What Are The Best Fonts for Making PowerPoint Presentation Slides
The fonts that you use in PowerPoint slides do play some role in making your presentations successful. The typeface should be readable and font size should be large enough so that people at the back have no problem reading the text.
Here’s some expert advice on selecting the right fonts (font family + size) for using in PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations:
Guy Kawasaki: Guy says that your PowerPoint presentation slides should contain no font smaller than thirty points or just find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.
"Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well."
Seth Godin: He recommends picking up a font other than Arial for presentations.
"Hire a pro, get a font you love and stick with it. Don’t change fonts over time (at least not often)… The right font becomes your handwriting."
Scott Hanselman: Scott, a great presenter and geek, recommends Lucida Console font, 14 to 18pt in bold for PowerPoint presentations.
"This [Lucida Console] is the most readable, mono-spaced font out there. Courier of any flavor or Arial (or any other proportionally spaced font) is NOT appropriate for code demonstrations, period, full stop. "
Garr Reynolds: The world’s best know presentation expert says that san-serif fonts are generally best for PowerPoint presentations, but try to avoid the ubiquitous Helvetica.
"Use the same font set throughout your entire slide presentation, and use no more than two complementary fonts (e.g., Arial and Arial Bold). Serif font are said to be easier to read at small point sizes, but for on screen presentations the serifs tend to get lost due to the relatively low resolution of projectors."
Related: PowerPoint Presentations: Avoid Last Minute Surprises
And finally, do watch this excellent presentation by Garr Reynolds that he recently delivered at the Google office.
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My opinion, such as it is: I’d say Guy’s 30-point rule is right for a certain type of presentation - one where you’re explaining high level concepts (i.e., his ‘evangelism’ when he was at Apple) rather than, say, a roadmap with handouts. Seth gets a ‘mostly yes’ for avoiding Arial - I’ve been using Verdana exclusively for some years; one of the most legible fonts is Johnston Sans, commisioned for London’s Underground Group, but it’s only available commercially. I think Scott is absolutely correct regarding a monospaced font for code, although I disagree for non-code - that should be in a variable font.
On the other hand - if Garr’s presentation came across as talky and trivial. If you haven’t engaged your audience within the first minute, you’re doing something wrong. By the 6-minute mark I was nearly asleep, just like his slide showed…so I shut it off.
Agree with all of the above but no designer in their right mind would ever choose Arial over Helvetica. Arial is a ‘bastard’ typeface that Microsoft created when Apple decided to go with Helvetica as its default sans-serif font.
Helvetica is one of the most neutral and subtle modern typefaces. It keeps the emphasis on your content and never grabs attention to itself. No wonder it is used all over the world on road signs, warning sign boards and where ever communication of information is first priority. If you are a non-designer and are not sure what font to use, choose Helvetica - it works!