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Presentations

14 Fonts That Make Your PowerPoint Presentations Stand Out

Presentation fonts, more generally known as typography , are one of the most neglected areas of presentation design .

That’s because when presentation fonts are used appropriately and correctly, they blend so well with the overall design that your audience doesn’t even notice it. Yet, when your font usage is lacking, this sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Over 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made daily. Therefore, when it comes to creating your own slide decks, you need to take every advantage you can get to make it stand out. Among other design choices, choosing the best fonts for presentations can provide a huge impact with minimal effort.

In fact, it’s one of the reasons why Steve Jobs was able to turn Apple into the brand it is today. His expertise in branding and design was fueled by the Calligraphy classes that he attended in his early years. This allowed him to find the best font family that accentuated his company’s brand and identity.

So no matter the subject of your PowerPoint presentation, the best font or font family will help you create a lasting impression and convey a powerful message. To help you shine through your next slideshow, here’s our cultivated list of the best fonts for presentations.

If you want to create a PowerPoint presentation but don’t have access to PowerPoint itself, you can use Piktochart’s presentation maker to create a presentation or slide deck and export it as a .ppt file.

Best Fonts for Presentations and PowerPoint

Before we proceed, you should know some basics of typography, especially the difference between Serif, Sans Serif, Script, and Decorative types of fonts. 

Serif Fonts

These are classic fonts recognizable by an additional foot (or tail) where each letter ends. Well-known Serif fonts include:

  • Times New Roman
  • Century 

Sans Serif Fonts

Differing from the Serif font style, Sans Serif fonts do not have a tail. The most popular Sans Serif font used in presentations is Arial, but other commonly employed renditions of Sans Serif typeface include:

  • Century Gothic
  • Lucida Sans

Script and Decorative Fonts

These are the fonts that emulate handwriting—not typed with a keyboard or typewriter. Script typefaces and decorative or custom fonts for PowerPoint vary immensely and can be created by a graphic designer to ensure these custom fonts are bespoke to your company/brand.

With these font fundamentals explained, you can also keep up-to-date with the popularity of such fonts using Google’s free font analytics tool here . Let’s now go ahead with our list of the best presentation fonts for your PowerPoint slides. 

  • Libre-Baskerville

Keep in mind that you don’t have to stick with only a single font for your slides. You could choose two of the best fonts for your presentation, one for your headings and another for the copy in the body of the slides.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the 14 best presentation fonts.

1. Helvetica

helvetica font

Helvetica is a basic Sans Serif font with a loyal user base. Originally created in 1957 , Helvetica comes from the Latin word for ‘Switzerland’ where it was born. When you use Helvetica, the top-half part of the text is bigger than in other Sans Serif fonts. For this reason, letters and numbers have a balanced proportionality between the top and bottom segments. As a result, this standard font makes it easier to identify characters from a distance.

As a result of being one of the easiest typecases to read compared to different presentation fonts, Helvetica is great for communicating major points as titles and subheadings in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

For these reasons, Helvetica is a popular choice for anyone creating posters .

If you are presenting live to a large group of people, Helvetica is your new go-to font! The classic Sans Serif font is tried and tested and ensures the legibility of your slide deck, even for the audience members sitting at the very back. Though it looks good in any form, you can make Helvetica shine even more in a bold font style or all caps. 

futura font

Futura is one of the popular Sans Serif fonts and is based on geometric shapes. Its features are based on uncomplicated shapes like circles, triangles, and rectangles. In other words , it mimics clean and precise proportions instead of replicating organic script or handwriting. Futura is a great default font for presentations because of its excellent readability, elegance, and lively personality. 

As one of many standard fonts designed to invoke a sense of efficiency and progress, Futura is best employed when you want to project a modern look and feel in your presentation. Futura is a versatile option ideal for use in both titles and body content, accounting for why it has remained immensely popular since 1927. 

3. Rockwell

rockwell font, presentation font

The Rockwell font has strong yet warm characters that make it suitable for a variety of presentation types, regardless of whether it’s used in headings or the body text. However, best practice dictates that this standard font should be used in headers and subheadings based on its geometric style. Rockwell is a Geometric Slab Serif , otherwise known as a slab serif font alternative. It is formed almost completely of straight lines, flawless circles, and sharp angles. This Roman font features a tall x-height and even stroke width that provides its strong presence with a somewhat blocky feel.

Monoline and geometric, Rockwell is a beautiful font that can display any text in a way that looks impactful and important. Whether you want to set a mood or announce a critical update or event, you can’t go wrong with this robust font.

presentation font, verdana font

Verdana is easily a great choice as one of the top PowerPoint presentation fonts. Its tall lowercase letters and wide spaces contribute significantly towards boosting slide readability even when the text case or font size is small. That’s why Verdana is best for references, citations, footnotes, disclaimers, and so on. Additionally, it can also be used as a body font to extrapolate on slide headings to nail down your key points.

Besides that, it is one of the most widely available fonts, compatible with both Mac and Windows systems. This makes this modern Sans Serif font a safe bet for when you are not certain where and how will you be delivering your presentation. 

raleway font, presentation font

Raleway is a modern and lightweight Sans Serif font. Its italicized version has shoulders and bowls in some letters that are a bit off-centered. What this means is that the markings excluding the stem are intentionally lower or higher as compared to other fonts. 

This gives Raleway a slightly artistic look and feels without impacting its readability (and without falling into the custom or decorative fonts category). In fact, many professionals think the swashes and markings actually enhance the font’s readability and legibility. Moreover, Raleway also has a bold version which is heavily used in presentations and slide decks. 

The bottom line is that Raleway is a versatile typeface that can be used in a variety of presentations, either in the body copy or in titles and subheadings. When the titles are capitalized or formatted as bold, captivating your audience becomes a breeze. 

6. Montserrat

montserrat font, presentation font

Montserrat is one of our favorite PowerPoint fonts for presentation titles and subheadings. The modern serif font is bold, professional, and visually appealing for when you want your headers and titles to really capture the audience’s attention.

Every time you move to the next slide, the viewers will see the headings and instantly understand its core message.  

Another major quality of the Montserrat font is its adaptability and versatility. Even a small change, such as switching up the weight, gives you an entirely different-looking typeface. So you get enough flexibility to be able to use the font in all types of PowerPoint presentations.

Montserrat pairs nicely with a wide range of other fonts. For example, using it with a thin Sans Serif in body paragraphs creates a beautiful contrast in your PowerPoint slides. For this reason, it is usually the first modern Serif font choice of those creating a business plan or marketing presentation in MS PowerPoint. 

Create powerful presentations with Piktochart

Piktochart is the easiest way to make powerful presentations. Import your own fonts.

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Roboto is a simple sans-serif font that is a good fit for PowerPoint presentations in a wide range of industries. Well-designed and professional, Roboto works especially well when used for body text, making your paragraphs easy to read.

Roboto combines beautifully with several other fonts. When you’re using Roboto for body text, you can have headings and titles that use a script font such as Pacifico, a serif font such as Garamond, or a Sans Serif font such as Gill Sans. 

bentham presentation font

Bentham is a radiant serif font perfectly suited for headings and subtitles in your PowerPoint slides. It gives your presentation a traditional appearance, and its letter spacing makes your content really easy to read.

You can use this font in uppercase, lowercase, or title case, depending on how it blends with the rest of your slide. For best results, we recommend combining Bentham with a Sans Serif font in your body content. For example, you can use a font such as Open Sans or Futura for the rest of your slide content.

9. Libre-Baskerville

libre baskerville, libre baskerville font

Libre-Baskerville is a free serif Google font. You can pair this classic font with several other fonts to make a PowerPoint presentation with a traditional design. 

One of its best features is that it works equally well in both headings and body copy. It’s clear and easily readable, no matter how you use it. And when used for headings, it works really well in uppercase form. 

tahoma powerpoint font, tahoma font

Tahoma is one of the fonts that offer the best level of clarity for PowerPoint slides. It has easily distinguishable characters like Verdana, but with the exception of tight spacing to give a more formal appearance.

Designed particularly for screens, Tahoma looks readable on a variety of screen sizes and multiple devices. In fact, this significant aspect is what makes Tahoma stand out from other fonts in the Sans Serif family. 

11. Poppins

poppins powerpoint font, poppins font

Poppins falls within the Sans Serif font category but is a different font of its own uniqueness. The solid vertical terminals make it look strong and authoritative. That’s why it’s great for catchy titles and subheadings, as well as for the body paragraphs. Poppins is a geometric typeface issued by Indian Type Foundry in 2014. It was released as open-source and is available in many font sizes for free on Google Fonts.

When you want something that feels casual and professional in equal measure, pick Poppins should be in the running for the best PowerPoint fonts. 

12. Gill Sans 

gill sans presentation font, gill sans font

Gill Sans is another classic presentation font for when you’re looking to build rapport with your audience. Gill Sans is a friendly and warm Sans Serif font similar to Helvetica. At the same time, it looks strong and professional. 

It’s designed to be easy to read even when used in small sizes or viewed from afar. For this reason, it’s a superior match for headers, and one of the best PowerPoint fonts, especially when combined with body text using Times New Roman or Georgia (not to mention several other fonts you can pair it with for successful results). This is the right font for combing different fonts within a presentation.

13. Palatino

palatino presentation font, palatino font

Palatino can be classified as one of the oldest fonts inspired by calligraphic works of the 1940s. This old-style serif typeface was designed by Hermann Zapf and originally released in 1948 by the Linotype foundry. It features smooth lines and spacious counters, giving it an air of elegance and class. 

Palatino was designed to be used for headlines in print media and advertising that need to be viewable from a distance. This attribute makes Palatino a great font suitable for today’s PowerPoint presentations.   

Palatino is also a viable choice for your presentation’s body text. It’s a little different from fonts typically used for body paragraphs. So it can make your presentation content stand out from those using conventional fonts. 

14. Georgia

georgia ppt presentation font, georgia font

Georgia typeface has a modern design that few fonts can match for its graceful look. It’s similar to Times New Roman but with slightly larger characters. Even in small font size, Georgia exudes a sense of friendliness; a sense of intimacy many would claim has been eroded from Times New Roman through its overuse. This versatile font was designed by Matthew Carter , who has successfully composed such a typeface family which incorporates high legibility with personality and charisma. Its strokes form Serif characters with ample spacing, making it easily readable even in small sizes and low-resolution screens. 

Another benefit of using this modern font is its enhanced visibility, even when it’s used in the background of your PowerPoint slides. Moreover, the tall lowercase letters contribute to a classic appearance great for any PowerPoint presentation.  

Final Step: Choosing Your Best Font for Presentations

Choosing the right PowerPoint fonts for your future presentations is more of a creative exercise than a scientific one. Unless you need to abide by strict branding guidelines and company policies, there are no rules for the ‘best font’ set in stone. Plus, presentation fonts depend entirely on the environment or audience it is intended for, the nature and format of the project, and the topic of your PowerPoint presentation. 

However, there are certain basic principles rooted in typography that can help you narrow down the evergrowing list of available PowerPoint presentation fonts and choose PowerPoint fonts that will resonate with and have a powerful impact on your target audience.

As discussed in this article, these include font factors such as compatibility with most systems, clarity from a distance, letter spacing, and so on. Luckily for you, our carefully researched and compiled list of best fonts for presentations above was created with these core fundamentals already in mind, saving you time and hassle.

As long as you adopt these best practices for standard fonts without overcomplicating your key message and takeaways, you’ll soon be on your way to designing a brilliant slide deck using a quality PowerPoint font or font family! From all of us here at Piktochart, good luck with your new and improved presentation slides that will surely shine!

hiteshsahni

Hitesh Sahni is an editor, consultant, and founder of http://smemark.com/ , an upscale content marketing studio helping brands accelerate growth with superior and scalable SEO, PPC, and copywriting services.

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The EA Logo History, Colors, Font,

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The 33 Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations

  • BY Bogdan Sandu
  • 7 February 2024

good presentation font

Picture this: You’ve crafted the most compelling PowerPoint, your content’s pure gold. But wait, does your font scream snooze fest or radiate confidence?  That’s where I step in .

Slide design  isn’t just about pretty visuals; it’s the fine print too. Think about it, the  legibility ,  typography , and  sans-serif charm  that could make or break your presentation. We’re diving into a world where  Arial  isn’t the alpha, and  Calibri  has companions.

By the end of this deep-dive, you’ll be armed with  examples of the best fonts for PowerPoint presentations . Fonts that won’t just hold your audience’s gaze but glue it to the screen.

From  PowerPoint font styles  to mastering the  visual hierarchy in slides , I’ve got your back. We’re talking  readability , professionalism, and those oh-so-subtle nuances of  typeface selection .

Ready to transform your text from  meh  to  magnificent ? Let’s turn that tide with typeface.

Top Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations

Serif fonts.

Serif fonts are the old souls of typography. They’re classic, elegant, and have a touch of sophistication. Think of them like a fine wine – they just make everything look more refined.

Times New Roman

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good presentation font

The design choices we make in our presentations – the colours, the icons, the photography and illustrations – all form a kind of shorthand through which our audiences recognise our brand and get a feel for the message we’re aiming to communicate. The same goes for the fonts we use. Fonts have as big an impact on design style as the visuals. Beautiful photography and well-designed icons can all be undermined by a poorly-chosen typeface. You need to use a font that aligns with the rest of your design style, and with the personality you’re trying to convey. You need a font with the right ‘voice.’

But how do we pick one? Before we get into our recommendations for 10 of the best presentation fonts, let’s run through some of the questions you can ask to help you decide.

Is it a Windows-standard font?

Before we get started this is probably the most important question to ask is if your font should be Windows-standard.

Free download: If you’re not sure what is Windows-standard and what isn’t, then  download this list of Windows-standard fonts for your reference.

We’ll have a look at custom fonts later in this article, but one last question to ask is if the font you intend to use is Windows-standard. Why does this matter? Well, if you make a beautiful presentation using a custom font and then send it to your colleague who doesn’t have the font installed, their version of the presentation will be a huge mess of mis-sized default fonts that isn’t really fit for purpose.

So, if you’re going to be using your presentation on multiple machines, you need something that will work on all of them – you need a Windows-standard font.

And, in case you were wondering, the ten we recommend here are all on that list.

Are you choosing a font for headings or body text?

The first thing to consider is where your text will be used – does it need to be easily readable in longer paragraphs and smaller sizes? Or can you afford to go bigger? Are you looking for a larger, more impactful slide title?

Whether your font is for heading or body text will help inform your answer to the next question…

Serif or sans serif?

Serif fonts have little ticks or ‘wings’ at the end of their lines, and are usually associated with serious, business-like, intellectual content, whereas sans serif fonts – like this one – have no marks on the ends of their lines, and are usually seen as modern, sleek and clean.

General wisdom is that serif fonts are better for print and for body text, as the serifs lead the eye from one character to the next like joined handwriting. Alternatively, sans serif fonts are better for titles and text displayed on a screen. But these are not hard and fast rules! A popular idea is to choose one of each, perhaps titles will be sans serif and body text will be serif, but it’s up to you – choose what feels right for your brand. Do you want to appeal to tradition, to intellectual weight with a serif font, or do you want your text to feel modern, to speak of technology and progress with a sans serif choice? Which leads to the final consideration…

How much familiarity do you want?

Many of the most popular typefaces already have well established voices. Everyone knows Times New Roman is serious, respectable, reliable. Everyone knows Arial is clear, no-nonsense, professional. If you want your audience to feel the familiarity of these tried and tested fonts, easily done! Or do you want to escape the familiar, be a little bit unique and memorable with a font your audience hasn’t already seen that day?

Once you have the answers to these questions, and have decided on the ‘voice’ you want to convey, you are finally ready to start searching for your font! Read on for our recommendations of 10 of the best fonts you can use for your next presentation.

10 best presentation fonts

1. garamond.

presentation fonts

‘Garamond’ actually refers to a style of font, rather than one font in particular. Some examples you may have heard of include Adobe Garamond, Monotype Garamond and Garamond ITC. All of these fonts are slightly different, but all have their origins in the work of Claude Garamond, who designed the original punch cuts in the 1500s, making Garamond fonts some of the oldest around.

Prior to Claude Garamond’s work, fonts were designed to mimic the handwriting of scribes. Garamond’s typefaces however (there are 34 attributed to him), were designed in the Roman style, with the letters’ ascenders vertical and the crossbar of the letter ‘e’ horizontal, instead of slanted as in earlier calligraphic fonts. The letters were designed this way to increase legibility in print, which is what makes Garamond fonts such a great choice for body text. Such a great choice in fact, that the entire Harry Potter series is printed in Adobe Garamond. Outside of print, Garamond fonts have been used in the logos of numerous brands, including Rolex and Abercrombie and Fitch, and giants Google and Apple.

With their rich history and elegant readability, you can be confident that a Garamond font will bring a timeless sophistication to your slides, while keeping your text legible.

2. Palatino

presentation fonts

Palatino was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1949. Based on the type styles of the Italian Renaissance, Palatino draws influence from calligraphy, and is in fact named after master calligrapher Giambattista Palatino – a contemporary of Claude Garamond. Zapf intended Palatino for use in headings, advertisements and printing. More specifically, it was designed to remain legible when printed on low quality paper, printed at small size or viewed at a distance.

Palatino Linotype is the version of the font included with Microsoft products, and has been altered slightly from the original for optimum display on screens. Book Antiqua, also a Microsoft default font, is very similar, almost impossible to tell from Palatino Linotype.

presentation fonts

Both of these fonts are good choices for body text – a little unusual, they will set your slides apart in a sea of Arial and Times New Roman, while with their airy counters and smooth, calligraphic lines, maintaining elegance and readability.

presentation fonts

Verdana was designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft in 1996, deliberately crafted for use on computer screens. The letters are widely spaced, with wide counters and tall lowercase letters, making this font extremely readable, especially when displayed at small sizes. Verdana is also nearly ubiquitous, it has been included with all versions of Windows and Office since its creation. One survey estimates it is available on 99.7% of Windows computers, and 98.05% of Macs. On the one hand, this makes it a very safe bet – you are almost guaranteed your presentation will appear as you intended on all devices, but on the other hand, you may not stand out from the crowd as much as you may like!

You can’t argue with its legibility though. Verdana is an excellent font to use for small text, for example, to keep your footnotes, references and disclaimers readable. Or, for a safer choice, Verdana’s unobtrusive, effortlessly legible characters will keep your audience’s attention on what you have said, not the font you’ve used to say it.

presentation fonts

If you’ve used a Windows computer, used Skype, played on an Xbox 360 or just seen the Microsoft logo, you have seen a font from the Segoe family. Microsoft uses Segoe fonts for its logos and marketing materials, and Segoe UI has been the default operating system font since Windows Vista. This is all down to its beautiful simplicity, and on-screen legibility. Similarly to Verdana, Segoe fonts look perfect on screens and at small sizes, and are warm and inviting while maintaining the airy, aspirational feel of technology and progress. Unlike Verdana though – which has wide spaces and heavier letters – Segoe fonts are also a great choice for titles and headers.

Another fun bonus from the Segoe font family is the expansive set of symbols and icons it offers. From the insert tab in PowerPoint, click symbol, and change the symbol font to either Segoe UI Symbol, or Segoe UI Emoji, and marvel at the reams and reams of symbols to choose from. There are shapes, arrows, musical notes, mathematical notation, scientific notation, there are animals, buildings, food, Mahjong tiles, Fraktur letters, I Ching hexagrams… Likely any symbol you could possibly want is in there!

So for easy to read body text, light, elegant headers, or a quick and easy way to bring just about any icon you can think of into your presentation, the Segoe font family is a perfect choice.

5. Franklin Gothic

presentation fonts

What is it that makes a font ‘gothic?’ There’s certainly nothing about Franklin Gothic that speaks of bats in belfries or doomed lovers wandering the Yorkshire moors! Well, confusingly, when describing fonts ‘Gothic’ can mean completely opposite things – it is sometimes used to refer to a Medieval-style, blackletter font, or conversely, it can be used as a synonym for the clean, geometric, sans serif fonts that began their rise to prominence in the early 19 th century. And that’s certainly the category Franklin Gothic fits into.

Designed by Morris Fuller for the American Type Founders in 1902 and named after the American printer and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Gothic is a classic American font that has been described as ‘square-jawed and strong-armed, yet soft-spoken.’ With its wide range of weights and widths, and interesting design details (take a look at the uppercase Q and lowercase g for some beautiful, unusual curves, and the uppercase A and M for subtly varying line weights), Franklin Gothic will look strong and approachable as your headings, and classy and legible as your body text.

presentation fonts

Candara was designed by Gary Munch, and released with Windows Vista in 2008. It is part of a family of six Microsoft fonts, all beginning with the letter C (Calibri, Cambria, Consolas, Corbel and Constantia), that were all optimised for use with Microsoft’s ClearType rendering system.

The most interesting thing about Candara, and what makes it such a beautiful font to use, is the influence of architecture on its design. If you look closely at the letters’ ascenders, you will notice an entasis at their ends, which means there is a slight convex curve towards the ends of the lines – a feature best known from classical architecture. Columns built by ancient Greek, Roman, Incan, Aztec and Chinese empires were built with this convex curve, a particularly famous example being the columns of the Parthenon in Athens. Historians believe columns were built in this way to give an impression of greater strength, to correct for the visual illusion that very tall, straight columns appear to bow inwards as they rise.

And the architectural influence doesn’t end there, Candara’s diagonal lines – best seen in the capital X, N and A – have been designed with unusual ogee curves. Most often seen in Gothic arches from 13 th and 14 th century Britain, an ogee curve is part convex, part concave, forming a shallow S shape as it rises. Two ogee curves meeting in the middle form an arch that rises to a point – like Candara’s capital A.

presentation fonts

These entases and ogee curves are what makes this font pleasingly unusual. At first glance, it is a standard, easy-to-read sans serif that looks crisp and clear on screen, but on closer inspection, Candara has some interesting design details that set it apart. Candara is perhaps not the most serious looking font, but if you’d like something slightly unusual, but still professional and perfectly legible, consider Candara.

presentation fonts

Similarly to Garamond, Bodoni refers not to a single font, but to a family of typefaces inspired by the centuries old work of a master typographer. Giambattista Bodoni was an extremely successful master printer who lived and worked in the Italian city of Parma through the late 18 th and early 19 th century. Along with a French typographer named Firmin Didot, Bodoni was responsible for developing the ‘New Face’ style of lettering, characterised by extreme contrast between thick and razor thin lines.

You will have seen this in action if you have ever glanced at a fashion magazine. Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle all print their names in a Bodoni font. In fact, these fonts are so prevalent in fashion graphic design that they have become a shorthand for the elegance and refinement the fashion world idealises.

The sharp lines and smooth curves of these fonts have been compared to the precise geometries of fabric patterns, and their delicate, graceful forms afford them a sophisticated femininity. This delicacy also make these fonts perfect for overlaying photographs. You will notice from the fashion magazine covers how the titles maintain their presence, but don’t overpower the photograph beneath. You can use this to great effect in your own designs; if you need to layer text over photographs, Bodoni fonts could be a stylish and sophisticated answer.

Best used in headings displayed at large sizes where contrasting line weights will have maximum impact, Bodoni fonts will instantly instil your design with an effortless, timeless elegance. Bodoni himself wrote that the beauty of type lies in “conformity without ambiguity, variety without dissonance, and equality and symmetry without confusion.” Bodoni fonts have all those things in abundance, and are some of the most beautiful fonts you can choose to use.

presentation fonts

If Bodoni fonts are just that bit too extreme, try Bell MT instead. They have similar roots – both Bodoni and Bell fonts were influenced by the work of French typographer Fermin Didot, and have the same ‘New Face’ style contrast between thick and thin lines, just to a lesser extent with Bell fonts.

Designed in 1788 by the punch cutter Richard Austin, commissioned by the publisher John Bell, Bell fonts share similarities with Didot style fonts, but also with softer, rounder Roman fonts of the time such as Baskerville. The influence of flowing, cursive style fonts such as Baskerville can be seen in letters such as the uppercase Q and K, and the italic Y and z , which all have some beautiful, unusual curves. In fact, Bell MT is particularly attractive in italic, almost script-like while maintaining legibility. This makes it an excellent choice for sub-headings, as a softer counterpart to a sans serif heading. Or use it for quotes and testimonials, set in a beautiful Bell italic they will be inviting and authentic, as well as clear and readable.

presentation fonts

Coming from an indigenous Salishan language, Tahoma is one of the original Native American names for Mount Rainier in the US state of Washington.

Tahoma the font however was designed by the British typographer Matthew Carter working for Microsoft, and was released with Windows 95. It is a very close cousin of Verdana, but though similar, Tahoma is a little narrower and more tightly spaced than Verdana, giving it a more slender, slightly more formal feel. It is another example of a font that was designed specifically for screen use, meaning it will look good at a wide range of sizes, and on a wide range of screens, perfect if you are making a presentation that will need to display properly on multiple devices.

In fact, perfect clarity is what sets Tahoma apart from some similar sans serif fonts. The image below shows the characters uppercase I (eye), lowercase l (ell) and number 1 (one) written in four popular sans serif fonts (from left to right) Century Gothic, Calibri, Gill Sans and Tahoma. Notice how in every font but Tahoma, at least two characters are indistinguishable. Gill Sans, for example, is a disaster here. It’s unlikely you’ll ever need to write these three characters in quick succession, but for scientific, technical or mathematical content, clear distinction between these characters can be very important – and Tahoma gives you that.

presentation fonts

So with its easy to read, screen friendly design and readily distinguishable characters, Tahoma is an ideal choice for the slightly more formal, but still approachable, scientific or technical presentation.

best presentation fonts

Designed by Jeremy Tankard and released in 2005, like Candara Corbel was also designed to work well with Microsoft’s ClearType rendering system, meaning it is specifically designed to work well on screens. Tankard described his aim when designing Corbel as ‘to give an uncluttered and clean appearance on screen,’ and describes the font as ‘legible, clear, and functional at small sizes.’ All of these things are important boxes to tick when you’re looking for a presentation font!

Corbel is a little more serious than Candara, again in Tankard’s words: ‘functional but not bland,’ designed to be ‘less cuddly, more assertive.’ The dots above the i’s and j’s for example are square, not rounded. The tail of the uppercase Q is straight and horizontal, not a whimsical curve. This makes Corbel a good choice for more serious or technical content, it is legible and without excessive embellishment, yet not characterless or overused.

One of the most interesting design details with Corbel is the fact that with this font, numbers are lowercase. What does this mean? Take a look at the image below, where you can see a comparison of how the numbers 0-9 appear in Corbel with how they appear in another popular sans serif font, Segoe UI. Notice how the Corbel numbers don’t line up exactly? This is know as lowercase or old-style numerals.

best presentation fonts

The purpose of this is to improve how numbers look when they form part of body text – they are a more natural fit with lowercase lettering. Few fonts have this option (for a serif option offering lowercase numbers, consider Georgia, also a Windows standard font), meaning Corbel can make a for a very unique choice. It will be both legible and readable, and its unusual numbers will add a unique and pleasing design touch to your slides.

What about custom fonts?

Sometimes what we want is not the familiar, the comforting, the Arial and the Times New Roman, sometimes we just want something different . This is your opportunity to step into the almost infinite world of custom fonts. Here you can find fonts to fit almost any imaginable need. From timeless and elegant and crisp and futuristic, to ornate scripts and decorative novelties, there will be a custom font for you.

But a word of warning on non-system fonts – custom fonts can be a powerful, attractive component of your presentation design, but if used incorrectly, they can also be its undoing.

A custom font will only appear in your presentation if it is played on a device with that font installed . On any other device, PowerPoint will replace your beautiful, carefully planned custom font with one of the system defaults, and this can have disastrous consequences for your design.

If your presentation is going to be built and presented exclusively from the same device you shouldn’t have a problem, but if multiple devices or operating systems are involved, or if you intend to share your presentation for others to use, to ensure your fonts survive the jump it is safer to stay in the realms of the system default fonts. There you can be confident your carefully crafted designs will stay exactly as you envisaged them, and you can concentrate on delivering the very best presentation.

You can find a useful PDF here detailing which fonts are available on all platforms for maximum compatibility.

Whatever font you do choose for your next PowerPoint presentation, ask yourself two questions:

  • Does this font have the right ‘voice’ for your brand?
  • Is it easy to read?

If the answer to both of the above is yes, then you are on to a winner. You know best what fits with your brand, and if a font captures your unique voice, and makes your slides easy for your audience to read, you are one step closer to that perfect presentation.

Further reading

For more advice on choosing the best font for your next presentation, and then making the very best of it in your design, take a look at our other articles:

  • 10 typography tips and tricks to get you started
  • Advanced typography in PowerPoint
  • https://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/futura-font-on-the-moon-christopher-burke-book
  • https://fontmeme.com/famous-logos-created-with-futura-font/
  • https://cei.org/blog/adobe-garamond-harry-potter-books-not-character-font
  • https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/itc/franklin-gothic/
  • https://study.com/academy/lesson/entasis-definition-architecture-architects.html
  • https://study.com/academy/lesson/ogee-arches-definition-construction.html
  • http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/through-thick-and-think-fashion-and-type
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-don%E2%80%99t-lowercase-and-uppercase-numbers-exist
  • https://typographica.org/on-typography/microsofts-cleartype-font-collection-a-fair-and-balanced-review/
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/cleartype/clear-type-font-collection
  • In addition – Wikipedia pages for each font in the list were used

good presentation font

Elly Hughes

Managing consultant, related articles, mastering high-impact conference presentations.

  • PowerPoint design / Visual communication

Conference presentations are really hard to get right compared to day-to-day presentations. How do you tackle bigger stages, bigger rooms, bigger audiences and higher stakes?

good presentation font

Insights from a presentation templates expert

  • PowerPoint design / Industry insights

A PowerPoint template is the foundation on which polished and professional presentations are built. We interview BrightCarbon’s new Templates Lead, Gemma Leamy, and pick her brains on the ideal process for creating robust PowerPoint templates.

good presentation font

115 PowerPoint Christmas cards to download and share!

  • PowerPoint design
  • Comments: 45

It's Christmas! After a late night with too much eggnog and brandy snaps we set ourselves a challenge to see who could come up with the wildest PowerPoint Christmas card! So it's the day after the night before, and through blurry eyes we can reveal our efforts...

good presentation font

Thank you very much for sharing such useful information!

what is the font you used in the text above

We use GT Walsheim as our corporate font (web, print)(which one has to pay for), but because it’s not a Windows standard font we actually use Segoe UI in our presentations.

What is a Bold font we can use?

What is the name of font you use on this website for writing information ..I want this font

It’s GT Walsheim .

Wow that was good but maybe add Mali to the best fonts for google slides and docs

What is the font of the article?

See above in the comments… GT Walsheim

Loved it. Thanks a lot Bright Carbon team

What font did you write this article in?

See comments above – GT Walsheim, which is a paid font, and not great for presentations as it isn’t on many machines.

Thanks, this helped me with my school presentation!

Absolutely great thank you!

Join the BrightCarbon mailing list for monthly invites and resources

First of all the deck looks great, once again you guys have done an outstanding job. Second, I’d like to comment on the quality of the training provided by your colleagues - quite simply it was exceptional. I have spoken to the whole team and that view is unanimous. Please pass this on. James Bagan MyLife Digital

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Home Blog Design 20 Best PowerPoint Fonts to Make Your Presentation Stand Out in 2024

20 Best PowerPoint Fonts to Make Your Presentation Stand Out in 2024

Cover for the best 20 PowerPoint fonts to make your presentation stand out

What makes or kills a first impression during any presentation is your usage of typefaces in the slide design. There are common sins that we should avoid at all costs, but mostly, there are tactics we can learn to feel confident about designing presentation slides for success.

In this article, we shall discuss what makes a quality typeface to use in presentation slides, the difference between fonts and typefaces (two terms mistakenly used interchangeably), and several other notions pertinent to graphic design in an easy-to-approach format for non-designers. At the end, you will have a better idea of which are the best fonts to use for presentations. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Font vs. Typeface: What’s the difference?

Serif vs. sans serif, 6 elements you should consider when picking a typeface for presentation design, how to install a font in powerpoint.

  • 20 Best PowerPoint Fonts

10 Best PowerPoint Fonts combinations for presentations

Considerations before presenting or printing a slide regarding typefaces, recommended font pairing tools & other resources, closing thoughts.

Most people are familiar with the term font , but what if we tell you it is wrongly used and you intend to say another word? Let’s start by defining each term.

A typeface is a compendium of design elements that set the style of any lettering medium. The misconception comes as the typeface is the set of rules that form a family in style, and the font is the implementation of those rules in practical elements. How so? Well, a font is part of a typeface family and can list variations , i.e., light, regular, bold, heavy, etc. 

Putting it into simpler terms, a font is part of a typeface, and typefaces are set to classes depending on their graphical elements. That categorization stands as:

  • Blackletter

Classification of typefaces by style

Up to this point, you may ask yourself: what is the whole point of the serif? Well, there’s a little bit of story behind it. Back in the old days, when writings were made in stone, engravers added extra glyphs at the end of each letter, as a consequence of the chisel mark. In 1465, with the development of the type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg , the Gothic’s overly-ornamented Blackletter style – used mostly for ecclesiastical purposes – was the go-to typeface to use as it mimicked the formal handwriting style. There was a problem, though, and it arose as such typefaces required lengthy space to produce a book, increasing printing costs. This is where the first pure serif types started to emerge, but readability remained a problem; especially when Renaissance’s calligraphy style didn’t offer an alternative.

These concepts were revised by the 18th century when a pursuit for aesthetics gave birth to newer, slim versions of the serif script. By 1757, John Baskerville introduced what we now know as Transitional typefaces, intended as a refinement to increase legibility. The end of the 18th century saw the inception of modern serif typefaces, which came from the hand of designers Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni. Their work altered the appearance of standard serif typefaces to make the metal engraving process a high-quality process. This is what we now know as the Didone typeface family. 

19th century introduced the slab serifs , also known as Egyptian, which changed communication media as large-scale advertisement quickly adopted this style. In case you wonder if you ever saw this style, remember the large bold letters that newspapers used for headings. The evolution of this typeface style came in 1816, with William Caslon’s “ Caslon Egyptian ” style, or the two-lines style. This is the very first sans serif typeface ever recorded, and its continuity in style or alterations saw a massive process during the 20th century.

It is quite the process that led to what we now know as sans serif typefaces, and such a road was paved for the sake of legibility and style. Nowadays, there’s little doubt about these two typeface families as you can easily identify iconic styles such as “Times New Roman” and clearly differentiate them from sans serif families like “Arial.” In the graphic below, you can appreciate the glyphs that distinctively give the serif typefaces their style.

Usage of serif in typefaces explained

Moving on to the parts that pique our interest as presenters, you should consider some implicit rules before starting a PowerPoint design. 

Functionality

Let’s be hyper-clear on this point: not every typeface works for your intended purpose. Legibility should be your primal focus, way more than design, as what’s the point of using a cool-looking typeface if no one can get a clue of what’s written? 

Functionality refers to the usage of a typeface at different sizes across a document. Do you ever wonder why you see the same typeface on eye testing boards? Usually is a slab serif, with its sans serif alternative, and the same font is repeated, downscaling its size to test your visual acuity. If, said typeface, had “catchy” glyphs, you would require twice as much time actually to read the type below the average 24pt in a board.

Explaining functionality in typefaces

Language support

This is a common, and painful, pitfall many non-English speakers do. They fall in love with a typeface after browsing an English-based website, but whenever they apply it to a personal project, they find they cannot use their average characters. Which characters are those?

  • Ø – in Nordic languages.
  • Ö – also known as umlaut in German, is commonly used in Turkish, Nordic, and Baltic languages.
  • Á – the acute accent used in most Latin-based languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French.
  • Ô – the circumflex, mostly used by Portuguese-speaking users but also French.
  • Ç – the cedilla, used in Portuguese, French, Catalán, and Turkish (the ? character, for example).
  • Ã – the tilde, common in Portuguese.

And those are just some examples extracted from the Latin alphabet. The problem even worsens if we intend to use Cyrillic, Greek, Hindi, or other Asiatic alphabets (which don’t fall into Chinese, Japanese, or Korean typical logographic style). For this reason, we emphasize testing the characters you will mostly use throughout a standard written text, just not to come across nasty surprises.

Some font families offer support for multi-language applications across the same alphabet. Others, restrict their compatibility in terms of certain characters (i.e., the acute accent in Spanish), but sometimes, that renders as a distorted character that looks awful at any written copy.

A representation of when language support is not properly handed by a typeface

Multiple weights

We want to expose this point by first explaining what weight means for a font family. As previously mentioned, fonts are part of a typeface; they are their implementation in terms of style. Well, fonts include variations within the same specific family style that makes the text look thinner or bolder. That’s known as font weight and can be classified in two ways.

Name classification:

  • Thin Italic
  • Medium Italic
  • Semibold (also known as Demi Bold)
  • Semibold Italic
  • Bold Italic
  • Heavy (also known as Black)
  • Heavy Italic

Web designers and graphic designers often use a number-based scale, which is inherited from CSS.

  • 100 – Thin
  • 200 – Extra Light
  • 300 – Light
  • 400 – Normal or Regular
  • 500 – Medium
  • 600 – Semibold
  • 700 – Bold
  • 800 – Extra Bold
  • 900 – Black

Now you know the reason why some places like Google Fonts often show numbers next to the name definition of it.

Font weights in Google Fonts

Not every typeface can be used for any project. Some typefaces can be acquired for a fee through sites like MyFonts.com , but their usage does not allow commercial use. What exactly does this mean?

Let’s say you created a product, and you love the Coca-Cola lettering style. Well, you want to use the Coca-Cola typeface, which is trademarked, as the typeface for your logo. Everything sounds fantastic until your designer warns you that it’s impossible.

Brands that create typefaces for their logos, which is a common practice to deliver the originality factor into the brand, restrict the usage of their intellectual property for commercial use as they don’t want to be associated with the wrong kind of message. Okay then, what happens when a kid uses those typefaces on a school project? This writer sincerely doubts a company shall put their legal team to prosecute a student; most likely, they feel it is part of their brand awareness and cultural influence. That same argument won’t be used if a particular is intending to use the typeface to make a profit with a non-branded product, and you will be legally requested to ditch the design altogether. 

Therefore, before opting for a typeface, don’t fall prey to using a fancy, trademarked, typeface. 

The unknown-typeface strikes again

This is another common pitfall if you attend multiple presentations or if you work in the printing business. How often does a user feel annoyed that the presentation “looked different” at home? Fonts are the culprit for this.

Whenever you work on a presentation using local-based software, like PowerPoint, the typefaces you pick are the ones installed on your computer. Therefore, if you change devices, the typefaces won’t be available. We will retake this topic later, but consider always working with well-known typefaces available on any computer rather than innovation.

Sins of type

Finally, we want to conclude this section with the vices you should avoid at all costs whenever working with type in presentations. 

  • Using multiple typefaces on the same document: As a rule, don’t use more than 3 typefaces across your presentation slides design. Increasing the number of typefaces won’t make it more appealing; quite the opposite, and you should be mindful that if your images contain text, they have to match the existing typefaces in the presentation. 
  • DO NOT use Comic Sans: By all means, do yourself a favor. There are multiple reasons why designers feel like having a stroke whenever Comic Sans enters the scene, but if you want a straightforward reason why, it makes your work look childish, unprofessional, and unfit for its purpose.
  • Script fonts for the body of text : Legible typefaces are required in long text areas to make the reader feel comfortable. Script fonts are not intended for readability but for design purposes. If your text is long, work with serif or sans serif typefaces (slab serif won’t do good as well).
  • Excess tracking : Tracking refers in typography to the space between words, and the perfect way to point this out is by referring to the Justify paragraph alienation, which often leaves heavy white areas between words. Excess tracking makes the text look boring and hard to read.

Installing a font in PowerPoint doesn’t mean installing it as a third-party plugin; you must install the font family into the operating system (OS). 

Installing a font in Windows

Method 1 – Via Contextual Menu

  • Download your desired font family. Extract the zip file you obtain.
  • Right-click the font files you obtain from the zip (they can be in OpenType or TrueType format). Click on Install on the contextual menu. 
  • You will be prompted to give admin rights to make changes to your computer. If you trust the source, then click yes. 

Method 2 – Via C: Drive

  • Open a new File Explorer window. Search this path: C:\Windows\Fonts. That’s where fonts are stored in any Windows OS. 
  • Copy the files from your extracted zip file or folder containing fonts.
  • Paste the fonts by right-clicking inside the Fonts folder, then click Paste .

Relaunch the opened applications to see the effects of installing a font.

Installing a font on Mac

Mac OS requires a different procedure for installing fonts. First, access the Font Book app. 

After launching Font Book, go to File > Add Fonts to Current User . Double-click the font file. 

The Font Book app validates the integrity of the font file and if there are duplicate fonts. For more detailed instructions and troubleshooting on Mac font install procedures, check this guide by Apple .

20 Best Fonts for PowerPoint

Now it’s time to explore what you’ve been looking for: the best fonts for PowerPoint! This is a list of typefaces intended for multiple uses in slides, and it will certainly boost your PowerPoint design ideas for the greater.

#1 – Tahoma Font

This typeface is typically used in PowerPoint slides, emails, Word documents, and more. It resembles Verdana but with a smaller kerning (distance between characters). Due to that, it feels slimmer, professional and works perfectly on multiple devices. This is one of the best fonts for presentation that you can consider to use.

Tahoma typeface

Recommended font pairing: Georgia, Brandon Grotesque, Helvetica Neue, Palatino, Arial.

#2 – Verdana Font

Verdana is a sans serif classic commonly used for citations, disclaimers, and academic documents. It is available on both Windows and Mac as a pre-installed font, which would solve your problems if you have to deliver presentations on multiple devices (which may not be yours).

Verdana typeface for presentations

Recommended font pairing: Arial, Lucida Grande, Futura, Georgia.

#3 – Roboto

Another delicate sans serif font that is ideal for text bodies. It is rated among the best fonts for PowerPoint readability and presentations, so you can easily pair it with more prominent font families. You may recognize this typeface as it is the default Google Maps uses.

Roboto typeface

Recommended font pairing: Oswald, Gill Sans, Garamond, Open Sans, Teko, Crimson Text.

#4 – Rockwell

Including visually attractive elements is crucial when looking for the best fonts for presentations, so why not combine a professional style with a slab serif typeface like Rockwell?

It is ideal for headings, especially if used in its bold font weight and paired with a sans serif for the body.

Rockwell typeface

Recommended font pairing: Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans, Futura, DIN Mittelschrift.

#5 – Open Sans

This is easily one of the most versatile sans-serif fonts you can find! It is commonly used in presentation slides as both heading and body, varying font-weight, but you can also create powerful combinations with different typefaces.

Open Sans typeface

Recommended font pairing: Roboto, Brandon Grotesque, Montserrat, Oswald, Lora, Raleway.

#6 – Lato

A typeface intended for digital mediums, one of its biggest advantages is its wide range of font weights – much like Open Sans. It is ideal for headings in minimalistic-themed presentations, but it can work perfectly as body text if paired with a serif font or a script one.

Lato typeface

Recommended font pairing: Montserrat, Oswald, Roboto, Merriweather.

#7 – Futura

This sans serif typeface was designed by Paul Renner in 1927 and remains a preferred choice of designers thanks to its clean aspect with pure geometric shapes. It has inspiration from the Bauhaus in terms of styling, so any presenter that loves modern style will find in this typeface a loyal companion.

good presentation font

Recommended font pairing: Playfair Display, Lato, Book Antiqua, Helvetica, Open Sans.

#8 – Book Antiqua

A typeface widely used in the first years of the 2000s, its graphical elements are inspired by Renaissance’s handwritten style. Created in 1991 by The Monotype Corporation, it is known as a classic in design projects and won’t run out of fashion any time soon. Its italic variation is considered one of the most beautiful italic serif fonts.

Book Antiqua typeface

Recommended font pairing: Myriad Pro, Baskerville, Georgia, Futura, Vladimir Script.

#9 – Bebas Neue

This typeface is strictly intended for headings or for body copy that doesn’t mind the usage of caps. The reason is that this typeface is entirely made of caps. It has no lowercase characters, but its slender shape and tight kerning have made it a popular choice among well-known designers like Chris Do. One creative usage of this typeface is to use it in outline format.

Bebas Neue typeface

Recommended font pairing: Avenir, Montserrat, DIN Mittelschrift, Roboto.

#10 – Lora

This serif typeface can be used both in PowerPoint and Google Slides, as it is a free typeface offered by Google. Works perfectly for formal-styled headings, but it can adapt for text body as long as it remains a minimum of 15pt in size. It is an ideal option to pair with free PowerPoint presentation templates.

Lora typeface

Recommended font pairing: Montserrat, Open Sans, Poppins, Avenir.

#11 – Montserrat

You most likely came across Montserrat at some point in your life, since it is an extremely popular choice among designers for presentations and packaging. Due to this, you won’t spark innovation but rather remain on the safe side for font pairings – which is ideal for corporate styling.

Montserrat typeface

Recommended font pairing: Lora, Open Sans, Merriweather, Oswald, Georgia, Roboto.

#12 – Bentham

Another elegant serif font used for formal occasions, like wedding invitations, headings, or product descriptions. Its kerning makes it readable, unlike many other serif fonts, which is one of the reasons why you can work with this font for the body if you opt for a sans serif in the headings. 

Bentham typeface

Recommended font pairing: Futura, Open Sans, Lato, Raleway.

#13 – Dosis

It is a simple, monoline sans serif typeface, which works perfectly in its extra light and light font weights to make a drastic contrast with a bold sans serif typeface. Ideally, work with this typeface for subheadings.

Dosis typeface

Recommended font pairing: Lato, Montserrat, Roboto, Oswald, Raleway.

#14 – Baskerville

You can come across this serif typeface in the form of Libre-Baskerville, a free serif typeface offered by Google. It is ideal for headings, thanks to its traditional style closely resembling the original Baskerville typeface, so it is ideal to stick to it in uppercase mode.

Baskerville typeface

Recommended font pairing: Montserrat, Poppins, Lucida Grande, Helvetica Neue, Open Sans.

#15 – Poppins

This sans serif typeface breaks with the formal style of families like Verdana and Open Sans, introducing some graphical cues that make it adept for more relaxed situations. Therefore, it is ideal to use in team meetings, product presentations, or non-business presentations as long as it remains for title headers.

Poppins typeface

Recommended font pairing: Raleway, Garamond, Merriweather, Droid Serif. 

#16 – Zenith Script

EnvatoElements is a great marketplace for typefaces; among the options, we can find this brush-style script typeface. Zenith Script is a powerful option to come up with creative title designs for non-corporate meetings, as long as the title remains short. It can also work for branding purposes, and certainly, you can use it as an asset if you are looking for how to start a presentation .

Zenith Script typeface

Recommended font pairing: Any sans serif font in uppercase format, with increased kerning. Options can be Open Sans, Bebas Neue (modified), Roboto, and Futura.

#17 – Amnesty

The second option we consider among script typefaces. Amnesty has that dramatic effect that resembles rusting handwriting from the old days. It is ideal for presentations that have to convey a strong emotional factor, like product releases for fashion brands, and we recommend limiting its usage to short titles, always paired with sans serif typefaces.

Amnesty typeface

Recommended font pairing: As it is a custom-made font, we recommend pairing it with its Amnesty Sans listed in the product file.

#18 – Bodoni

This typeface dates all the way back to 1798 and is considered a transitional font type. Its name comes from Giambattista Bodoni, designer, and author of this typeface, whose work was heavily influenced by John Baskerville. As a didone typeface, you find elegant traces that instantly give the feel of a fashion magazine heading, and it is no coincidence that this was the selected typeface for the title of Dante Alighieri’s La Vita Nuova re-print in 1925 .

Bodoni typeface

Recommended font pairing: Brandon Grotesque, Gill Sans, Playfair Display, Raleway, Courier.

#19 – Avant Garde

If you are looking for good presentation fonts, this geometric sans serif is the answer to your question. This typeface is based on the Avant Garde magazine logo and remains one of the most popular condensed sans serif options. Many brands use Avant Gard these days as part of their branding identity, such as Macy’s (lowercase usage), the Scottish rock band Travis, RE/MAX, among others.

Avant Garde typeface

Recommended font pairing: Helvetica Neue, Sentinel, Garamond, Neuzeit Grotesk.

#20 – DIN Mittelschrift

Our final typeface in this list is the DIN 1451 sans serif typeface, widely used in traffic signage and administrative/technical applications. Its denomination, Mittelschrift, comes from the German word for medium, which refers to the font weight. You can find it in Engschrift , which stands for condensed. 

DIN Mittelschrift & Engschrift typefaces

Recommended font pairing: Open Sans, Didot, Helvetica Neue, Lucida Grande.

Keep in mind that if you are looking for a proper way how to end a presentation , working with graphics is much better than sticking with type, as you show extra care for the final element in your slide deck. 

Open Sans + Roboto

Open Sans + Roboto font pairing

Didot + DIN Mittelschrift

Didot + DIN Mittelschrift font pairing

Bodoni + Gill Sans

Bodoni + Gill Sans font pairing

Rockwell + Bembo

Rockwell + Bembo font pairing

Bebas Neue + Montserrat Light

Bebas Neue + Montserrat Light font pairing

Helvetica Neue + Garamond

Helvetica Neue + Garamond font pairing

Oswald + Lato

Oswald + Lato font pairing

Baskerville + Montserrat

Baskerville + Montserrat font pairing

Lora + Poppins

Lora + Poppins font pairing

Book Antiqua + Myriad Pro

Book Antiqua + Myriad Pro font pairing

Before concluding the technical aspects of this article on best presentation fonts, we want to mention some key elements that you should consider before delivering a presentation or printing it for physical format.

Working with accurate text si zing in presentations can make a difference in how the slides are perceived by the audience. First, let’s make one very valid clarification: a Point (pt, unit used in PowerPoint and other word processing software) equals 1.333 pixels, or we can say a pixel is 0.75 pt.

You can find multiple resources and rules on font sizing intended for web designers, so let’s resume the primary points here:

  • Body text should remain 12 to 14pt for legibility. If the presentation is shown from afar, increase body size to 16pt.
  • The ratio for headings and titles is twice as big as the body text.
  • Subheadings should be between 3-4 pt smaller than headings to make a valid contrast but not compete with the body text.
  • Keep an eye on leading , the space between lines of text. Double spacing makes it hard to read in most situations, so avoid it for the text body. 

Getting slides ready for print format

Remember what we mentioned above about not having your fonts installed on the computer? Well, this inconvenience can be easily solved by rastering type before leaving your home or exporting your presentation file. PowerPoint doesn’t offer a native option to do this, so if your presentation has sections that are bound to suffer from font issues, work with them as images, which can be exported from Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator. It is just like working with PowerPoint shapes , but you remain on the safe side of font compatibility issues. 

Word of advice : keep an editable copy instead of just the rastered version.

Color contrast and color testing

Accessibility is the number #1 rule to remember when working with text, as it enhances the performance of your visual communication tactics. In general, don’t work with pure white or pure black colors, since it induces eye strain whenever a spectator has to read your slides for a long while. You can work with color contrast resources such as WebAIM’s Contrast Checker .

If your presentation slides are going to be handed out in deliverable format, be sure to perform a color test before you bulk print the slides. Some colors can be misleading, especially in the conversion from RGB to CMYK color spaces. Also, some light grays may not be accurately printed if done with an inkjet printer. Take some extra time to ensure this process is done right, and avoid last-minute costly frustrations. 

If you need to purchase typefaces, opt for trustworthy marketplaces. Sites like MyFont.com offer an immense collection of font families available for you, plus extra services like WhatTheFont , their AI-based typeface recognition software, which allows you to scan and detect typefaces from documents, images, and more. It is extremely useful if you are looking for a typeface but cannot remember its name.

Alternatives: Fonts.com | Adobe Fonts | Google Fonts

Fontjoy.com

For those who seek to explore creative font pairing schemes, Fontjoy is the site to visit. It is a simple layout, in which you select the font for the Title, Subheading, and Body. You can randomly generate combinations based on the contrast between typeface styles, or start with a typeface you had in mind for one section – lock it – and click on the generate button. 

Keep in mind it has a limited number of typefaces, some of which we mentioned here may not be available.

Alternatives: fontpairings.com

When looking for inspiration to create visually attractive font pairings, Typ.io is a website intended for web font inspiration, meaning to guide designers with different font schemes by looking at the font’s name. 

You can look at some projects in detail, with their CSS code written for you, so you can analyze the font weight used or particular style details.

Typewar.com

Want to have fun while learning about font pairing? Well, an important part of that process is to learn by heart the most used typefaces. Typewar is a website that offers a quiz showing different characters in multiple typefaces, with the input to choose between two font families. It is ideal to practice classic typefaces, and you will increase your knowledge in design by a great deal if you practice 10 minutes a day.

Typescale.com

One crucial aspect of working with text is knowing how to scale it properly. Since readability is critical, you should know when and where to use each font size. Typescale is a website that is intended for web designers and can help convert typefaces from pixels to rem . How is this useful for presenters? Well, since we won’t dwell in pixels and other units besides points (pt), this tool is ideal to tell if a text is legible from distance at the current size you assigned, or whether you should upscale or downscale the body text to make a better contrast with the headings. 

Finally, we conclude this section by introducing Coolors , a palette generator tool that helps designers come up with beautiful color schemes for their work. As we discussed in our color theory for presentations article, it is important to keep an eye on the colors we manage as they contribute to the psychological impact the presentation has on the audience.

Get used to generating creative PowerPoint color palettes for each presentation to make them unique, or help your brand to tailor cooperative slides to the appropriate PowerPoint theme that matches the company’s logo. 

As you can see, getting ready to make a presentation isn’t just an easy feat that can be accomplished in minutes if you aim for custom-made solutions rather than sticking to PowerPoint templates . Increasing your knowledge of font pairing and its proper usage will certainly boost your performance as a presenter, making you less prone to a design faux-pas that diverts the attention from your content.

We recommend you to visit our tutorials on how to add fonts to PowerPoint and how to add fonts to Google Slides . We hope this guide brings light to a complex topic like working with design decisions in presentations and see you next time.

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The Best 24 Fonts for Modern PowerPoint Presentations [+Guide]

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By Lyudmil Enchev

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The Best 24 Fonts for Modern PowerPoint Presentations [+Guide]

Presentations are pieces of art. From slide structure to animations, every single detail matters. In this blog post, we will show you the 24 best PowerPoint fonts for all uses. Of course, like everything in design – you might like some and frown at others.

What we can guarantee you is that using this collection of top fonts for PowerPoint will always be a safe bet when you’re in doubt.

Article Overview: 1. How to import a font into your presentation? 2. Great Fonts to Use for your PowerPoint Presentations 3. Great System fonts for PowerPoint Presentations 4. How to design text in PowerPoint?

1. How to import a font into your presentation?

If you don’t know how to import fonts into PowerPoint, it’s important to learn how to do it.

Step 1. Download your fonts

The first step is to select your desired font and download it.

Step 2. Extract the font

Once you’ve downloaded the font, it’s most probably compressed. You need to extract it before installation. If it comes directly as a .otf or .ttf format, there’s no need to unzip.

Step 3. Install the font

Install the font. The process is similar to installing any software, just press “Next” until you see the option “Finish”. If your fonts have been successfully installed, they should appear in the Font library in Windows. To access it, go to your computer, Local Disk (C:)->Windows-> Fonts .

Step 4. Open PowerPoint

Once you open your PowerPoint, the new font should appear among the others.

2. Great Fonts to Use for your PowerPoint Presentations

Fonts are a great way to show some branding skills but also a significant part of your presentation. Of course, we cannot select the best PowerPoint fonts or the best fonts in general, it’s a too subjective matter. But we will try to show you some of the most versatile ones that you will not make a mistake with. Let’s start!

Lato font

Lato is a very common font that is used in digital forms since it was created for this purpose. It is a sans-serif font that is flexible. One of the most useful things about it is that you can choose between 5 different options for font thickness, giving it extra value when creating PowerPoint presentations.

Recommended title size:  20px

Optimum size for legibility:  18px

Perfect for:  headers and body text

You can combine it with: Roboto, Montserrat, Merriweather

2. Open Sans

Open Sans typeface

Open Sans is another great font that can fit PowerPoint presentations perfectly. Since there is some line spacing, it can be easily readable. If you have large paragraphs that you cannot break down in bullets, it’s your perfect choice. It’s a standard PowerPoint font, so you’ll most probably have it in your font library.

Recommended title size: 28px

Optimum size for legibility:  16px

Perfect for:  body text

You can combine it with: Georgia, Lucida Grande, Publico

Candara font

Candara is not your everyday font. While you cannot use it in Linux or the web, as it’s proprietary,  it’s accessible in PowerPoint, and what makes it interesting are the curved diagonals, and it’s the curves that give it more “personality”.

Recommended title size: 20px

Optimum size for legibility: 16px

Perfect for: body text

You can combine it with: Calibri, Cambria, Corbel

Tahoma font

Specifically designed for Windows 95, Tahoma is a very formal font that can fit business presentations perfectly. It is a very clear and distinctive font which can help avoid confusion, thus it makes it great for formal presentations that need clarity.

Optimum size for legibility: 18px

Perfect for: title headers and body text

You can combine it with:  Georgia, Helvetica Neue, Arial

5. Montserrat

Montserrat font

Montserrat is an extremely popular font, as it can be utilized everywhere – from website texts to presentations. Due to its high practicality, you can find it almost anywhere. Well, we need to warn you that you won’t get many “originality” points but you’ll also be “safe” when using it.

Recommended title size: 30px

You can combine it with: Open Sans, Lora, Carla

Whitney font

Whitney is an amazing font that will make your presentation stand out. There are two options – Whitney Condensed and Whitney Narrow. To be honest, Whitney can be used for both headers and body texts (check Discord), but we find it a bit overwhelming for PowerPoint paragraphs.

Recommended title size: 22px

Optimum size for legibility: 15px

Perfect for: title headers

You can combine it with:  Sentinel, Mercury, Gotham

7. Proxima Nova

Proxima Nova font

Proxima Nova is one of the most versatile fonts out there with not 2 but 7 variants! That makes it a viable choice for many purposes and it’s part of the Adobe Fonts collection. The popularity spike is not without a reason, and Proxima Nova certainly won’t disappoint as it is one of the better fonts for PowerPoint.

Recommended title size: 26px

Perfect for: headers and body text

You can combine it with:  Adobe Garamond, Futura, Helvetica Neue

Oswald font

Oswald is a very decent sans-serif typeface and has 3 different versions – light, normal, and bold. It’s an interesting combination of some modern elements combined with classic gothic style, thus it’s perfect for your presentations.

Recommended title size: 18px

You can combine it with: Merriweather, Arial, Roboto

Europa font

Europa is an amazing font from the Adobe Font Family. It’s a modern geometric sans-serif font that goes well with other fonts from the Adobe family but it can be used in a combination with non-Adobe fonts. It’s up to you.

Recommended title size: 32px

Optimum size for legibility: 20px

Perfect for: headers

You can combine it with:  Adobe Garamond, Chaparral, Kepler

Roboto font

Roboto is one of the most versatile fonts for the web, as it comes with 6 variations. Described as a grotesque sans-serif, it is the default font of Google Maps. Being easy to read makes it great for body texts where scanning is pivotal. While it’s great for small texts, it doesn’t perform that well for titles.

Recommended title size: 38px

Optimum size for legibility: 22px

You can combine it with: Roboto-Slab, Oswald, Abel

Adelle font

Adelle is a slab serif font that is part of the Adobe Family. It’s multipurpose and could work be well utilized and magazines. Its personality and great visibility make it a viable choice on our PowerPoint fonts list. While it can be used for body text too, we prefer to recommend it for headers.

Recommended title size: 36px

You can combine it with: Freight Sans Pro, Proxima Nova, Lucida Grande

14. Lobster

Lobster font

Lobster is a great choice if you want to create some funky text. It’s a great font for posters and headers but ensure you don’t use it much for body text, as it has very poor legibility if written in small letters.

Recommended title size: 58px

Optimum size for legibility: not recommended

You can combine it with: Lato, Open Sans, Muli

Futura font

Futura is almost a century old but still converts well today! It’s one of the most versatile fonts for PowerPoint in case you download it. Who would suppose a 95-year-old font would still be relevant these days? And you will win points for creativity.

Optimum size for legibility: 17px

You can combine it with: Proxima Nova, New Caledonia, Trade Gothic

Canela font

Canela is a hybrid font, as it can neither be called serif, nor sans-serif. It’s a very graceful typeface and we find it amazing for title texts. We also loved how it performs in the body from an artistic standpoint. However, we cannot rate it as very suitable for long paragraphs. Still, it can be used in bullets quite well.

You can combine it with: Caslon, Futura, Maison Neue

Aleo font

Aleo is an modern slab serif typeface designed as a “companion” to other popular fonts, like Lato. It has a sleek design but that doesn’t sacrifice readability which matters the most. As it has great clarity, it can be used both as a title text and in the body.

Recommended title size: 25px

Optimum size for legibility: 19px

You can combine it with: Lato, Arimo, Halis Grotesque

18. Poppins

Poppins font

Poppins is a playful sans-serif font that can be used as a main PowerPoint font without any issue. Thanks to its versatility, this PowerPoint font can be used both for title headers and body text, although we prefer the latter.

Recommended title size: 24px

Perfect for: header, body text

You can combine it with: Raleway, Work Sans, New Caledonia

Eras font

Eras font has 4 weight options in PowerPoint and is absolutely stunning. It won’t be a mistake if we use it as a synonym to “elegance”. It’s slightly italic, thus making it perfect for long paragraphs and web content.

You can combine it with: Garamond, Futura, Helvetica Neue

Lora font

Lora is a great font that is offered for free by Google. It is a formal font that doesn’t turn its back on art, and as a result, it can be utilized greatly in PowerPoint both as a header and in the body, and it can work perfectly in print, too.

You can combine it with: Lato, Avenir, Montserrat

3. Great System fonts for PowerPoint Presentations

System fonts are a classic choice for PowerPoint presentations as they are a pretty safe bet – you can access them on all types of devices and operating systems. While some of them might not be as beautiful as the previous ones on our list, they will serve you well!

21. Georgia

Georgia font

Georgia is a classic serif font that doesn’t impress with outstanding looks but what makes it a viable choice for PowerPoint presentations is its versatility – you can use it on any type of presentation, as a header or in the body. It’s popular, so you won’t make a mistake using it.

You can combine it with:

22. Times New Roman

Times New Roman font

Times New Roman was “The Thing” back in time. It was used as a default font for many web browsers and software, thus it was overwhelming. Recently, this serif font has lost its “halo” and is less common but you will never get it wrong if you bring it back to life.

Optimum size for legibility: 12px

You can combine it with: Arial, Gotham, Helvetica Neue

Arial font

Arial is another well-known name in the web font industry. You can also check this neo-grotesque sans-serif font used in PowerPoint presentations quite often, as it offers a lot of versatility.

You can combine it with: Oswald, Verdana, Georgia

24. Helvetica Neue

Helvetica Neue font

Helvetica Neue is the successor of Helvetica which improved legibility and made it more modern. It is one of the most formal fonts that you can use in PowerPoint (and at all). This sans-serif font has 23 different variations in PowerPoint 2022 that you can choose from.

You can combine it with:  Open Sans, Proxima Nova, Adelle

4. How to design text in PowerPoint?

There are certain standards that should be met, in order for your PowerPoint fonts to appear correctly. Let’s see how to order your texts.

1. Make sure the font size is readable

Fonts in PowerPoint tip: the font should be readable

Do you wonder why some websites have HUGE fonts? It’s to ensure their content will be easily scannable. While you don’t have to use a 60px font size for your letters, you should consider making your text more readable.

Pro tip : A simple and straightforward way to achieve this is to try and remove large paragraphs, and replace them with single sentences and bullet points.

2. Make a contrast between the text and background

Tip for fonts in PowerPoint presentation: make contrast with background

There is an adopted standard of a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio between text and background for content to be scannable, and 3:1 for large text. There are people who have bad eyesight, and others are color blind.

3. Use white space

Use white space for text in PowerPoint

White space (or negative space) is crucial for your slide design. It is used to separate different parts of the text, making content more readable. It’s crucial to remember that you should leave some “air” after finishing a main point in the slide.

4. Find the right text balance

Balance text in PowerPoint - presentation design tip

One of the best PowerPoint presentation practices is to write between 6-8 lines and use no more than 30-35 words. Also, you should try to balance the text evenly – you cannot write 4 lines, then follow them with 3 lines, and then 1. Typically, writing 2-3 lines per paragraph is considered a good move, then followed by white space.

Final words

Structuring your PowerPoint text is not an easy feat. You need to pick the right PowerPoint fonts, as well as follow some basic instructions to make your slide text more scannable for your audience.

If this article has helped you, why don’t you have a look at some other font-related content from GraphicMama:

  • 40 Trendy Free Fonts for Commercial Use Today
  • Top 20 Free Fonts: Trendy & Evergreen
  • 44 of The Best Free Handwriting Fonts to Try in 2022

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Lyudmil Enchev

Lyudmil is an avid movie fan which influences his passion for video editing. You will often see him making animations and video tutorials for GraphicMama. Lyudmil is also passionate for photography, video making, and writing scripts.

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Home » Fonts » 25 Best Fonts for Powerpoint to Elevate Your Presentations

25 Best Fonts for Powerpoint to Elevate Your Presentations

  • January 22, 2024

Picture of Hana Terber

  • Written by a professional

Summary: In today’s article, I selected 25 amazing Microsoft fonts that are simply perfect for Powerpoint presentations. My top three favorites are:

  • Impact : It helps emphasize key points by its bold and attention-grabbing nature.
  • Goudy Old Style : It offers a balanced and readable choice for conveying information.
  • Century Gothic : Its clean style is versatile, it does help maintain a professional look.

When it comes to selecting fonts for PowerPoint presentations, I understand the importance of making the right choice to enhance the overall look and effectiveness of slides. Choosing the right font is crucial & this article highlights the best fonts that combine readability with professional style, ensuring your slides make a lasting impression. Whether you're presenting in a corporate meeting or a creative showcase, these fonts will enhance your message and keep your audience engaged. Let's explore my top picks & move your next presentation on new level.

TOP 25 best fonts for PowerPoint

  • Goudy Old Style
  • Century Gothic
  • Baskerville Old Face
  • The Serif Hand
  • Cooper Black
  • Gill Sans Nova
  • Alasassy Caps
  • Avenir Next LT Pro
  • Century Schoolbook
  • Georgia Pro
  • Verdana Pro
  • Vivaldi Italic
  • Chamberi Super Display Regular
  • Mystical Woods Smooth Script
  • Tisa Offc Serif Pro
  • Britannic Bold
  • Baguet Script Regular
  • Modern No. 20
  • Modern Love Caps

good presentation font

  • About Impact: Impact, with its bold and condensed style, is ideal for PowerPoint presentations needing striking headlines or attention-grabbing titles.

2. Goudy Old Style

good presentation font

  • About Goudy Old Style: Goudy Old Style offers an elegant, traditional touch to PowerPoint presentations, perfect for formal or historical topics.

3. Century Gothic

good presentation font

  • About Century Gothic: Century Gothic, known for its clean, sans-serif design, is suitable for modern and minimalistic PowerPoint presentations requiring readability.

4. Baskerville Old Face

good presentation font

  • About Baskerville Old Face: Baskerville Old Face adds a touch of classic sophistication to PowerPoint presentations, ideal for literature or history-themed slides.

5. The Serif Hand

good presentation font

  • About The Serif Hand: The Serif Hand, with its handwritten appearance, is great for informal or creative PowerPoint presentations that aim for a personal touch.

6. Cooper Black

good presentation font

  • About Cooper Black: Cooper Black, with its rounded, bold letters, is excellent for casual or playful PowerPoint presentations needing a friendly tone.

7. Gill Sans Nova

good presentation font

  • About Gill Sans Nova: Gill Sans Nova, a refined sans-serif font, is versatile for both professional and casual PowerPoint presentations, offering clarity and elegance.

8. Alasassy Caps

good presentation font

  • About Alasassy Caps: Alasassy Caps, characterized by its stylish uppercase letters, is suitable for decorative titles in modern or fashion-themed PowerPoint presentations.

9. Avenir Next LT Pro

good presentation font

  • About Avenir Next LT Pro: Avenir Next LT Pro, known for its sleek and professional look, is ideal for business or technology-themed PowerPoint presentations.

10. Century Schoolbook

good presentation font

  • About Century Schoolbook: Century Schoolbook, with its legible and formal style, is perfect for educational or academic PowerPoint presentations.

11. Georgia Pro

good presentation font

  • About Georgia Pro: Georgia Pro, a serif font, offers excellent readability and a professional look, suitable for varied PowerPoint presentation topics.

12. Verdana Pro

good presentation font

  • About Verdana Pro: Verdana Pro, designed for high readability on screens, is a great choice for text-heavy PowerPoint presentations.

13. Vivaldi Italic

good presentation font

  • About Vivaldi Italic: Vivaldi Italic, with its elegant and flowing script, is ideal for artistic or decorative titles in PowerPoint presentations.

14. Chamberi Super Display Regular

good presentation font

  • About Chamberi Super Display Regular: This font, known for its sophisticated and impactful style, is perfect for headlines in modern PowerPoint presentations.

15. Garamond

good presentation font

  • About Garamond: Garamond, a classic and timeless serif font, is suitable for formal and sophisticated PowerPoint presentations.

16. Broadway

good presentation font

  • About Broadway: Broadway, with its art deco style, is excellent for PowerPoint presentations that require a touch of retro glamour.

17. Tw Cen MT

good presentation font

  • About Tw Cen MT: Tw Cen MT offers a sleek, geometric appearance, making it suitable for contemporary and business-oriented PowerPoint presentations.

18. Gungsuh

good presentation font

  • About Gungsuh : Gungsuh, a Korean font, is ideal for PowerPoint presentations that require an Asian aesthetic or for presentations in Korean language.

19. Mystical Woods Smooth Script

good presentation font

  • About Mystical Woods Smooth Script: With its flowing and decorative style, this font is perfect for creative or fantasy-themed PowerPoint presentations.

20. Tisa Offc Serif Pro

good presentation font

  • About Tisa Offc Serif Pro: Tisa Offc Serif Pro, known for its readability and elegance, is a versatile choice for a range of PowerPoint presentation themes.

21. Britannic Bold

good presentation font

  • About Britannic Bold: Britannic Bold, with its strong and assertive style, is great for headlines in business or educational PowerPoint presentations.

22. Rockwell

good presentation font

  • About Rockwell: Rockwell, known for its slab-serif and sturdy appearance, is ideal for PowerPoint presentations requiring a robust and solid feel.

23. Baguet Script Regular

good presentation font

  • About Baguet Script Regular: Baguet Script Regular, with its handwritten, cursive style, adds a personal and artistic touch to PowerPoint presentations.

24. Modern No. 20

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  • About Modern No. 20: Modern No. 20, featuring a sleek and elegant design, is suitable for formal and contemporary PowerPoint presentations.

25. Modern Love Caps

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  • About: Modern Love Caps, with its playful and bold hand-drawn lettering, is best suited for engaging PowerPoint presentations that aim to convey creativity and uniqueness.

Want more fonts for PowerPoint?

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They have all kinds of assets such as:

  • Fonts (40,000+)
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How to choose the best fonts for PowerPoint?

  • Readability : Prioritize fonts that are easy to read, even from a distance. Steer clear of overly ornate or decorative fonts that may hinder comprehension.
  • Consistency : Maintain font consistency throughout your presentation. Stick to two or three fonts at most to create a cohesive and professional look.
  • Audience and Purpose : Consider your audience and the purpose of your presentation. Formal presentations may call for classic, serif fonts, while creative or informal presentations can benefit from more playful, sans-serif fonts.
  • Contrast : Use font contrast to your advantage. Pair a bold font for headers with a more straightforward font for body text to create visual interest and hierarchy.
  • Testing : Experiment with different fonts in your PowerPoint design. Test them on sample slides to see how they look in context, both in terms of style and legibility, before finalizing your choices.

What are PowerPoint fonts usually used for?

  • Readability and Clarity : Fonts in PowerPoint are primarily used to ensure the text on slides is clear and easily readable, facilitating the communication of information and ideas.
  • Visual Hierarchy : Fonts help establish a visual hierarchy in presentations. Different font styles, sizes, and weights distinguish headings, subheadings, and body text, guiding the audience's attention.
  • Tone and Style : Fonts play a vital role in conveying the tone and style of the presentation. They can communicate formality, creativity, professionalism, or informality, depending on your choice.
  • Branding and Consistency : Fonts contribute to maintaining branding consistency in presentations. Organizations often have specific fonts associated with their identity, which can be used to reinforce brand recognition.
  • Visual Appeal and Impact : Fonts can be creatively employed to add visual interest and personality to slides. Unique or stylized fonts can be used for emphasis, thematic alignment, or to engage the audience's visual senses.

In conclusion, this exploration of the 25 best fonts for PowerPoint reveals a versatile range of typographic choices to enhance your presentations. Among them, three fonts shine – Impact , ideal for bold headings and capturing attention; Goudy Old Style , a timeless choice for balanced and readable body text; and Century Gothic , offering a clean and modern design to maintain professionalism. Like a painter's palette, these fonts empower you to craft impactful messages that resonate with your audience, whether you're delivering a corporate report or a captivating sales pitch, ensuring your words leave a lasting impression with a touch of sophistication and contemporary flair.

Picture of Hana Terber

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Blog > How to find the best font for your PowerPoint presentation

How to find the best font for your PowerPoint presentation

07.26.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

An important point for PowerPoint presentations is to choose a suitable font that is easy to read but at the same time shouldn't be boring. Are you still looking for a good font for your presentation? We have listed a few tips for you here.

Serif or Sans Serif font?

Serif fonts are fonts that have fine lines at the end of the letters, such as the Times New Roman font. They are especially used in print.

Fonts without serifs appear more modern and are easier to read, which is why it makes sense to use a sans serif font for the texts. The resolution of these fonts is also better on the beamer, which is why they are mostly used for presentations.

However, you should always pay attention to the topic you are giving your presentation on. Above all, you should bear in mind that serif fonts tend to look older, while sans-serif fonts look modern. Think about what you want to communicate with your presentation and then choose a suitable font.

serif or sans serif font for presentations

Which fonts look good together?

To avoid your presentation looking messy or confusing, do not combine more than 2 fonts. It is best to use a different font for headings than for bullet points.

When combining different fonts, make sure that the two fonts are not too similar and that they differ from each other. The contrast between them should also not be too great, otherwise the whole thing will look inharmonious. It makes sense to combine a serif font with a sans serif font.

Another possibility is to combine fonts from the same font family. The contrast is usually created by different stroke widths and the text looks harmonious.

fonts that look good together

What is a good font size for PowerPoint presentations?

When choosing the font size, it is best to consider where the presentation will be given and how far away the audience is. The font should be large enough to be easily read from the very back.

Headings should be somewhere between 40pt and 50pt. The individual bullet points should not be smaller than 20pt and can be up to about 32pt.

To make the presentation easy to read, it is important to have a high contrast between the background and the font. It is best to always use a light font on a dark background or vice versa. The best contrast is between black and white.

what font sizes are the best for your PowerPoint presentation

Best fonts for PowerPoint

So finding the best font for you depends on many factors. But we have listed a few fonts here that do well in presentations.

Font Verdana for PowerPoint

This is a rather new font and therefore optimised for the screen. Its particularly wide spaces make it easy to read.

Font Segoe UI for PowerPoint

Like Verdana, Segoe UI is particularly easy to read on the screen. Its narrower character spacing also makes it very suitable for headlines.

Font Corbel for PowerPoint

Corbel appears very organized, clear and serious. It has also been optimised for presentations and is still easy to read even at greater distances.

Font Palatino for PowerPoint

Palatino is a rather unusual font that stands out from all the default fonts. It looks very elegant and is easy to read.

Font Garamond for PowerPoint

This is one of the oldest fonts and is more of a font style that includes fonts such as Garamond ITC and Adobe Garamond.

Font Tahoma for PowerPoint

Tahoma is a very legible and clear font that is especially popular for presentations.

Century Gothic

Font Century Gothic for PowerPoint

Century Gothic has a geometric style and is particularly suitable for headlines and small amounts of text.

Script, italic and decorative fonts tend to read slowly and interrupt the flow of reading. It is better to avoid such fonts in your presentations.

good presentation font

Download fonts for PowerPoint

Would you like to use a font that has perhaps not been seen that often? Then you can also search for a nice font for your PowerPoint presentation on Google Fonts and download it for free.

When you have found a suitable font, select it and click on Download. Then open the ".ttf file" and click on Install. You can now use the font in your PowerPoint presentation.

Screenshot download Google Fonts

Embed fonts in PowerPoint

If you now use one of the fonts you have downloaded, there is only one problem you need to be aware of.

You may be giving the presentation on another computer that does not have the font installed. Your selected font will then simply be replaced by a standard font so that at least the text can still be read.

What you can do about this and how to embed fonts in PowerPoint can be read here.

What is the best font for PowerPoint?

Some fonts that will look good in your presentation are: Verdana, Segoe UI, Corbel und Tahoma. But finding the right font for your PowerPoint depends on many factors. We have written down some tips for you to find the best font.

What is the best font size for PowerPoint?

The font should be large enough to be easy to read even at greater distances. Headings should be somewhere between 40pt and 50pt in size. Bullet points should not be smaller than 20pt and can be up to about 32pt.

Which fonts look good together in presentations?

Do not combine more than 2 fonts in your presentation. Use one for headings and one for the bullet points. If you combine different fonts make sure that they are not too similar but also that the contrast between them is not too great. A good combination for example is Cambria and Calibri.

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About the author.

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Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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Choosing the Best Font for PowerPoint: 10 Tips & Examples

There’s a fine art to creating a great PowerPont presentation that wows. With so many tricks and features in this little bit of software, it’s more likely to see a bad presentation than a good one (and you don’t want to be that person!)

While there are a lot of factors that contribute to the overall design , choosing a suitable font for PowerPoint is near the top of the list. The audience needs to be able to read the words on the screen with ease, to ensure that your presentation is as effective as possible.

So how do you do it? Where do you start when choosing a font for PowerPoint? We have 10 tips for you with a few examples of PowerPoint slides (and templates) that will impress your audience.

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1. Stick to Fairly Standard Fonts

best powerpoint font

One of the most fun parts of a design project is getting to sift through fonts and make selections that fit your project. When it comes to PowerPoint, that selection should be pretty limited.

To make the most of your presentation, stick to a standard font to ensure that your presentation will look the same everywhere – and on every computer – you present. If you don’t use a standard font, chances are when you pop the presentation in a new machine, you’ll end up with a jumbled mess of lettering. PowerPoint will try to replace all the fonts it does not recognize with something else.

This can cause readability concerns and even make the presentation look like it’s error-filled (with words that are in odd locations or even missing).

10 standard fonts to try:

2. Incorporate Plenty of Contrast

good presentation font

White and black text is easiest to read. But no type is readable without plenty of contrast between the background and text itself.

Regardless of what font you select, without adequate contrast, readability will be a concern. Opt for light type on a dark background or a light background with dark text.

Consider the environment here as well. Do you plan to show the presentation on a computer monitor or big presentation screen? How these conditions render can impact how much contrast your color choices actually have.

3. Use a Serif and a Sans Serif

best powerpoint font

Most presentations use two fonts.

  • Header font for headlines on each slide.
  • Copy or bullet font for supporting text.

You don’t have to use the same font in each location. It’s actually preferred to select two different fonts for these areas of the presentation. For even more impact pair two different fonts, such as a serif and sans serif, so that the font change creates an extra level of contrast and visual interest.

4. Avoid All Caps

best powerpoint font

When picking a font, stay away from fonts that only include capital letter sets. All caps in presentations have the same effect as all caps in an email. It feels like you are yelling at the audience.

All caps can also be difficult to read if there are more than a couple of words on the screen. Use all caps as sparingly as possible.

5. Stay Away From Scripts and Italics

best powerpoint font

While scripts, handwriting and novelty typefaces might be pretty, they are often difficult to read. Avoid them in PowerPoint presentations. (There’s usually not enough contrast or size to help them maintain readability from a distance.)

The same is true of italics. Anything you do to a font to add emphasis should make it easier to read. While italics can be a great option online or in print applications, presentations come with a different set of rules. The biggest contributing factor is that text often has to be read from a distance – think about audience members in the back of the room – and any slanting can make that more difficult.

6. Make It Big Enough

best powerpoint font

One of the biggest issues with fonts in slideshows is often size. How big should the text in a PowerPoint presentation be?

While a lot of that depends on the font you decide to use, there are some guidelines. (These sizes work wonderfully with the 10 fonts options in top No. 1. As well.)

  • Minimum font size for main copy and bullets: 18 points
  • Preferred font size for main copy and bullets: 24 points
  • Preferred font size for headers or titles: 36 to 44 points

Make sure to think about the size of the screen and room as well when planning font sizes. With a smaller screen in a larger space, everything will look smaller than it is. The opposite is true of an oversized screen in a small room. Think Outside the Slide has a great font cheat sheets for a number of different screen sizes.

7. Turn Off Animations

best powerpoint font

Don’t let all those PowerPoint tricks suck you in. Moving text, zooming words, letters that fly in from the side of the screen – they are all difficult to read. And really distracting.

If you want to use an effect, “Appear” is acceptable. But there’s no need to dazzle the audience with crazy font tricks. All this really does is distract people from what you are really trying to say.

The same mantra that we use with all other design projects applies here as well – KISS or Keep It Simple, Stupid.

8. Plan for Sharing

best powerpoint font

While many users work with PowerPoint regularly, chances are that you’ll be asked to share your presentation slides for others. This includes posting with tools such as SlideShare, emailing the PowerPoint (or putting it in a drop folder) or sharing via Google Slides.

When it comes to fonts, Google Slides is the most complicating factor because it has a different suite of standard fonts than PC or Mac operating systems. Make sure to test the presentation in this environment if you plan to share and use a Google standard font or make sure to include the font you plan to use in the customization options.

9. Think About the Notes, Too

best powerpoint font

The part of PowerPoint presentations that is often neglected is the notes section. If you plan to distribute a presentation file to the audience (digitally or via printouts), the font selection for accompanying notes is important.

Use the same typeface as for the main slideshow with related corresponding headers and body and bulleted text. The big difference here is size. Body copy/bulleted information should fall in the range of 9 to 12 points and headers should be 18 to 20 points. This is a comfortable reading size for most documents. (These sizes also help ensure clear printing on standard office machines.)

10. Use Fonts Consistently

best powerpoint font

You don’t need a huge font library to create great PowerPoint presentations. Having a couple of go-to fonts that you use consistently is enough.

Make sure to use fonts consistently within a document as well. Create a PowerPoint template file so that when you use different levels of bulleting and headers, the sizes, color variations, and fonts change automatically. (Web designers, this is just like using H1 through H6 tags.)

A clear consistent use of fonts makes your presentation about how it looks and how easy (or tough) it may be to read and more about the content therein. (And that’s what it should be about.)

If you don’t feel comfortable making your own PowerPoint presentation template, you can download one to get started. These options might have a more refined look than some of the software defaults (and all of the examples in this article come from these collections).

  • 25+ Minimal PowerPoint Templates
  • 20+ Best PowerPoint Templates of 2018
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Best Fonts for Presentations (Powerpoint or Otherwise)

Best Fonts for Presentations (Powerpoint or Otherwise)

Any marketer will tell you the importance of branding in design. Branding extends from color choices to fonts, and encompasses everything in between. To create familiarity and trust with prospective clients and customers, designs should be consistent across all website pages, marketing materials, and sales collateral. This means that your company’s homepage, emails, social media graphics, and even presentations should all reflect your brand in the same way. 

Beautiful.ai makes it easy to employ your branding and stay consistent from pitch to pitch. Simply create a custom theme complete with your company colors, fonts, and logos— then set it and forget it. Your theme will automatically be applied to your presentation deck so every slide is cohesive and on-brand. Gone are the days of having to manually tinker with fonts and colors for every new slide you add (who has time for that, anyway?). You can use our best presentation fonts, or upload your own, to match your brand standards.

Fonts are more important than you might think. For starters, it can be the difference between a legible presentation and one that your audience is having to squint to follow along with. But it’s more than that. Typefaces can evoke different emotions just like colors do . Is your font cheeky and fun, or serious and professional? The fonts you choose for your presentation can impact how it is received by your audience. 

Deciding which are the best presentation fonts for your company will vary depending on your industry, offerings, and overarching brand message. Your fonts in any client-facing deck should reflect one of two things; 1) your company’s branding, and/or 2) the story you’re trying to convey.

What are the best fonts for powerpoint— or Beautiful.ai— to encourage a successful outcome? 

good presentation font

Six good presentation fonts for your brand to explore

In this blog we share six good presentation fonts that can take your deck to the next level and wow your audience. 

Roboto is a versatile font with different purposes. The style is both geometric while featuring bubbly and open curves. It maintains each letter’s natural width, making it much easier to read and comprehend. A good option for bulleted points or text-heavy decks. 

Poppins typeface is geometric and clean, and includes over 15 different font weights. Ranging from thin to black, the font's openness is great for both presentation headlines and body copy. Poppins can be pretty understated or have a lot of personality depending on context and font weight.

Trocchi comes from a long line of old facetypes from the English typecutter Vincent Figgins. Its variation on the earlier designs offers a more casual slab serif. Trocchi is commonly used for both text and display type, which makes it a versatile font for headlines and body text in your presentation. 

Jost is a good free alternative to Futura, which is a classic. While inspired by the traditional sans serif, Jost is a trendy font for the digital era. It’s a good option for making your presentation appear more modern, without being too cheeky or casual. 

Montserrat is a geometric sans-serif typeface that was inspired by old posters and signs in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Julieta Ulanovsky designed this font to restore the uniqueness of urban typography from the early twentieth century. It boasts more personality than helvetica and arial, but is still simplistic in its own right. 

Glodok is a single-weight display font. It is known for its bold, heavy style and can be fun to play around with in a presentation title or headline. Glodok is eye-catching, but not over the top so you can make a statement without compromising professional design. It’s a retro-inspired typeface that has a nice balance between structured and playful. 

Jordan Turner

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > Choosing the Right Font For Your PowerPoint Presentation

Choosing the Right Font For Your PowerPoint Presentation

Whether it’s for a professional conference or middle school book report, it’s important to know the best font to use for your PowerPoint presentation . Believe it or not, fonts are a big part of the overall design of your presentation —and they can make a world of difference! Some convey a lighthearted message, while others can show authority, and so on.

Two people sitting at a coffee table collaborating on a PowerPoint presentation.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at:

  • The different styles of fonts
  • The 5 most popular fonts
  • How to embed fonts, and more.

What are the different styles of fonts? Before we get too deep into each font and what looks best, let’s examine font styles and how they’re classified.

  • Sans-serif fonts. Most serif fonts are easy to identify because of the tiny flags or projections on the ends of the characters. Serifs make distinguishing a lowercase L from a capital I in print easy.
  • Serif fonts. Sans-serif fonts are commonly used in digital media because serifs can make letters difficult to see if an image or screen is low-resolution.
  • Script fonts. Script fonts are also known as handwritten fonts because of the looping letters that make them look like cursive or calligraphy. Most people find it difficult to read more than a few sentences in a script font, so they’re best limited to a few words or a single phrase.
  • Monospaced fonts. Even when writing by hand, you’ll notice that not all letters take up the same amount of space. Monospaced fonts buck this trend by allotting the same amount of space laterally for all letters, similar to a typewriter.
  • Display fonts. Display fonts can also be known as fantasy or decorative fonts. These aren’t typically used for anything besides signage, banners, logos, or other text that’s isolated. Using display fonts for multiple sentences or a full paragraph isn’t a good practice because they can be hard to read or off-putting after a while.

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What are the 5 most popular fonts in presentations and why? A common theme you’ll notice when looking at the best fonts for PowerPoint is that they’re traditionally sans-serif fonts. Why? Well, this style is much easier to read from a distance and won’t feel cramped if letters are bolded. Additionally, the minimalistic style of sans-serif fonts isn’t distracting from the material or the speaker. Let’s look at five fonts that fit the best practices for a winning presentation .

Note: You’ll notice a serif font on this list, but we’ll address it when we get there.

  • Roboto. Roboto is a sans-serif font that’s relatively basic, with sharp edges and rounded loops, counters, and bowls (the rounded parts of letters) without going overly bold or too thin. You can be safe using Roboto for just about any presentation.
  • Verdana. Despite the font size you choose, not all fonts display the same. Verdana is a larger sans-serif font that can make it easier to display information without taking your font up an extra size.
  • Helvetica. A point of differentiation between Helvetica and other sans-serif fonts is the weight toward the top of the letters. The top of every lowercase letter and the midpoint of every capital letter go to a thick midline’s upper edge. For instance, the top of every lowercase letter reaches the same horizontal point as the top of the crossbar on an H. This unique feature makes the Helvetica type look larger and bolder than it really is, which makes it great for headings and titles.
  • Tahoma. Tahoma is different from the previous sans-serif fonts in that it is thinner than the others. While Tahoma might not have the same impact for a heading or title as Helvetica, it’s perfect for body text and fitting into smaller spaces without crowding.
  • Palatino Linotype. Serif fonts have long been considered a no-no with digital publications, but with the advent of high-resolution computer monitors, tablets, smartphones, and TVs, they’re fine. What’s more, the serifs on Palatino Linotype aren’t incredibly prominent, so they make for a subtle nod to old-style fonts without over-embellishing.

A person using a touch screen tablet to select the font and layout for their presentation.

How do you embed fonts in PowerPoint ? If you’re sharing your presentation with a friend, classmate, or colleague, you could be at risk of the fonts you used transferring properly to their device. For example, if you have a font you love using and installed it onto your computer, they might not have the same font. So, if you send your presentation to them, there could be formatting errors as their device defaults to a different font. Keep this from happening by embedding your font in PowerPoint using these easy steps:

  • Click the “File” tab.
  • Move down to the lower-lefthand corner of the window and click “Options.”
  • Click “Save” on the left side of the screen.
  • Scroll down to the section titled “Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation:”
  • Click the box next to “Embed fonts in the file.”
  • If you or someone else will be using the presentation on a different device, then select the first option, “Embed only the characters used in the presentation (best for reducing file size).” If you or someone else will be editing the presentation on a different device, then select the second option, “Embed all characters (best for editing by other people).”
  • Click “OK.”

There you have it! Choosing the best font for PowerPoint doesn’t have to be difficult. The most important part is making sure that the font is easy to read, and sans-serif fonts are usually a good way to go. By the way, it’s always a good idea to get a second set of eyes on your presentation before your big speech—and be sure to practice it a few times to iron out the kinks !

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Best fonts for presentations and how to use them effectively

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Chelsi Nakano May 15, 2017

The best fonts for presentations convey more meaning, kick up your brand’s personality, and bring words to life . That said, it’s important to make sure your audience isn’t spending all of their energy focused on the text on the screen. Use our tips below to discover the best fonts for your presentation to keep it balanced.

How to choose the best font for a presentation

Serif vs. sans serif.

Serif fonts use decorative lines on the ends of letters, while sans serif fonts don’t. Serif fonts can be more legible in smaller font sizes, as the little lines help readers distinguish letters and follow some sort of flow as they read. Sans serif fonts work well in tight spaces, like labels and headings, and can be more legible from far away or in poor resolutions.

serif vs. sans serif

Readability

When choosing a font, go for something that’s easy to read. Decorative fonts are fun, but can be so distracting they take away from your message. Presentations work best with a sans serif font (they’re more legible), especially if they’re being read from far away. A few extra pointers:

  • Helvetica and Futura are legible at most font sizes.
  • Rockwell is bold, suitable for a headline or point you want to hammer home to your audience.
  • Classic styles such as Helvetica, Futura, Rockwell, Gill Sans, and Garamond are some of the best options for body copy in presentations.

good presentation font

How many fonts should you use in a presentation?

It’s best to limit the number of fonts in your presentation to create a more cohesive product. Try using up to 2 fonts, one for headings and one for body copy. The font for your body copy should be easy to read in large blocks of text, while your heading font should be larger and legible from further away (especially if you’re presenting to a large audience in person).

Standard fonts

You wouldn’t want your presentation to look different on someone else’s device, so you should choose a font that comes standard on the majority of operating systems. Prezi uses Google Fonts , a catalog of free, open-source fonts that are available for commercial use.

Tips for using presentation fonts effectively

Text placement.

When you add text to your presentations, take care to make sure it’s big enough to read, but doesn’t steal the show; informative, but not dense; and placed with intention rather than just slapped up there any old way.

Labeling your topics in Prezi

When it comes to labeling your topics in Prezi, short titles are best because they’re easier for viewers to digest and help presenters get to where they’re going quickly. You can even replace your labels with shapes or illustrations if they are clearly representative enough of each topic:

good presentation font

Bullet points

Keep in mind that bullet points may seem audience-friendly, but they can be distracting (think of where your eyes zoom to when you skim an article). Keep the attention on you. Instead of several points per frame, try to focus on displaying a single message at a time. And remember, a visual representation that supports your point is more effective at conveying the message than more text.At the end of the day good typography isn’t that hard to master. Just ask yourself if you were attending this presentation, would you get the message? When you’re ready to dive into more of the basics, like choosing right colors and organizing content, fill out the form below to download our eBook: “Presentation Design 101 for Sales and Marketing.”

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Blog / Presentation Design / The 10 best presentation fonts to transform your next PowerPoint.

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The 10 best presentation fonts to transform your next PowerPoint.

Welcome to our new presentation font dating show: What’s your type? Starting with ten eligible font choices, you’ll get to know your future font intimately. Based on purpose and personality, you’ll whittle the list down before making your final decision and running off into the sunset with the font of your dreams. 

With over 600,000 fonts on  What Font Is  alone, the term choice paralysis doesn’t quite cover the sweat-inducing panic that accompanies picking just one font for your PowerPoint presentation. How do you even begin to narrow them down and find the best font for your needs? Do you choose based on the name you like most? Perhaps you simply keep returning to your ex font, even though you two clearly have communication issues? Or maybe you just close your eyes and see which your mouse lands on?

Why isn’t there a tinder for fonts?

You obviously can’t be trusted to make this decision on your own. Which is why we’ve done the legwork for you, rounding up ten beautiful, brilliant, and personality-packed font choices for you to choose from.

Enough of the build up.

10 best fonts for presentations

Shall we meet them.

Tahoma font for presentation

Designed by Matthew Carter, Tahoma is one of Microsoft’s most popular sans serif typefaces.

Verdana font for PowerPoint

Another of Matthew Carter’s designs, Verdana is a prime example of a font created specifically for the screen.

Impact font for PowerPoint

Impact gets about a bit. Named as one of the  core fonts for the web , this font has been seen by just about everyone.

Georgia font for PowerPoint

Georgia is a nineties gal. Designed for screen, Georgia’s weight fluctuates by a whole pixel, which is greater than traditional print typography.

5. Palatino

Palatino font

Palatino was originally designed for headings and is legible even on the inferior paper of the post-World War II period.

6. Proxima Nova

Proxima Nova font

Proxima Nova is the go-to font for just about anything. Oh, it’s flexible alright.

7. ITC Souvenir

ITC Souvenir font

This personable little number gets along with loads of other fonts, just ask Futura and Roboto.

8. Montserrat

Montserrat presentation font

A Buenos Aires export, old posters and signs in the artist’s hometown inspired the creation of this 30-year old stunner.

Raleway font

Initially created by Matt McInerney as a single-weight font, but my, my, has Raleway come a long way since then.

Lato font

Lato was originally betrothed to a large corporate client, but they decided to go in another direction, so now it’s back on the public market, and looking for Mr Right.

The best font for your PowerPoint presentation is somewhere in this selection, just waiting for you to choose it. How does that feel? 

Well, I’m excited. Let’s get cut-throat and start removing the fonts that just aren’t right for you.

Round one: Finding a presentation font with purpose

Fonts are much more than a pretty (type)face to look good sitting on your PowerPoint slide. They have strengths and weaknesses, just like any of us. In order to choose your perfect font, you first need to decide which one fits your purpose. All relationships are chosen based on practicalities, right?

Do you want a simple life, or something a little extra?

Understanding your ultimate goal isn’t just important when it comes to  writing your story . The final deliverable, audience, and even the room layout all need to be taken into account when choosing your font. After all, if they can’t read your message, what’s the likelihood they’re going to remember it?

Serif vs Sans serif

There are two main font categories for you to decide between: serifs and sans serifs. There are others, such as script and stencil, but we’re trying to keep this simple. Both serifs and sans serifs have their own benefits and specified use cases, making it easy to find the right font category for your need. Let’s start with serifs.

Could a sophisticated serif be the best font for your presentation?

Serifs are the little extra flourishes that sit at the ends of the larger strokes. They likely came about because the Romans would first paint the outlines onto stone before carving, and the paint brushes would create flares at the ends. Serif fonts more closely represent handwriting and, therefore, are universally acknowledged to be easier to read in print. The serifs create joins between letters, similar to how we’re taught to write in school.

Traditionalists will tell you that serif fonts should only be used for print, but we say that’s nonsense. In fact, serifs have made a  huge comeback , have taken over the web, and are in some damn trendy presentations.

We don’t recommend using serif fonts for body copy, as they aren’t always the clearest, but for titles, or as a supporting font, they can work nicely to liven up your slides, while delivering that touch of class some of you might be looking for. 

If you strip your slides right back to just powerful key statements, you want to draw the eye to the title, or your PowerPoint is destined to be printed, congratulations, you’ve just narrowed down your choices.

Our sassy serifs are:

ITC Souvenir

Certain about serifs? Feel free to  jump to the next section .

Or is a simple sans serif the best font for your presentation?

If you want to keep your options open, let’s bring in our sans serif sensations.

Are you looking for something versatile, sleek, and modern for your presentation font? Look no further than our sans serifs. As digital has taken over from print, so too have sans serifs. These font families are considered better for online and screen formats. This is because their simplified forms translate well across different screen resolutions. 

But don’t be too quick to jump to a sans, just because your presentation is destined for the screen only. Sure, if you’re going to pack the slides with copy, a sans serif may be your only choice. However, if you want our honest opinion, your best move here is to shift most of that text into your speaker notes. But that’s a lesson for another time. 

If you can’t be sure about the technical specifications of the kit you’ll be presenting on, you don’t know how big the room will be, or you might want to reuse your deck for a variety of purposes, you won’t go too far wrong with a sans serif font for your presentation.

If you want to play it safe with a sans, your remaining font choices are:

Proxima Nova

You may think you have your heart set on a typographical temptress now, but we’re only halfway through the round. There’s much more to presentation purpose than how much copy is on the slide.

Know your presentation font limits

Have you ever spent days crafting a beautiful presentation, just to stand up on the day in front of a nauseating hurricane of copy calamity?

Nobody wants their font to make a scene in front of a crowd so, if your presentation is ever going to be viewed, presented or edited on a machine that isn’t yours, you need to take the innate availability of your font into account. 

Why use system fonts in your presentation?

If you just want an easy life, to be able to take your chosen font anywhere and have them behave appropriately, you’re going to want to stick with a system font. Choosing a system font means it doesn’t matter what machine you, or anyone else, opens your presentation on, it will always look exactly how you meant it to. There’s certainly a place for custom fonts in presentations, but you have to know exactly where that presentation is going, and have the foresight to install the font on every machine that could open it. 

If you want to stay safe with a system, but keep it sassy with a serif, you’ve just narrowed your choices to:

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t like to take any risks, you’re going to want to go for a sans serif system font:

Look at that. We’re getting closer to your perfect match.

Settled on system? Now would be a great time to  jump to round two . Don’t even let your heart be tempted away by those exotic custom fonts.

Custom fonts to make your presentation stand out

We all want to stand out from the crowd, especially if you happen to be just one presentation in a long line your audience is seeing that day. One way to stick out from the onslaught of Arial is to use a custom font. When we say custom, we don’t necessarily mean you have to pay a typographer to create one just for you. But you could.

No, if you use a custom font, you just open your presentation possibilities up to the whole world of fonts, beyond what can be found on all machines, as standard. 

If you have complete control over everywhere your presentation lands, and can install your font in all these locations, you have the freedom to get a little more creative with your copy.

Want to go custom, but stay classy? Your serif font is:

Boom! Decision made. However, you may still want to  jump to part two to take the personality test, before you put a ring on it.

Prioritising versatility, but happy to be vigilant? Your sans choices are:

By now, I know you have a favourite. Before we finally get to hear from our fonts, let’s make sure you have all the information you need to get your chosen one to the finish line.

How to install custom fonts in PowerPoint

Start by downloading the font. The font you choose will determine which online location you need to visit to source it. Some reliable sites are  Google Fonts ,  Font Squirrel ,  Da Font , and  Font Fabric . 

Installing your fonts on Windows

Find the font file that you downloaded. It’s probably in a zip file and located in your downloads folder.

Double-click  the font file and it will open in the Font Previewer.

Font Previewer

Click Install  at the top left.

Installing your font on Mac

Find the font file you downloaded. It likely has a .ttf or .otf extension and it’s probably in your downloads folder.  Double-click  on it.

NOTE: If the font file has a .zip extension you need to open that .zip file and open the font file from there.

It will open in the Font Previewer.  Click Install Font  to open in Font Book.

In Font Book, drag and drop the font to Windows Office Compatible to make it available to Microsoft Office.

After you’ve installed the font, whether on Mac or PC, you need to restart PowerPoint for it to appear in your font list, ready to use.

Round two: How to avoid a personality clash

You’ve used your noggin and picked some practical choices. Now it’s time to bring in the heart. 

The font you use for your PowerPoint presentation says so much more than the copy it’s used for. Fonts convey emotion, they have personalities and, when used right, they help to visually tell your brand story. After all, you wouldn’t write a formal tender document in Comic Sans, would you?

Comic sans saying 'take me seriously'

No, you’d choose something that communicates respect and integrity, such as Bodoni or Optima.

telling Comic Sans to shush

But these guys are just gatecrashers. Back to the main event.

Let’s hand over to  our  fonts, so you can get to know them a little better.

First up, our reliable system fonts.

Tahoma is reserved

“I’m pretty neutral. The Switzerland of fonts. My personality may not be wacky enough for some, but I’m always up to have some good, clean fun.

I go with anything, complementing whatever design style you’ve chosen, rather than trying to stamp my personality all over it.

Some call me boring, I like to think I’m agreeable. After all, is your presentation really about me?”

verdana is simple

“I’m a modern font with an air of innocence. Clean cut, yet retaining just enough personality to liven up your presentation, I will add a dash of character without stealing the show.

I’ve been described as “cheap”, but I prefer to think of myself as simple. I stand back to let your message shine through.”

powerful impact

“Want to make a statement? I’m the font for you. 

My popularity hasn’t made me any less  impactful .

I may be heavy and condensed in style, but I look great in all caps and am effortless to read.  

Big, bold, and powerful; when you’re with me, no one in the room will be able to take their eyes off you.”

Tradtional Georgia

“I may be traditional, but traditions stick around for a reason. I’m sophisticated, certain, confident and reliable. Yes, I prefer to err on the side of practicality, over flamboyance, but if you’re looking for someone to take to a formal occasion, I’m the font for you. After all, people often describe me as looking “expensive”.

With such high contrast between my weights, ample letter spacing and clever design, your message will come across, loud and clear.

Want to put some power behind your presentations? I don’t mean to brag, but my bold is significantly more bold than your average. 

To put it simply: I’m a classic.”

Modern Palatino

“Pfft. A classic? A relic, you mean. Who wants classic, when you can have modern classic?

I’m popular among professionals, as my sharp edges add a dash of character, without getting too crazy. 

Originally designed for headings, I can certainly stand out from a crowd, but my open counters and carefully-weighted strokes mean I also look great as body copy.”

Phew, things are certainly heating up around here. Before you make your final choice, let’s not forget about our custom contestants.

Beautiful Proxima Nova

“Now, now, please don’t be intimidated by my beauty. 

I may be stunning, but I’m so much more. I have so many different weights, I might just be the most versatile font around. You can take me to any occasion, and I will adapt.

As a premium find, I don’t come cheap, but if you have a subscription to Adobe, you can get me through  Adobe Fonts , at no extra cost. Consider this your lucky day.” 

trendy ITC Souvenir

“I am so in right now. By choosing me you will instantly freshen up your slides and add relevance to your designs.

I combine the traditional elegance of a serif with a so-hip-it-hurts retro 90s vibe. I’m curvy in all the right places and will catapult your presentation into the here and now, without losing the credibility that comes with a classic serif.”

Hipster Montserrat

I’m a reaaaaal solid font. A hipster classic.

If you want a font that complements your check shirt, I’m your guy.” 

Flexible Raleway font

“What do you need to know about me? Well, I’m thicc. 

If you’re looking for something chunky and bold, look no further. 

Oh, you’re not? Wait, please don’t go.

I can be sleek and thin for your text pull outs, too.

Or just a regular type for body copy.

I’m diverse and eager to please. Just let me know what you need, and I’ll find a solution for you.”

Subtle Lato

“You can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t presume to know a font on first glance.

To the untrained eye, I might look like any other sans serif font, but just get to know me and you’ll see my originality shine through.”

And that’s everyone. Now that you’ve met our fonts, all that’s left for us to do is ask the big question…

What’s your type?

You have everything you need to make a smart decision about the best font for your PowerPoint presentation, but your adventure together is only just beginning.

Here are some more tips to get the most out of your new beau.

Perhaps one font isn’t enough?

There are many reasons that you might want to use more than one font in a presentation, however, ain’t nobody got time to pick a pair through trial and error. That’s why you come to us for our sweet presentation design services , right?

Usually, a font with a big personality paired with a more conservative font works well. Pairing a serif with a sans serif can create a nice contrast, but remember to use the sans serif for heavy body copy, as you want it to be legible. You can have a little more fun with your header type, as this tends to be larger, with more space to breathe.

Avoid pairing types that are too similar. If they aren’t distinguishable from each other it can look like you just made a mistake.

If you found it hard to decide which font to choose earlier, pairing two fonts is your chance to have your cake and eat it too. 

Some examples of good couples are:

ITC Souvenir works really well with Roboto and Futura. Roboto and Futura are classic fonts, but they don’t come native to Microsoft Office, so they will need downloading and installing.

Alternatively, our curvaceous ITC Souvenir sits pretty as a picture next to a simple font, like Proxima Nova.

Raleway works with Playfair Display, a beautiful serif font that’s available free from Google Fonts.

Montserrat, which was designed specifically for use online, works perfectly with an old-school classic, like Courier New. The light, modern feel of Montserrat contrasts beautifully with the retro, typewriter vibe of Courier New.

Or you could pair Impact with Tahoma, or even Lato, for a perfect presentation font combo.

If you’re unsure, play it safe. Choose a typeface with lots of weight variations (like Open Sans below), and pair fonts from the same family. After all, they were created to work together. Just make sure there’s enough contrast to make the two types distinguishable.

Open Sans weight variations

Finally, don’t go crazy with your number of fonts. You can be a little greedy and get away with it, but at some point, they’re all just going to start fighting one another for your affections. As a general rule for presentations, there should be no more than three or four variations in type, weight or effect. That means you can usually get away with two different typefaces. You can then bold, italicise or change the weight for the remaining variations.

How do my fonts look to other people?

We know what’s really important to you. It’s not whether you like your font choice, not really. You care that your message is communicated clearly and effectively to your audience, and your use of type plays a part in this. Here are a few tricks you can use to make sure the message you’re sending out into the world is the right one.

Be bold to stand out

Use italics to  stress  a point or to indicate a publication, such as;  How to choose the best font for your PowerPoint presentation .

A lot of people like to use  bold  to make their key information stand out. But be careful. If you embolden too many things, what’s important gets lost in a sea of bold.

We don’t see a lot of underlines these days, do we? This is something you can use to your advantage. If you have a word or phrase that really needs some bite, throw a lone underline in there for maximum impact. 

Get in line

It is really important to be consistent with your alignment choice. If your alignment jumps from left to right, to centre, back to right, the likelihood is your audience aren’t following. It makes it difficult for them to know where their eye should go, and it can make them feel pretty seasick. 

Left-aligned text is the easiest to read. In  the West , this is the most commonly-used alignment, as we read left to right. It also creates a clean left edge for our eyes to return back to, once we reach the end of the previous line. It’s like a typewriter, always returning to the same point.

Right-aligned text is usually used for decoration, or to accompany a logo. It’s not very easy to read when in large blocks, because your eyes have to do summersaults to find the beginning of the line again.

Centred text works for small snippets of text, such as posters and book covers. Like with right alignment, your eyes will struggle to follow from line to line, if it’s any more than a few sentences.

Justified text is generally acknowledged as a sure-fire way to create order. However, it can be difficult to get right. Justified text makes the words fit a pre-determined line length, by changing the distance between each word. This means each line has a sharp, consistent edge, but can create big white spaces between words called ‘rivers. Justified text can be particularly difficult for people with dyslexia to read, as the ‘rivers’ distract from the actual text.

Optimise your copy

The optimum line length for presentation copy is 50 characters. This allows the eye to keep track of where the next line starts, so the jump back is seamless.

One of the biggest peeves when it comes to working with typography in presentations is untidy sentence endings. We’re not talking about ending with a preposition, it’s only really dull people that care about that. We’re referring to how a body of text is shaped.

Avoid raggedy paragraph structures, which cause your, otherwise beautiful, design to look untidy and unfinished.

If you’re using left-aligned text, look out for any big gaps or words that hang off the end of the line. Try using a soft return to move them around, as this creates less space between lines than a hard return and notifies the brain that you’re still within the same paragraph.

The lonely hearts club

This is all great advice, until you add in the complication of widows and orphans.

A widow is a lonely word with a line all to itself. You can fix this with that soft return trick, knocking a word or two down from the line above. Your widow won’t be so lonely anymore.

Widow text example

An orphan is when that single word, or a single line, causes you to have to start a new column, or a new slide entirely. Again, either editing your copy or adjusting the structure of the whole paragraph will fix this.

Try to strike a balance between the perfect paragraph shape, and removing your widows and orphans. If you have to make the call, it’s better to have a ragged line than a widow.

Not enough information for you?

As you can see, when working to plan your idyllic future with your new partner in presentations, there’s quite a lot to get your head around. For more tips on creating beautiful slides, check out our  presentation design cheat sheet , explore more system font choices with our  comprehensive overview of what’s available , or get in touch to set up your very own, exclusive episode of  What’s your type?

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Find the best fonts for your next presentation and make it look great.

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When it comes to giving presentations or infographics , the fonts you use can significantly affect how your audience perceives your message. Some fonts are more likely to grab attention and hold it, while others can make your presentation look dated or unprofessional. So which fonts should you use for your next presentation?

There are a few things to remember when choosing fonts for presentations. First, consider the audience you’ll be presenting to. Are they business professionals? Students? Creative types? The fonts you choose should be appropriate for the group you’re speaking to.

Second, think about the tone of your presentation. Are you trying to be serious, informative, or more lighthearted and fun? The fonts you select should reflect the overall tone of your presentation.

Finally, consider that less is often more when it comes to fonts. Using too many different fonts in your presentation can distract and make reading difficult. Stick with one or two font styles that complement each other, and use them throughout your presentation for a consistent look.

The points described above should be considered while selecting typefaces for your presentation. In this article, we’ll go through the best fonts for your next presentation  to wow your audience.

Table of Contents

What Factors Should You Consider When Selecting a Font?

Selecting a font can be a tricky task. There is a wide range of font styles available, and it can be hard to know which one is right for your project. There are some factors that you need to consider when selecting a font.

Readability

Personality.

Readability is an important consideration when selecting a font for a presentation. The goal is to choose a font that is easy to read so that your audience can follow along with the presentation without difficulty. A good rule of thumb is to select a font that is neither too small nor too large and has a clear contrast with the background.

For example, black text on a white background is generally more readable than white text on a black background. In addition, avoiding decorative or ornate fonts can also help to improve readability. Ultimately, the best way to determine which font is most readable is to experiment with different options and see what helps best for you and your audience.

When selecting a typeface for a presentation, formality is one of the most important factors to consider. Generally, more formal presentations should use standard fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial. These fonts convey a sense of professionalism and are easy to read from a distance.

For less formal presentations, there is more leeway in terms of font choice. However, it is still essential to consider the overall tone of the presentation and select a font that is appropriate for the subject matter.

Playful fonts may be appropriate for some types of presentations, but they can also come across as unprofessional. Ultimately, the best font for a presentation is one that is easy to read and conveys the desired tone.

When it comes to creating a presentation, typography is an essential aspect. The choice of font can say a lot about the tone and personality of the presentation. For example, a more playful font might be used for a children’s story, while a more serious font would be more appropriate for a business presentation.

The personality of the font should match the content of the presentation. In addition, the font should be easily read from a distance and legible on all types of devices. When picking a font for a presentation, remember the font’s personality and how it will interact with the presentation’s content.

Contrast is the visual difference between a page’s foreground and background elements. For example, you might use a light-colored font on a dark background or a dark-colored font on a light background. Contrast can help to make your text more legible and easier to read. It can also help to add visual interest to your slides.

However, it is vital to use contrast sparingly, as too much contrast can be distracting and make your slides appear cluttered. When using contrast in your fonts, be sure to choose fonts of similar size and weight, so they are easy to read. Also, be sure to use enough space between your lines of text so that your audience can easily see the difference between the foreground and background elements.

With these factors in mind, let’s take a look at a few fonts that are great for presentations.

The Best Fonts for Presentations That Will Impress the Audience

Choosing the appropriate typefaces for your presentation may significantly impact how well it is received. The fonts you choose should be easy to read and should convey the message you are trying to get across. Here are some professional fonts for presentations that will help you make a great impression.

Fira Sans Font

You want to ensure your audience pays attention when you’re giving a presentation. One way to do that is to choose cool fonts for presentations that will grab their attention. Fira Sans is a modern sans-serif font perfect for both body text and headlines.

It’s versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes, but it’s also easy to read on-screen. So if you’re seeking a cool font for your next presentation, Fira Sans is a great option.

Open Sans Font Style

Open Sans is one of the best PowerPoint fonts for presentations . It is a sans-serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson and commissioned by Google. It was designed with an open license in mind, which means that it may be used for any purpose.

The typeface is intended for digital displays and has a straightforward style because of its basic, tidy appearance. It’s also a versatile typeface that may be used for different purposes. It may be used in both formal and creative presentations .

Font Lato

Lato is a sans-serif font that was created by Łukasz Dziedzic . It has been designed to be high readable, even in small sizes. The Lato font family includes a variety of weights and styles so that it can be used for both body text and headlines.

When choosing a font for your presentation, it’s significant to consider both readability and style. Lato is an excellent option because it strikes a balance between the two. Choose this beautiful font for presentations to impress your audience.

Roboto Font

Google’s Roboto typeface is a clean, modern sans-serif that has been designed for use across all of their digital platforms. The clean, simple lines of the fonts make them ideal for presentations and other digital content, and the typeface also includes a variety of weights and styles to suit different needs.

Roboto is also a very adaptable typeface, and it may be used for many things. It has gained a reputation over the past few years and is now widely used on the web. If you’re looking for modern, clean fonts for your next presentation , then Roboto is a great option.

Font Style Corbel

Corbel is a professional-looking sans-serif font that was designed by Jeremy Tankard in 1995. It has a large x-height, which makes it highly legible, and its rounded corners give it a friendly appearance.

Corbel is a versatile font that can be used for both headlines and body text. In addition, its clean design makes it ideal for use in presentations and other professional documents. Overall, Corbel is a great choice for those who want a professional-looking font that is still easy to read.

Segoe Font

Segoe is a sans-serif font. It is a typeface that was designed specifically for use in computer interfaces. It’s become much more prevalent in presentation software such as PowerPoint and Keynote .

It’s clean and modern, which makes it a good choice for presentations that need to be effortless to read. Segoe is also a good choice for presentations that are heavy on text, as it’s easy to read at a distance. If you’re looking for easy-to-read fonts for presentations, Segoe is a good choice.

Noto Sans Font Style

Noto Sans is a sans-serif font that provides a clean and modern look for any presentation. Its geometric shapes and simple lines make it a great choice for any situation where you need a professional appearance.

Noto Sans is also comfortable to read, even at small sizes, making it an ideal choice for PPT presentations that will be viewed on a projector or screen. Whether you’re giving a business presentation or creating a design portfolio, Noto Sans is a font that will help you create a polished and professional look.

It is a typeface that’s been designed to work well for a wide range of languages. It comes in several weights and designs so that you can match it to your presentation. Plus, it includes support for multiple scripts, so you can be sure that your audience will be able to read your slides.

Font Tahoma

Tahoma is a sans-serif font that was created by Microsoft . It’s commonly used in business and technical documents because it has a clean, modern look. Tahoma fonts are available in regular, bold, and italic styles.

It is an outstanding choice for documents that need to be easily readable, such as manuals or instructions. The clean lines of the Tahoma font also make it a good choice for PPT presentations and other business documents.

Whether you’re creating a PowerPoint presentation for work or school, this versatile and simple-to-read font is sure to make a good impression.

Raleway Font

Raleway is a sans-serif typeface family designed by Matt McInerney and Pablo Impallari . It was created as a display typeface but can also work well for body text. This versatile font can be used for corporate presentations and more creative projects.

It’s simple to understand, and it includes a slew of different characters that you may add some flair to your slides. If you’re looking for a sans-serif font that will make your presentations look more professional, Raleway is a good choice.

Font Style Verdana

Verdana is a sans-serif font created by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation . It was released in 1996 and is still widely used today. It was created to be readable at small sizes for use on low-resolution screens. It also includes features such as wider spacing between letters and larger than average letter sizes. Consequently, it remains one of the most well-known fonts for web design.

Verdana is also a popular choice for printed materials and professional presentations. Thanks to its clean lines and easy readability, it continues to be a go-to choice for designers looking for a versatile sans-serif font.

Fonts are a significant part of any presentation, but they can be especially tricky to get right. You want your fonts to be easy to read and to complement the overall tone of your presentation.

In this post, we have talked about “how to choose the right fonts for your next slideshow?” and “what are the good fonts for presentations?” Before you start creating your slides , keep the following standards in mind.

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10 minute read

How to Choose the Best Font for PowerPoint Presentations

Saikat Basu

Saikat Basu

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An image on a slide may speak a thousand words, but you do need text to explain the finer details. And that’s where choosing the best font for PowerPoint presentations becomes a critical exercise. In short, if you want to make a flawless PowerPoint presentation , you must pay attention to your fonts.

The interesting thing about fonts is that each has a personality. It’s like the three-piece suit that will be out of place at a barbeque but is perfect for an evening at the Savoy.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation

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Why is choosing the right fonts so critical?

Slides aren’t like the pages of a book. They are billboards on the highway. 

When you run through your slides, they will linger for just a few seconds. The words on the slides have to capture interest, send the right message, and support the visuals in those few seconds.

Fonts influence your audience by setting the tone and atmosphere of the presentation. The right choice of fonts or font pairings can make your text stand out by separating it from other elements around it. Typefaces are also brand symbols that help the audience relate to it through the presentation.

Before you get into the deep end, let’s learn the distinction between two major font types.

What are serif and sans serif fonts?

Times New Roman is the classic example of a serif font. The letters have tiny extensions that appear to connect them together in words as one letter leads to the next. 

Newspapers and magazines use serif fonts for body text as they are easier to read. Serif fonts have distinct line heights that make them more legible in dense copy.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation - serif font

They lose this clarity if you pack them together in the body. That’s why designers recommend sans serif fonts for titles, headings, and captions in your slides.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation - sans serif font

The critical font pair: title vs body text

All Microsoft PowerPoint presentations by default start with two fonts — one font for the headings and one for the body text. This font pairing decides the entire look of the presentation. The theme plays an important role in the font choices and even blank presentations give you a theme to build upon.

The first question you may have to answer is how big your fonts should be? The simple answer is that it depends. Factors like screen size and room size dictate the limits of font size. Font sizes can hinge upon you emailing the presentation or delivering it live on stage or on a PC screen in a remote meeting. 

Also, all fonts have an optimum size for legibility. Arial is clear at 12pts while Times New Roman is readable at 10pts. 

Most presentation experts recommend these size ranges. The thumb rule — a larger font size with less text on screen is always good.

The default slide in PowerPoint starts with 60pts for section headers and 24pts for body font.

  • Header Font: Between 26 and 42 point
  • Body Font: Between 18 and 24 point

You can use the same font for both, but that can limit the visual impact of your slide.

10 tips for choosing the best font for PowerPoint presentations

Never sacrifice readability for style. With that motto in mind, follow these Microsoft PowerPoint tips to choose the best fonts for your business presentation or any other.

1. Choose two fonts

Three fonts can be a crowd. Choose two fonts wisely and use size, contrast, and color to combine them for visual interest. Font pairing is a critical part of PowerPoint presentations and you will have to spend a lot of time on this decision. The second font shouldn’t be too unlike or too similar to the primary typeface where you miss the distinction.

Tip: There are many font pairing tools available on the web. But play the TypeConnection typography game if you want to get better at it yourself.

2. Choose standard fonts

You want your presentation to look the same on all devices. Choose from standard fonts and you won’t have to rescue your slides from turning into a mishmash on another screen. You can be more imaginative if you are presenting to children or at Comic Con, but standard fonts are the safest bet always.

Tip: Here’s a complete list of fonts available on Windows 10 .

Best font for PowerPoint presentation - times new roman

3. Avoid script fonts and decorative text

Script fonts like Lucida Calligraphy or Gothic fonts like Century are always difficult to read. You can use them if the topic of the talk demands it.

4. Create visual interest with serif and sans serif fonts

As we emphasized earlier, serif and sans serif fonts have their own advantages and disadvantages. You can pair them and tap into their strengths.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation - Corbel

5. Select color and create contrast

Go for font colors that are a part of your brand. Using color swatches and precise Hexadecimal or RGB values ensures colors stay consistent across slides. 

Also, you might have to check your slide for accessibility for all as someone in the audience can be color blind and may not be able to decipher red or green.

Tip: There are many color palette generators available on the web for free. Try Coolors .

6. Have contrasting text and background colors

Fonts must stand out against the background. The higher the contrast between the two, the better the readability across the room will be. Use the color wheel to pick the background and the font colors. Opposite colors on the color wheel clash with each other and have the maximum contrast. For instance, orange on blue.

Always use the same background on each slide. Text against white backgrounds is not legible in a larger room. For the best results, opt for dark slides with light-colored text.

Tip: Go through a gallery of well-designed PowerPoint templates or use PowerPoint Designer as a shortcut to grasp the interplay of contrast.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation

7. Less is more with caps and italics

Don’t capitalize all the letters in the body text as it is difficult to read. Selectively use caps for acronyms and for emphasis. Similarly, choose italics sparingly for quotes or highlighting the names of books, authors, and journal titles, etc. 

You can make a creative choice by using italic text sparingly for impact or you can also substitute them with subtle formatting to the standard fonts.

Tip: Caps and italics may be able to work with specific fonts, but you may need access to those fonts. You can use Picsart's text editor to play around with text that may suit your presentation better.

8. Limit the use of animated fonts

Animated fonts can be distracting. Avoid animating your text or use it only if it serves a functional purpose. Ask yourself if it adds clarity to your data or is just a cute effect.

9. Keep an eye on font tracking and kerning

Learn these two typography terms and you will have an easier time placing your words on the slide. Kerning adjusts the spacing between two adjacent letters in a font. Tracking adjusts the space between all letters together. Both influence the readability of text.

For instance, you can avoid using narrow or condensed typefaces. Instead, pick a thicker font and tweak it with tracking and kerning within PowerPoint. 

For more on changing the spaces between text, read this Microsoft support article .

Tip: Play the KernType typography game to get familiar with the basics of the two principles.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation - Kern

10. Make interesting shape effects

It doesn’t always have to be just about fonts and simple colors. The Shape Effects panel on PowerPoint gives you a lot of control over the finished appearance of text on the slide. 

For instance, you can adjust the transparency of the letters. You can also “texturize” the words by using pictures to fill the words instead of a solid fill color. 

  • Select the word and right click. 
  • From the context menu, click on Format Text Effects.
  • The Format Shape panel is displayed on the right. 
  • Select Text Options > Text Fill & Outline.
  • Choose Picture or texture fill. 

You can now use an image or any texture to decorate your words. Picture or texture fills are a creative way to use standard fonts but still make them stand apart on your slides. Of course, never overdo it. 

Tip: Shape effects go well with thicker fonts.

Best font for PowerPoint presentation

15 of the most versatile fonts you can use in PowerPoint

These fonts (and a few more) are versatile because they are standard fonts and are available on both Windows and macOS. You don’t have to go after fancy typefaces just yet. Focus on your layout. Use the design pointers from the above list and give your slides an attractive makeover.

  • Franklin Gothic
  • Times New Roman
  • Palatino       

Think of typography in PowerPoint as design

Practice with your eye. Play one font against the other for interesting unions. Typography isn’t just for selecting fonts and using them to occupy your slide with words. It is an essential design element in any place where visual communication matters. You can design your presentations faster once you work out how fonts work together and learn a bit about color theory. 

Want to learn more about how good design comes together? Start with some of the basic and advanced PowerPoint techniques .

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Saikat Basu

Saikat is a writer who hunts for the latest tricks in Microsoft Office and web apps. He doesn't want to get off the learning curve, so a camera and a harmonica claim an equal share of his free time.

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Thinking Workshops

The Five Best Fonts for Presentations and Why They Work So Well

Five best fonts for presentations

Fonts, typefaces, and typography are topics covered in numerous books and articles. The majority of them describe fonts, typefaces, and how they appear in print. However, there are few books and articles that explain how to choose fonts for workshop presentations. I did some research and testing and found the five best fonts for presentations.

The 5 best fonts for presentations are Frutiger, Futura, Gill Sans, Helvetica, and Verdana. These fonts work because they are sans-serif fonts, with large x-heights and they are sharp and legible when displayed on a screen.

This article will show you how I choose these fonts that I use in my workshop presentations.

What are the five best fonts for presentations?

Over the years, I read a lot of books and articles about fonts, typefaces, and typography. Many of these books and articles explain the history and characteristics of numerous fonts and typefaces. These books and articles, however, are not particularly useful when I am looking for fonts to use in my development workshops.

Of the hundreds of fonts available, I choose fonts simply by selecting fonts that work for me. Below is what I did, and you may want to try variations of it in your search for the best fonts.

1. Find fonts that are suitable for presentations.

Since my task is to deliver an interesting development workshop, I want fonts that are good for displaying text clearly on the screen without being outlandish. This means sticking to serif and sans-serif fonts and excluding display, script, freehand, novelty, and calligraphic fonts. If you are new to fonts and typography and don’t know what are serif and sans-serif fonts, below are two examples of serif fonts and two examples of sans-serif fonts.

Serif and san-serif fonts

A serif font has small strokes (or serifs) attached to a longer stroke. Please see the serif fonts in the diagram above. Some examples of serif fonts are Baskerville and Times New Roman. A sans-serif font, on the other hand, does not have these small strokes. Some examples of sans-serif fonts are Frutiger and Gill Sans.

Since there are quite a large number of serif and sans-serif fonts, I need to narrow them down to a few. To find out which fonts are ‘better’, I showed many PowerPoint slides using serif and sans-serif fonts and I asked my workshop participants which fonts they preferred. Many preferred the slides using sans-serif fonts like Frutiger and Helvetica instead of slides using serif fonts like Baskerville and Times New Roman.

You may want to try out different fonts, including the newer Google Fonts like Roboto and Open Sans, and find out which fonts your workshop participants prefer.

2. Find fonts that are legible on the screen.

A font is legible if its characters are easily distinguishable from other characters. A common example is the letter ‘I’ should look different from the number ‘1’. Another example is the letter ‘O’ should look different from the number ‘0’. Yet another example is distinguishing between the letter ‘c’ and the letter ‘e’.

Unfortunately, many sans-serif fonts have the upper-case letter ‘I’ looking very similar to the lower-case letter ‘l’. For example, in the phrase “I like to …”, you can see the first two characters are identical although they are different letters. By the way, the font used in the phrase and in this article is Open Sans, a sans-serif font.

Font’s x-height

A font’s x-height is the height of a lowercase ‘x’ character, measured from its baseline. Fonts with a large x-height are more legible than fonts with a small x-height. Below are the x-heights of three fonts.

Five best fonts for presentations x-height

In the above diagram, the bottom black line is the baseline, the red line is the median line, and the top blue line is the ascender line. The x-height is the distance between the black baseline and the red median line, and the font height is the distance between the black baseline and the blue ascender line.

Frutiger has a larger x-height than Gill Sans and Times New Roman, making it more legible, especially at a distance than the other two fonts. So, choose fonts with an x-height for legibility.

For a classroom setting where participants are seated facing a screen, sans-serif fonts with font sizes from 24px to 32px are quite readable. So, choose fonts with sizes 24px and larger .

Although using this font size suggestion for readability is easy to do, the projector screen and the venue are usually beyond your control. A screen that is too big for a small classroom is ineffective. Neither is a small screen in a large room. There are many poorly designed lecture theatres that can seat 300 students but have screens that are meant for classrooms.

If the screen and the projector are movable, you can adjust the distance between them to get the sharpest text images that are readable on the screen. However, if the screen and projector are fixed on the wall or ceiling, there’s not much you can do to improve readability. You can enlarge or reduce the size of the fonts in your PowerPoint layouts, but that is likely to end up in a mess if you try to do that just before the start of the workshop.

Font’s line spacing

Line spacing is the space between two lines of text and it has an impact on readability. If the line spacing is small, it is harder to read, as shown in the diagram below.

Five best fonts for presentations line-spacing

A 1.1-line spacing is easier to read as compared to 1.0 (or single) line spacing. A 1.2-line spacing is even easier to read. However, the larger the line spacing, the few lines of text you can put on the screen.

Font and background colors

Many studies recommend using dark text on a light background. The most commonly used combination is black lettering on a white background. This combination is also recommended by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services in their usability guidelines .

There are also studies that recommend using very dark gray (hex #444444) instead of black (hex #000000) for lettering on a white background, or using black lettering on an off-white (hex #F5F5F5) or ivory (hex #FFFF0) background.

The font and background color combination I find most readable are black letterings on a white background. Many of my workshop participants have no complaints about this combination. One interesting feedback I received from my participants is that many of them prefer black lettering on a white background over white lettering on a black background.

4. Fonts with special characters

If your workshop deals with numbers and mathematical equations, then you will need a font that has numbers, symbols, mathematical symbols, subscripts, superscripts, and Greek characters, to display mathematical equations effectively. Although most fonts have special characters and symbols, some may not have the ones that you require. So, you need to double-check.

A simple way to check whether the font you selected has the character you want is to go to the font’s Character Map .

Five best fonts for presentations character map

To do this in Windows 10, click the Start button, scroll down to the Windows Accessories folder, expand the folder, and select Character Map. Select the font and see if it has the character that you want. If yes, select the character and copy it to your Powerpoint presentation.

Another way to get mathematical symbols is to download the Math Symbol Font (maths.ttf) and install it.

How to test the fonts you selected

Now that you’ve chosen a few fonts for presentations, the ‘best’ way to test them is to use them in your workshop and see which font your workshop participants prefer. So, when would be the best time to do this?

I do my font testing after the Q & A (Questions and Answers) session. Once I finished the Q & A session, I usually ask participants if there is anything that they think will make the workshop better, such as more examples, more individual exercises, more group activities, or more videos. Following that, I will show two PowerPoint pages with the same text but with different fonts and background colors, and ask which one they prefer. This test is far from perfect but it works for me.

The best fonts for workbooks and handouts

Many trainers give out handouts and notes during workshop sessions. Can those fonts for presentations be used in these printed materials? Yes, they can, although I prefer serif fonts for this.

Here’s why: I read Drew Whitman’s book Cashvertising a few years ago, and he quoted a font study that showed that people understand a paragraph set in a serif typeface better than the same paragraph set in a sans-serif typeface. That piqued my interest, and I did similar tests. I gave my workshop participants workbooks that used serif and sans-serif fonts. Surprisingly, many participants preferred workbooks using serif fonts like Minion and Times New Roman.

So, for printed materials like handouts, workbooks, and a list of references , I use Minion which is a serif font.

Font typeface, users, and designers

Here are some fun facts about the fonts I like to use in my presentations:

Frutiger , designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1975, has a humanist sans-serif typeface. The font is very legible from a distance and it is used on signs at numerous transportation hubs. Amtrak, National Health Service, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Port Authority of New York, Schiphol Airport, and Union Bank of Switzerland use Frutiger in their signage.

Futura , designed by Paul Renner in 1927, has a geometric sans-serif typeface. The font is based on geometric shapes, especially circles and ovals. Futura is used by companies such as Fox News, HP, Royal Dutch Shell, Swissair, and Volkswagen.

Gill Sans , designed by Eric Gill in 1927, has a humanist sans-serif typeface. It is a highly readable font and many people say that it has a distinctively British look. Initially designed for display purposes, Gill Sans is now used in posters and advertisements by companies such as Benetton, British Rail, and John Lewis.

Helvetica , designed by Max Miedinger in 1957, has a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface. This font is very popular and it is highly legible because of its large x-height. BMW, GM, Lufthansa, Nestle, and Verizon are among the companies that use Helvetica.

Minion , designed by Robert Slimbach in 1989, has a neohumanist serif typeface. The font is designed for extended reading of body text and is used in many books.

Verdana , designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft in 1996, has a humanist sans-serif typeface, similar to that of Frutiger. The font has a large x-height, making it very legible. It is also wider than most sans-serif fonts. Verdana is very readable on computer screens and many websites use it. Aston Martin, Concorde, and Jaguar are among the companies that use Verdana.

My five best fonts for presentations are:

  • Frutiger for business and management workshops
  • Futura for creativity and innovation workshops
  • Gill Sans for workshops with lots of content
  • Helvetica for workshops that are “conservative”
  • Verdana for IT and high tech workshops

I select these fonts for presentations simply by displaying PowerPoint slides with these fonts to my workshop participants and asking them which ones they prefer. This way of selecting fonts is not scientific but, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it worked for me. I have been using these five fonts for years.

Try these fonts in your workshop presentation and let me know what your workshop participants think about them. Most importantly, have fun with fonts.

  • Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style . Hardley & Marks. 1997.
  • Whitman, D E. Cashvertising . Career Press. 2008.

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Best PowerPoint Fonts To Make Your Presentations StandOut

Best PowerPoint Fonts To Make Your Presentations StandOut

The foremost purpose of your presentation is to communicate your thinking to your audience effectively. To keep the audience engaged in your presentation, believe it or not, the Presentation font selection also plays a significant role. The fonts create the tone and atmosphere of the presentation. PowerPoint Fonts have the power to enhance or dampen your communication considerably.  Fonts are like non-verbal expressions of written words. You can make your words look bold and confident or shaky just by the choice of your fonts in presentations . You can actually produce deep and powerful impressions using presentation fonts .

In a nutshell, you don’t want your audience to be distracted from the topic just because of the font selection. Right? So what should you be taking care of in font selection while designing your next winning presentation ? Let’s learn more about professional presentation fonts for winning over your audience: 

Points To Avoid While Choosing Presentation Fonts:

Overuse of certain presentation fonts.

Initially created for The Times newspaper in 1929, Times New Roman became the new default font for many MS Office Apps, and it is overused since then. Just like Times New Roman, Arial has been a default font for Windows for many years; this reason is enough to justify why Arial is one of the most boring fonts. We are tired of seeing these presentation fonts almost everywhere. You don’t only have to choose the font that fits your business and the presentation topic, but also need to make sure that you avoid all of the common options. Our attention span is decreasing very fast; we get bored very fast. If your content is not attention-grabbing, you can’t engage your audience. Move away from the defaults; use different cool presentation fonts , there is so much more out there.

Presentation Fonts best practices

Use Of Cool Fancy Fonts

Although it might look fancy to look at cool presentation fonts , they considerably reduce the readability of your content. Handwriting-style fonts such as Mistral and Viner Hand can be fun to use; however,  they can make your slides look unprofessional. Similarly, some best fonts for a presentation such as Comic Sans are more appropriate for content prepared for children rather than for professional presentations . Your audience in the back row relies on the slides to help them understand what you’re talking about, the corporate presentations are why you should avoid tiny presentation fonts like Brush Script or Bradly Hand. Most of us should try to stick to the basics when it comes to font styles. Make sure you keep it simple and formal!

Presentation Fonts best practices

Use Of Obvious & Boring Fonts

Helvetica Neue typeface was proudly used by widely-known companies such as Apple, Nasa, and BMW because it worked for them. The problem is that Helvetica is a thin-weight font, and when shown in smaller point sizes, its curves break up. Kerning is the space between two letters based on their shape. Too little space makes the professional presentation fonts unreadable because the letters are smushed together.  Unfortunately, Helvetica uses kerning to distort words, making the text difficult to read by randomizing the spaces between characters. Using this professional presentation font in your presentation won’t bring any extra value.

Presentation Fonts best practices

Misuse Of Shadow

Many people use shadows on their text to make it stand out. However, when you use shadows, the text looks blurry and dirty. It’s always better to avoid shadow, especially for PowerPoint presentations .  But if you are a fan of text-shadow and still want to use a drop shadow on text, only use it on the header and never in the body. Also, consider using a dark background with white bold text for better visuals.

What are the best fonts for a presentation?

Presentation Fonts best practices

Use Best PowerPoint Fonts – Verdana and Georgia

Designers at Microsoft deliberately crafted Verdana for use on computer screens. This is considered one of the cool presentation fonts . The letters are widely spaced, and lowercase letters are tall, making this font extremely readable. Verdana makes it a very safe bet when you know that your presentation will appear on different devices. It is also not overused making it the best font for a presentation to make the content look appealing and readable To effectively showcase numbers in the PowerPoint presentation , Georgia is a great serif option offering lowercase numbers, which are also a Windows standard font. Therefore this is amongst the best presentation fonts when showcasing numbers.

Make Your Presentation Fonts Readable

Creating your presentation using some cool presentation fonts will make your audience focus on the design rather than the message that you want to deliver. Also, it would reduce the readability of your content. Therefore choose professional fonts that allow your readers to focus on the message .  It would help if you effectively format your text on the slides so that they don’t look too busy. The use of proper line spacing and margins can increase the readability of the content . Effective use of bullet points and indentation can make your slides look neat.

Stick To Grayscale For Fonts In Presentation

Studies have shown that different colors have different impacts on the mind and evoke mixed feelings in many people. It would be best if you keep that in mind while creating a presentation since you want to avoid colors that might negatively impact the message you are delivering. Pro Tip:  It is always safe to use grayscale in your presentation as they look professional.

good presentation font

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COMMENTS

  1. 20 Best Fonts for Presentations In 2024 [PowerPoint or Not]

    Presentation Font #26: Dela Gothic One. Dela Gothic One is a thick and chunky font with a strong feel. It's ideal for headings on posters, packaging and in titles on presentations. This font has a lot of power and is best paired with a simple sans serif font or even a classic serif like Garamond for body copy.

  2. 12 Best Fonts For Powerpoint Presentations in 2023

    7. Maine: Book Antiqua. Moving on to presentation fonts, this clean and modern font based on the roman typeface, Book Antiqua. If you want to give a professional, no-nonsense impression in your presentation, this font is the one you're looking for. Maine is specially designed for creating more legible body text.

  3. 14 Fonts That Make Your Powerpoint Presentations Stand Out

    7. Roboto. Roboto is a simple sans-serif font that is a good fit for PowerPoint presentations in a wide range of industries. Well-designed and professional, Roboto works especially well when used for body text, making your paragraphs easy to read. Roboto combines beautifully with several other fonts.

  4. 50+ Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations

    Metropolis - Font Family. Metropolis is an elegant serif font family that comes with a mix of modern and vintage design elements. It features a design inspired by the 1927 Fritz Lang movie of the same name. This font is perfect for crafting business and professional presentation slideshows.

  5. The 10 Best PowerPoint Fonts for Your Presentation

    1. Verdana. Verdana is one of the easy choices for PowerPoint presentation fonts. It is a more recent font crafted in 1996 by Mathew Carter, for Microsoft, so you know it is optimized for the screen. Its hallmarks include wide spaces and counters with tall lowercase letters that boost readability.

  6. What Are the Best Fonts to Use in PowerPoint PPT Presentations

    The popular system-installed serif fonts include Garamond, Georgia, and Times New Roman. They can definitely serve as some of the best fonts for presentations. Serif fonts like Adallyn are the most professional font for PowerPoint presentations. In 2023, the best font for PowerPoint presentations are sans-serif fonts.

  7. The 33 Best Fonts for PowerPoint Presentations

    Calibri. The default champ for a reason! Calibri is friendly and easy on the eyes, making it a solid pick for lengthy presentations where you don't want to tire out your audience. Tahoma. Tahoma's like Arial's more laid-back sibling. It's simple, clear, and does the job well, especially in smaller sizes. Verdana.

  8. 10 Best fonts to use in your next PowerPoint presentation

    8. Bell MT. If Bodoni fonts are just that bit too extreme, try Bell MT instead. They have similar roots - both Bodoni and Bell fonts were influenced by the work of French typographer Fermin Didot, and have the same 'New Face' style contrast between thick and thin lines, just to a lesser extent with Bell fonts.

  9. 20 Best PowerPoint Fonts to Make Your Presentation Stand ...

    Example of Verdana font face for presentations. Recommended font pairing: Arial, Lucida Grande, Futura, Georgia. #3 - Roboto. Another delicate sans serif font that is ideal for text bodies. It is rated among the best fonts for PowerPoint readability and presentations, so you can easily pair it with more prominent font families.

  10. The Best 24 Fonts for Modern PowerPoint Presentations [+Guide]

    Download font. 12. Bebas Neue. Bebas Neue is one of the best PowerPoint fonts we could recommend for headers and a good variety of font weights - five. Bebas Neue, however, is only available in uppercase, thus it isn't a good fit for body text, so consider this before utilizing the font. Recommended title size: 60px.

  11. 25 Best Fonts for Powerpoint to Elevate Your Presentations

    1. Impact. About Impact: Impact, with its bold and condensed style, is ideal for PowerPoint presentations needing striking headlines or attention-grabbing titles. 2. Goudy Old Style. About Goudy Old Style: Goudy Old Style offers an elegant, traditional touch to PowerPoint presentations, perfect for formal or historical topics. 3. Century Gothic.

  12. Best Fonts for PowerPoint (2022)

    What is a good font size for PowerPoint presentations? When choosing the font size, it is best to consider where the presentation will be given and how far away the audience is. The font should be large enough to be easily read from the very back. Headings should be somewhere between 40pt and 50pt.

  13. Choosing the Best Font for PowerPoint: 10 Tips & Examples

    Think Outside the Slide has a great font cheat sheets for a number of different screen sizes. 7. Turn Off Animations. Don't let all those PowerPoint tricks suck you in. Moving text, zooming words, letters that fly in from the side of the screen - they are all difficult to read. And really distracting.

  14. Best Fonts for Presentations (Powerpoint or Otherwise)

    A good option for bulleted points or text-heavy decks. Poppins. Poppins typeface is geometric and clean, and includes over 15 different font weights. Ranging from thin to black, the font's openness is great for both presentation headlines and body copy. Poppins can be pretty understated or have a lot of personality depending on context and font ...

  15. The Best Fonts for Powerpoint

    13. Ingo - Modern Serif Display Font. Ingo - Modern Serif Display Font.Image Credits: Design Cuts. Ingo is most definitely one of the most unique fonts to ever grace the internet, immediately making it a great option for PowerPoint presentations.

  16. Choosing the Right Font For Your PowerPoint Presentation

    Keep this from happening by embedding your font in PowerPoint using these easy steps: Click the "File" tab. Move down to the lower-lefthand corner of the window and click "Options.". Click "Save" on the left side of the screen. Scroll down to the section titled "Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation:".

  17. Best fonts for presentations and how to use them effectively

    Presentations work best with a sans serif font (they're more legible), especially if they're being read from far away. A few extra pointers: Helvetica and Futura are legible at most font sizes. Rockwell is bold, suitable for a headline or point you want to hammer home to your audience. Classic styles such as Helvetica, Futura, Rockwell ...

  18. The 10 best presentation fonts to transform your next PowerPoint

    10. Lato. Lato was originally betrothed to a large corporate client, but they decided to go in another direction, so now it's back on the public market, and looking for Mr Right. The best font for your PowerPoint presentation is somewhere in this selection, just waiting for you to choose it.

  19. Find the Best Fonts for Your Next Presentation and Make It ...

    Segoe is a sans-serif font. It is a typeface that was designed specifically for use in computer interfaces. It's become much more prevalent in presentation software such as PowerPoint and Keynote. It's clean and modern, which makes it a good choice for presentations that need to be effortless to read.

  20. How to Choose the Best Font for PowerPoint Presentations

    Most presentation experts recommend these size ranges. The thumb rule — a larger font size with less text on screen is always good. The default slide in PowerPoint starts with 60pts for section headers and 24pts for body font. Header Font: Between 26 and 42 point. Body Font: Between 18 and 24 point.

  21. The Five Best Fonts for Presentations and Why They Work So Well

    The 5 best fonts for presentations are Frutiger, Futura, Gill Sans, Helvetica, and Verdana. These fonts work because they are sans-serif fonts, with large x-heights and they are sharp and legible when displayed on a screen. This article will show you how I choose these fonts that I use in my workshop presentations.

  22. Best PowerPoint Fonts To Make Your Presentations StandOut

    Use Best PowerPoint Fonts - Verdana and Georgia. Designers at Microsoft deliberately crafted Verdana for use on computer screens. This is considered one of the cool presentation fonts. The letters are widely spaced, and lowercase letters are tall, making this font extremely readable. Verdana makes it a very safe bet when you know that your ...

  23. Popular PowerPoint fonts for professional presentations

    The large number of font options available for you in PowerPoint sometimes make it difficult to choose the most suitable font for your presentation. Here are five tips for choosing the best font: Choose the right font size The choice of font size depends on the content you're presenting. Some font sizes are large, while others are small.