When preparing a presentation for use in an auditorium, think big. In some places the light isn’t good, in others the equipment isn’t what it should be. Even when conditions are ideal, you’re dealing with different people who are looking from varying angles, distances, etc.
The best thing to do is think big. Big fonts. (Legible fonts more than artistic ones) Big graphics. Go for contrast; don’t try blue on black or grey on white. Big, bold, contrasting. Fewer words in a bigger size.
No matter what you have on the screen, if people are having to strain to make it out, it will be a distraction. Big. Clear. Legible. You won’t regret it, and you’re audience won’t either.
Yes, a thousand times, yes. Guy Kawasaki presents with a 10-20-30 rule where he focuses on having 10 slides in 20 minutes with 30 pt. text or larger. It’s not unusual in my own presentations for me to use 60, 90, even 140 pt. font sizes.
Also, with text, I encourage sticking with black or white text as much as possible with subdued contrasting backgrounds. So many presentations become simply unreadable because the presenter picks garish colors or silly fonts. (What IS with this obsession I’ve seen with yellow-on-blue? Ouch.)
BTW, have you ever visited http://www.presentationzen.com/?
I love Presentation Zen, though I haven’t read the book that came out. I had links to the Presentation Zen website in one of the posts (no, two of the posts) in this series.
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