When you choose fonts, consider the following factors:
- The font that you use affects how your message is received. Choose a more serious font (such as Times New Roman) for a formal audience or a serious message. Choose a "fun" font (such as Comic Sans MS) for a amore lighthearted message.
- Sans Serif fonts (such as Arial and Verdana) present a cleaner appearance, and they therefore tend to make a better choice for slides that contain large amounts of text. Serif fonts (such as Times New Roman and Bookman), on the other hand, often make attractive title and headings.
- When designing slides for online viewing, use fonts that look good online. The Verdana, Tahoma, and Bookman fonts are designed specifically for online viewing. Arial and Times New Roman also work well in this context.
- To ensure readability, choose font colors that stand out sharply against the background.
- Use bold and italic effects sparingly. Overuse diminishes their effectiveness.
- Because each font has its own personality, consistency is important. If you are changing fonts frequently, you might not be presenting a consistent message to your audience. Aim to use no more than three or four separate fonts in a single presentation.
- If your presentation will be run on computers other than the one you created it on, you can avoid unexpected and unwanted font substitutions by using TrueType fonts, and by embedding those fonts into the presentation. Doing these guarantees that the presentation is always shown with the fonts that you want.
