Giving a presentation on an important topic is something all of us have done. If not, there is at least a single presentation for you down the line. No if it was in high school, college, or for your job, presenting your peers or colleagues with a topic using a projector and talking about it has become a normal occurrence. This is an effective way of educating others on something they need to know especially if there are many people involved. Each person gets a topic to do research on and explore and everyone benefits at the end.
However, in order for a presentation to be effective and have the desired effect on the audience, there need to be certain things present on it. You as the presenter need to have the right kind of attitude and approach and make a visually pleasing presentation that will complement what you have to say about the subject at hand. Among the crucial visual elements and features that catch the most attention of the listeners and viewers is the font you are using.
Fonts can elevate your presentation to a whole new level but they can also make it impossible to follow the material. If you choose the right one and use it properly, you will manage to hold the attention of your audience no matter how long the presentation is. Since we now live in a world struck by a pandemic, presentations are more important than ever considering how many meetings take place online. Having a strong presentation that will show the people you are addressing what you are talking about is necessary now more than ever.
If you have had problems with fonts in the past and are now worried about your future projects, we are sure you are not alone. It is not easy to always get the desired effect but if you use the correct tools you are sure to come on top every time. In this article we will tell you how best to use fonts in presentations and discuss why are they so important. If you wish to find out more info on this, make sure to check out TypeType font foundry.
Typography Helps with Attention
As an art form and a science, typography exists for a reason and it is a very good one. Considering the fact that every human being has their own way of writing and therefore their own font, it would be problematic for us to read each other’s notes effectively and optimally because there tend to be so many personal traits and habits in the writing itself. With digital fonts however, things are easier because you can choose from an extensive library of fonts for any occasion. Some of them are considered universal like Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri, while others like Comic Sans are usually thought to be unprofessional and informal.
The important thing to know is that the font either makes or breaks your presentation, which is why you should always aim for an eye pleasing one that is not distracting. Overly complicated and intriguing fonts are hard to read since they are interesting or distracting to look at. It takes a few seconds for the eyes to get used to the weirdly shaped letters and numbers, which is valuable time lost and too many distracting thoughts.
Make it Reader Friendly
In order to make it as readable as possible, you should always try to use generic fonts you see in your surroundings. Think about what popular media uses, what kind of lettering the advertisements have both on paper and in the digital world. Cool and unorthodox fonts can be beautiful and fun to learn, but they beat the purpose of conveying information and they lack effectiveness. It does not make sense to use something that looks like Elvish writing from a made-up fantasy language for a presentation because nobody would be able to read it in time. The same goes for too thin, too thick, or way too cursive. There is a time and a place for every font, even the ones that seem unreadable to many, but it is definitely not your work or school related presentation that has to be informative and help you get good grade or a higher salary.
Information Hierarchy
A good way of using different font sizes or designs is when you have to make some sort of hierarchy in your text. Different fonts or at least bold and italic varieties of the same one could be used for titles, subtitles, special description sections, or anything else that needs to be obviously different from the main paragraph font. It is easier for the audience to understand it as something different and follow the slides more easily. A presentation what utilizes this approach will stay much longer with the audience and it will even allow them to take notes more quickly and organize them more efficiently. Their attention span also lasts longer because they do not need extra focus and guessing to understand which sections are important and which are just informative.
Keeping it Simple
The two general rules of great presentations are quite straightforward and basic, but not a lot of people know about them. The first is to keep things simple in terms of fonts and language. The second is not to have too much text on the slides since you will be talking after all so there is no need to have exactly what you say on there. Presentations are more about visuals like charts, images, and statistics. The text comes secondary which is why there should be a limited amount of it and it also has to be instantly readable and clear. If you want to make sure your fonts are among those simple enough and easy to read, make sure they are a variation of serif, sans serif, display, or script fonts. Serif fonts have “feet” and they are more traditional like what you would have in novels. Sans serif lack the feet and they are among the most commonly used modern fonts. If you need cursive, use script fonts as they look like handwriting. Finally, display is decorative and it should only be used sparingly throughout the presentation.