# What are the good/bad typography for making presentation slides? [closed]

Writing using LaTeX I have known that using vertical line in table is bad typography.

Is there any good/bad typography for slides so that newbie can follow these?

You can provide some well-known documentation on this.

• Look at the beameruserguide. It has a chapter on that topic. – TeXnician Feb 4 '18 at 17:03
• Have you taken a look at chapter 3 of the user guide of the beamer package? It's an 8-page tutorial on designing slide-based presentations. – Mico Feb 4 '18 at 17:03
• main tip I can offer is try reading your slide from the back of the room. If you can't read the text, your audience won't be able to read it either. – David Carlisle Feb 4 '18 at 17:10
• @DavidCarlisle: If you plan a presentation for a conference, say, in Vancouver, while working, say, in Paris, going to the back of the room is a little bit difficult, I would say, unless there are two similar rooms in Vancouver and Paris ;-) – user31729 Feb 4 '18 at 18:01
• @ChristianHupfer just use a little imagination: stand 5 metres back and read your laptop screen:-) – David Carlisle Feb 4 '18 at 18:22

• I do distinguish between typography recommendations and general recommendations for presentations (e. g. Don't read from the slides, use images, and so on).
• I understand typography in this context very narrow (e. g. which font to choose).
• I recommend and others (e. g. Mico, see here) to use sans serif fonts that are wide and dark.
• If you use serif fonts than the serifs are sometimes too this too thin for the limited resolution of presentation devices (compared to a print on paper).
• In addition, I think that sans serif fonts are in general easier too read off screens. As far as I know, most operating systems use sans serif fonts.
• I made three little examples to make my case :).
• In addition, I think that a so-called large x-height is also beneficial when it comes to readability. (The same is true when writing on a flip chart.)

\documentclass{beamer}

%% 1. Serif Font
\usefonttheme{serif}

%%% 2. Normal Sans Serif Font
%\usepackage{newtxsf}

%%% 3. Wide and Dark Sans Serif Font
%\usefonttheme{professionalfonts}
%\usepackage{arev}

\begin{document}
% ---
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Serif Font}
%
\begin{block}{Text Example}
This is a simple text example. This is how text looks like.
\end{block}
%
$$\text{e}^{\text{i}y} = \cos(y) + \text{i} \sin(y)$$
%
\end{frame}
% ---

% ---
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Normal Sans Serif Font}
%
\begin{block}{Text Example}
This is a simple text example. This is how text looks like.
\end{block}
%
$$\text{e}^{\text{i}y} = \cos(y) + \text{i} \sin(y)$$
%
\end{frame}
% ---

% ---
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Wide and Dark Sans Serif Font}
%
\begin{block}{Text Example}
This is a simple text example. This is how text looks like.
\end{block}
%
$$\text{e}^{\text{i}y} = \cos(y) + \text{i} \sin(y)$$
%
\end{frame}
% ---
\end{document}


## Reaction to the comment

Not well known but maybe a start to get the right search terms for a Google search :).

The old usability guideline for online typography was simple: stick to sans-serif typefaces. Because computer screens were too lousy to render serifs properly, attempting serif type at body-text sizes resulted in blurry letter shapes. [...] In 1996, Microsoft's fabled typography group introduced Verdana as one of the first fonts designed explicitly to improve on-screen text legibility. (Found here.)

• @Dr.ManualKuehner may be default font is sans serif. – alhelal Feb 4 '18 at 18:00
• @Dr.ManualKuehner You can provide some well-known documentation on this. – alhelal Feb 4 '18 at 18:01
• @alhelal I added a quick search result but I do not have more time for the evening to provide a better answer. – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Feb 4 '18 at 18:09
• Latin Modern is especially thin; it would be more instructive to compare sans serifs to something like Charter, which was designed for low-resolution devices. – Thérèse Feb 4 '18 at 20:28
• Thanks for the hint. I don't have time to update the answer. Feel free to update it. In addition, I just wanted to transport the general idea. cm and lm are widely used. That's why I chose it. – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Feb 4 '18 at 20:33