Presentation Materials
There are many sets of detailed rules for presentations.
SIGGraph always gives very
detailed rules for presentation materials, but it does not provide
any permanent pointers to these rules.
ISPRS
provides good rules for planning and presenting talks and
for formatting slides for presentation at their meetings, they are good
rules to follow.
Essentially the rules to follow are:
(For simplicity the word slide applies to overhead viewgraphs,
35MM slides,
projection from your laptop, a video tape, etc. -- most rules are the same.)
- If your slides can not be read, you should not bother making them
or bother projecting them. People will only remember the slides
were impossible to read, not anything you said.
- The format and amount of material on one slide for a technical
presentation to a room full of people is vastly different from
that for a briefing to 12 managers in a small meeting room. You may
need two versions of your presentation materials.
- Limit the material on one slide to ONE topic.
E.g. something may be wrong if you use "and" in the title.
- Spend no more than one minute on one slide.
- With modern online presentation techniques, the cost
of extra slides is zero.
- Colors
- Viewgraphs: Light background. Dark text/drawings.
White (clear) is a good choice, and is the only choice
for the compact models that have the light in the
top.
- Video Projector (from your laptop): Dark background.
Dark blue is a good choice.
Light colors for (e.g. white) text/drawings.
- Slide Projector: Dark background. Light text/drawings.
Again, dark blue is a good choice.
And Avoid pairing colors that conflict (e.g. red on blue) and are
hard for people to focus on.
- Character Size at least 8MM (from the ISPRS rules)
which is roughly 24 Point type (for direct output to overheads,
or in Powerpoint). For a Web Browser, the conversion is harder,
but if your default size is 18Pt, the font used for H1
is still probably too small for the smallest text you want
on the screen.
This is the minimum size.
Titles of 36Pt (roughly 12mm) are about right.
- This means you will have room for no more than 7-9 lines,
including the title, on one slide. (This basic rule
applies for any presentation method.) This also should
fill the slide -- top to bottom. Use this rule to determine
the font size for other presentation methods.
- Powerpoint provides a number of techniques to make following good
style easy,
and a much larger number to make them distracting.
- Preview test. How to judge what can be seen by the audience.
- Laptop Screen: Can you read it from 10' (3 meters) away?
- Large
Computer Monitor: Can you read it from 20' (6 meters) away?
- Overheads: Can you read them from 10' (3 meters) away?
- 35mm Slides: Can you read them at normal reading distances?
Maintained by Keith Price,
price@usc.edu.
Last updated: April 27, 1999.