WC104
Projected Materials1
Ricky Telg2
This EDIS publication, focusing on the foundations of
visual communications, is the fourth of a four-part EDIS
publications series on creating effective visual communications for your local Extension program. This series will
include publications on visual communication principles
and the development of posters, fliers, exhibits, and
displays.
Any visual communication should be developed with the
design principles and elements previously discussed in
Visual Communication, edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc101. This EDIS
publication will discuss the application of those principles
to the development of effective projected materials
(computer-generated slide presentations).
Designing Effective Projected
Materials
You enter a room where the lights are dimmed slightly to
listen to a presentation. The speaker begins to address the
audience and uses a projector to cast computer-created
slides onto the screen. But try as you may, you cannot
decipher much of the text on the projection screen.
The room is too bright, the words on the screen are too
cramped, and the dark-color lettering blends in with the
dark background. You spend most of the presentation trying to determine what the projected materials say, instead
of listening to the speech.
Does that sound familiar? Because computers and highend data projectors are becoming more commonplace
in schools, universities, and corporate offices, poor
presentations like this happen frequently, but they do not
have to. Poorly developed projected visuals distract your
audience’s attention from what is important—your presentation and your message, but as this publication will show,
you can make your presentations more effective by using
computer-generated visuals correctly.
• Minimize words. Cramming lots of material onto one
computer slide makes the slide extremely difficult to
read. Instead, use bullet-pointed information. Infuse your
slides with pictures, clip art, or graphics, and break the
content into multiple slides.
• Illustrations, audio, video, graphics, and photographs
need a purpose. If the image, audio clip, video clip, or
photograph does not aid the audience’s comprehension of
your presentation, then do not use it. Include only visuals
that tell your story.
• Use the correct image size. Photographs used for
projected presentations should be at least 72 pixels per
inch (ppi). If, however, you plan to print the slides as
handouts, you will need to use color photographs that are
300 ppi so that they will reproduce well in printed form.
If they are black and white photos, 150 ppi is all that is
needed.
• Take into account the presentation location. If you
possibly can, rehearse your presentation in the room
you will give it in so that you can adjust the slides to fit
the conditions of the room. If the light level cannot be
dimmed satisfactorily, change to a white background with
black or dark letters. In a light room, dark text is easier to
read.
1. This document is WC104, one of a series of the Agricultural Education and Communication Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date
September 2010. Reviewed September 2013. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
2. Ricky Telg, professor, Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, UF/IFAS Extension
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to
individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national
origin, political opinions or affiliations. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A&M University Cooperative
Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place , Dean
Using Text
When using text on computer-generated slides, follow the
next suggestions:
• Follow the “rule of six.” Limit words to six per line and
limit lines to six per screen. Although some slides will
have more or fewer words per line and lines per screen,
the “rule of six” is a good one to follow.
• Keep the syntax simple. Remember that people read
more slowly than they hear, and they will read more
slowly still if they’re being asked to read and listen at
the same time. If you want to present an audience with
a complicated sentence to read, stop talking for a few
moments and leave several beats of silence while the
audience devotes attention to deciphering your sentence.
In general, save complex syntax and lengthy sentences for
the spoken part of your presentation and use bullet points
or key words on your slides.
• Choose colors wisely. Use a mostly solid background—
patterns behind text make reading more difficult. If
the background is dark, the letters should be light and
vice versa. Frames and decorative accents on slides can
enhance them and make them more readable, but be
careful not to overdo or crowd text. Shading can cause
problems if the text runs into the shaded area on the slide
and disappears. Remember that color and pattern choices
that work well on your computer screen wont necessarily
work as well projected on a screen and may render text
illegible in the lighting conditions of the presentation
room.
• Letter colors to use. Use white or yellow letters on a dark
background or black letters on a white or light-colored
background.
• Letter colors to avoid. Red, for text, should be avoided,
especially if you use a dark background. Red tends to
bleed into other colors, making text difficult to read.
Avoid colors that are similar to each other. For example,
reds and dark greens are difficult to distinguish when
projected. Never use red text on a dark green or dark blue
background.
• Text size. The text size for your title, body, and subheadings should be in the following ranges:
• Titles: 28 to 48 points
• Body: 24 to 32 points
• Subheadings: 20 points or higher. A 20-point font size
is the absolute minimum for text projected to a large
audience.
Projected Materials
• Typeface: Research studies have shown that people can
read sans serif fonts, such as Helvetica and Arial, easier
on projected screens than serif fonts, such as Times New
Roman. Therefore, it is better to use a sans serif typeface.
Refer to the EDIS publication Visual Communication
in this series for information on serif and sans serif
typefaces.
• Italics. On your computer screen, italicized words are
easy to read. But when they are projected, audiences find
them difficult to make out, so avoid italics.
• Uppercase/lowercase. It is difficult to read all uppercase
letters on a projected screen, and the e-mail convention
that all-caps is shouting is quickly becoming generalized,
so it’s best to use a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters.
Figure 1. Computer-generated slide programs can be used effectively
in the classroom or in business settings.
Special Effects
Computer slide-making software comes with lots of special
effects, but resist the urge to try them all out on audiences.
The overall rule is to use special effects only when necessary. Special effects should have a purpose.
• Sound effects. Use sound effects sparingly. Audio special
effects can make a serious presentation seem humorous
when it is not supposed to be. Your software may offer the
sound of a racing car, glass breaking, lasers, or a typewriter. Pause and reflect. Ask yourself: “Why do I need
one of these effects?” If you cannot answer the question
with a meaningful reason, then do not use the audio
effect. Also, remember what works in rehearsal frequently
fails hilariously in performance. You don’t want the
audience becoming restive or giggly because your tire
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screech sound fired up three slides too late during what
was supposed to be a moment of somber reflection.
• Reveals and transitions. Your software will certainly give
you many choices of text reveals and transitions. Your
words can dissolve onto the screen or zoom on from
the right, left, bottom, or top. They can pinwheel for a
moment and then suddenly slam into focus, or they can
drop letter by letter from above, like a soft rain. They can.
But should they? Again, probably not. Again the advice
is to use these features sparingly. If you use too many
animations, the audience may get so enamored with
your animations that they will wait for the next reveal
or transition and lose sight of the main points in your
presentation. Some presenters use animations to keep
an audience’s attention because they lack confidence
in themselves as speakers or because they are unsure
that the content of the presentation can hold attention.
Rehearse the presentation for colleagues and get feedback
on your delivery. If you think the writing is dry, rework it.
Your audience will be grateful for your effort and reward
you with their attention. Have confidence in your material and your audience will, too.
• Background templates must enhance content. Choose
backgrounds that add to your message. You can create
your own background using such programs as Adobe
Photoshop, or you can buy backgrounds on CDs or
from online sources. The only rule is to make sure
people can read the text and see the images against the
background—and determine not just that they can read
and see but that they can read and see easily. A beautifully
designed background that matches your institutional
branding perfectly will nevertheless detract from your
presentation if text can’t be read against it as easily as it
could be read against a plain, solid background.
successfully. Some ideas to get you started thinking about
how you can use computer slide-making software include:
• Diagrams and charts
• Visual depictions of complicated processes, such as
photosynthesis or plant propagation
• Instructions for class activities
• Class notes
• Test reviews
• Question and answer or role-playing games
• Class debate and discussion questions
• Student book reports
• Multimedia biographies, using pictures, and recorded
audio of famous quotations
• Student group projects and reports
How do you use computergenerated slide presentations?
Practical tips from two University of Florida Institute of
Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension agents
Orange County
How Teachers Use Computer Slide-Making
Software
Many creative instructors design computer slide presentations to instruct students how to use computer slide-making software themselves so as to enhance their presentation
skills. For complicated topics with visual components,
computer slide-making software is invaluable. Students
who master it and learn to incorporate photos, graphics,
animation, sound, and video into clear, tight presentations
will aid their audiences’ comprehension immeasurably and
improve their own organizational skills in the process.
Figure 2. Liz Felter, Extension Agent, Horticulture, University of
Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Orange County
Like any other teaching tool, computer slide-making
software requires that you have goals and objectives in
mind that presentation software can help you achieve
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We use computer-generated slides as a teaching tool.
Through pictures and few words, we can show class
participants photos of plant material or proper fertilizing
techniques. The photos are more interesting to look at, and
a picture can help explain the text being included with that
particular slide. It is important to incorporate ways to be
interactive in a computer slide presentation in order to keep
attendees engaged in the program.
Broward County
Figure 3. Angelina C. Toomey, Extension Agent, 4-H Youth
Development, University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, Broward County
Computer-generated slide presentations are also vital to
Broward County 4-H, with respect to promotion, marketing, and recruitment. Often, a basic 4-H presentation
will be utilized to educate the public about the Broward
County 4-H program and the various youth development
activities we offer. Our organization creates several different
versions of each presentation, in order to reach publics of
varying ages and languages. Broward County 4-H also uses
computer-generated slide presentations to train volunteers
and to facilitate programs for youth, including Financial
Literacy training and Stranger Danger education, as well as
to orientate judges for all of our competitive events.
Projected Materials
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