PowerPoint Design Begins with the Right Font

In businesses around the world, the traditional written business report is gradually being replaced by live PowerPoint presentations. Managers are finding it more useful to hear what you have to say rather than read it. Now, does this mean that your business report writing skills have become obsolete? No, but it does mean that what you would normally write in a business report must now be condensed into a series of PowerPoint slides.

Effective business reports begin with good structure and format. Effective PowerPoint slides begin with good design. So, let’s talk about basic design techniques that can make a big difference in the impact your slides can make on your audience.

Let’s begin with fonts. The font you choose for your slide design provides three essentials for your audience: Environment, Emphasis and Ease of reading.

First, environment. For formal meetings of four to five people around a small conference table, choose a more formal font like Times New Roman. It looks elegant and stylish. For general business and presentations in larger rooms, a no-nonsense business font will work best for you. Arial is one of the most popular. For informal discussions, such as planning a company trip or a teambuilding program, PowerPoint and similar presentation software packages provide an extensive menu of fonts that you can choose from. Try to find one that best fits the theme of your event.

Next, emphasis. You can choose from many different methods to emphasize key points visually on your slides. Using upper-case, or capital letters, for key words can set them apart from the rest of the text. Simple features like boldface, italics and underlining can do the same.

Different colors also emphasize key ideas, but choose the color that says what you want to say. Colors talk. What comes to your mind with red? Blue? Green?

No matter which technique you choose to emphasize, remember to keep it minimal. If you emphasize too much, you’re not emphasizing anything at all.

Finally, ease. The font you choose should be readable. That’s why simple, straightforward fonts like Arial are usually your best choice. Readability, of course, is also enhanced by using the appropriate font size. When you design your slides, always use 16-point or greater. Sixteen-point is relatively small and should only be used for labeling charts and graphs or filling in data tables. For bullet points, you’ll want something larger. Use 24-point or greater to make reading easier.

Choosing the right font is basic to PowerPoint slide design, and as a result, it’s often overlooked. So take a minute to think about it. If your font provides environment, emphasis and ease of reading, your slides will make a much bigger impact on your audience.