10 best presentation fonts

1. Garamond
‘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

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.

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.

3. Verdana

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.

4. Segoe
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

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 19th 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.

6. Candara

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 13th and 14th 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.
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.

7. Bodoni

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 18th and early 19th 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.

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.

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.

9. Tahoma

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.

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.

10. Corbel

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.

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:

1. Does this font have the right ‘voice’ for your brand?
2. 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.