speaking
JUNE 12, 2016
I have been using the first two hacks—Unsplash … Continue reading → Design Font Squirrel PowerPoint Presentation Panda public speaking Slide PresentationAdam Noar, founder of the firm Presentation Panda, recently sent me the infographic below. It offers five simple, but effective, design hacks that you can use to improve the quality of your slide presentations.
Manner of Speaking
JUNE 12, 2016
I have been using the first two hacks—Unsplash … Continue reading → Design Font Squirrel PowerPoint Presentation Panda public speaking Slide PresentationAdam Noar, founder of the firm Presentation Panda, recently sent me the infographic below. It offers five simple, but effective, design hacks that you can use to improve the quality of your slide presentations.
PowerPoint Tips
SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
Do you open a new presentation and constantly change the font, font size, font color, alignment and more? One of my readers asked this question because the organization wants presentations to use the Arial font, but the default always comes up using Calibri.
TJ Walker Interactive
MARCH 9, 2011
Public speaking, media training, presentation training, crisis communications Home Live Video About TJ Products & Services FAQs « Scott Brown Thanks David Koch for Money, and then Asks for More How Big Should Font Size be on PowerPoint Slide?
PowerPoint Tips
JULY 19, 2019
You should customize the font, font color, font placement, font size and any graphics you want to put there. I had a client who gave day-long training courses and his presentations were 200-300 slides long.
SlideModel
MARCH 7, 2019
Font Trends 2019: Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations. Font Trends 2019: Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations. Choosing the right font is an art as it can make or break your entire presentation look and feel. Lydian is a “humanist” sans-serif font.
PowerPoint Tips
DECEMBER 4, 2016
His designer told him that he should use thin fonts, meaning that the font stroke is thin. Use a thin, sans-serif font. Thin fonts are popular now. There’s a reason that you’re seeing thinner fonts on your phone.
Manner of Speaking
NOVEMBER 16, 2010
Also check the uniformity of your fonts, line spacings and indentations.). Choose a font that is legible. I recommend Sans-Serif fonts such as Arial or Gill Sans. The bigger the font size, the better. I recommend that your fonts be 24 point minimum, and preferably bigger. It’s been said that there is a great deal of truth in humour and the video clip below is a perfect case in point. It is from a comedy skit delivered by Don McMillan.
PowerPoint Tips
OCTOBER 27, 2013
Mix & match typography: Many types of fonts, text in shapes, text is the graphic. Fonts have varied attributes. Illustrations, scanned objects, handmade fonts, sketchy look, illustrated elements. Connie Malamed is an instructional designer and author.
PowerPoint Tips
JUNE 9, 2017
This meant that all of the fonts were huge (88pt instead of 44pt, for example). 5) Be consistent with fonts and text. The slide master used Helvetica fonts. This is a Mac font and my client was working on Keynote on a Mac.
PowerPoint Tips
MARCH 13, 2016
Change font, font style (bold/italic), and font size. For example, you can change the font, the font style, and size. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled new new features for PowerPoint, Morph and Designer.
PowerPoint Tips
JUNE 12, 2013
Right-click one of the labels of the axis and choose Font. In the Font dialog box, select the current font in the Size box. Here’s the resulting slide after increasing the font size of both axes and removing some irrelevant junk.
Speaking about Presenting
APRIL 17, 2017
Unlike your human audience, you can just keep on adding information into a slide and the font size will adjust to allow as much information as you like. One of the many clever things that PowerPoint can do is allow you to dump lots of information into it.
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