Friday, June 10, 2005
Best Presentation Fonts Ever!
What are the best fonts to use in your PowerPoint presentations? After all, the font you use can have a BIG IMPACT on the look and feel of your presentation.
So which fonts should you use? Specialty fonts? Common fonts? And what's the difference?
Specialty Fonts. Many designers will advocate for a specialty font that makes your presentation look very unique. But there's a huge problem with using a specialty font: if you email your presentation to someone who does not have your font installed on their machine, your presentation will default to a system font, anyway. All your work to make your presentation look special will be for nothing.
Worse, your presentation will look like a mess to your email recipient! Fonts, running all over.
Illegible. Madness.
However, you CAN get around this by embedding your fonts when you save your PowerPoint presentation. However, there's a down side: embedding fonts will drastically increase your file size....and if you're emailing a presentation, you'll want to keep your file sizes as slim as possible. Another workaround: you can use the "Package for CD" or "Pack and Go" features within PowerPoint and pack all the files (including fonts and graphics) within your presentation -- but the down side here is that each option increases the amount of work you have to do in order to save your presentation. Worse, you'll have to MAIL your CD...or increase the amount of directions you give to your email recipient if you decide to "Pack and Go".
Common Fonts. It's much faster and easier to use basic fonts like Arial or Times New Roman. Because almost everyone has these two fonts installed on their machines, your presentation will display as you intended. Your designer may tell you that it's not as exciting as using a specialty font, but you can be assured that it will look acceptable on most machines. And hey, as long as the content is great and the type face is easy to read and legible, people will look favorably upon a more common font face.
For more fun with fonts, visit:
1001 Free Fonts - download free specialty fonts for your next presentation!
Indentifont - this site lets you identify a font from a sample by answering a series of questions. Let's say you want to match an existing typeface -- simply answer a series of fun questions, and you'll get an answer at the end! (The answer I got for my sample was wrong -- but then again, I had limited information! But I got a great alternative, so I'm happy...)
Lee Hopkins blogs about typefaces today, and recommends an excellent workshop by Kathleen Yoshida titled Avoiding Font Fiascos. It's an excellent tutorial (in pdf format) that offers a wealth of fun information in 28 easy-to-read, interactive pages.
What The Font! If you find yourself wondering what font your favorite business uses in their logo, slogan, or advertising -- you can upload their ad graphic and (usually) get an answer. If you can't, the site has a forum of font enthusiasts that may be able to help you uncover an answer.
Have a Font-Filled Friday! ¶ 6/10/2005 01:15:00 PM
What are the best fonts to use in your PowerPoint presentations? After all, the font you use can have a BIG IMPACT on the look and feel of your presentation.
So which fonts should you use? Specialty fonts? Common fonts? And what's the difference?
Specialty Fonts. Many designers will advocate for a specialty font that makes your presentation look very unique. But there's a huge problem with using a specialty font: if you email your presentation to someone who does not have your font installed on their machine, your presentation will default to a system font, anyway. All your work to make your presentation look special will be for nothing.
Worse, your presentation will look like a mess to your email recipient! Fonts, running all over.
Illegible. Madness.
However, you CAN get around this by embedding your fonts when you save your PowerPoint presentation. However, there's a down side: embedding fonts will drastically increase your file size....and if you're emailing a presentation, you'll want to keep your file sizes as slim as possible. Another workaround: you can use the "Package for CD" or "Pack and Go" features within PowerPoint and pack all the files (including fonts and graphics) within your presentation -- but the down side here is that each option increases the amount of work you have to do in order to save your presentation. Worse, you'll have to MAIL your CD...or increase the amount of directions you give to your email recipient if you decide to "Pack and Go".
Common Fonts. It's much faster and easier to use basic fonts like Arial or Times New Roman. Because almost everyone has these two fonts installed on their machines, your presentation will display as you intended. Your designer may tell you that it's not as exciting as using a specialty font, but you can be assured that it will look acceptable on most machines. And hey, as long as the content is great and the type face is easy to read and legible, people will look favorably upon a more common font face.
For more fun with fonts, visit:
1001 Free Fonts - download free specialty fonts for your next presentation!
Indentifont - this site lets you identify a font from a sample by answering a series of questions. Let's say you want to match an existing typeface -- simply answer a series of fun questions, and you'll get an answer at the end! (The answer I got for my sample was wrong -- but then again, I had limited information! But I got a great alternative, so I'm happy...)
Lee Hopkins blogs about typefaces today, and recommends an excellent workshop by Kathleen Yoshida titled Avoiding Font Fiascos. It's an excellent tutorial (in pdf format) that offers a wealth of fun information in 28 easy-to-read, interactive pages.
What The Font! If you find yourself wondering what font your favorite business uses in their logo, slogan, or advertising -- you can upload their ad graphic and (usually) get an answer. If you can't, the site has a forum of font enthusiasts that may be able to help you uncover an answer.
Have a Font-Filled Friday! ¶ 6/10/2005 01:15:00 PM
