Post #3091800
2026-06-04 08:59 UTC
Replies (24)
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@GreenMtnBear@4bear.com 2026-06-04 11:31
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz I never heard this, but it makes sense. Thanks for the tip!
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@mdione@en.osm.town 2026-06-04 13:16
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz and it would be nice if conference organizers would advise the projector's resolutions, because it's not the same to write slides in an 8k screen and then project in a 1080p projector.
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@breakin@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-06-04 09:30
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz Advice given to me when I was older: ”don’t stand on chairs anymore!”.
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@datenwolf@chaos.social 2026-06-04 09:31
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz If you're putting lots of text on your slides, you're doing it wrong anyway. The slides are stage dressing for your talk, they NOT ARE your talk! Put in your slides which can't be communicated verbally. Like photos of your experiments, data graphs, figures, the likes. Example:
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@nedbat@hachyderm.io 2026-06-04 10:15
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz ugh, so much this. Every new tool for making slides tries for "pretty" slides which often have too-small text in a too-empty field.
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@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 2026-06-04 10:26
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is still widespread practice. 25+ years ago, PowerPoint shipped a misfeature where, if you typed more text into a text box, it would automatically shrink the text to fit. When Keynote shipped, it did not have this misfeature. I believe this is 90% of the reason that early Keynote presentations looked better than PowerPoint presentations of the same era: If you typed too much text into a box in PowerPoint, it would make it unreadable for people in the audience, if you did the same in Keynote you had to manually reduce the size and that felt wrong. Some time around Keynote 3ish, they also added this misfeature.
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@ibk@aus.social 2026-06-04 10:52
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz Seven dot points. Seven words each.
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@etchedpixels@mastodon.social 2026-06-04 11:06
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz When I first did them the best advice I was given was 'write it on a postage stamp, if you can't fit it on a postage stamp there's too much on that slide' I think it's in reality a bit more nuanced depending upon audience and language skills.
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@drchaos@sauropods.win 2026-06-04 11:31
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz bloody PowerPoint makes fonts smaller and smaller the more text you put on slides. This removes some of the feedback. I would also add that using complete sentences with bullet points is stupid. Oh, and stop using clip art just to fill space. I should take my meds now, grumpy old man that I am. (I'm more or less forced to use ppt at my job, but in my old job I could use LaTeX)
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@suramya@mastodon.social 2026-06-04 11:46
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz completely agree. In addition my father gave me similar advice about my resume that I want to share. He told me not to use small font size on my resume (I was using size 8 to fit everything in one page) because most hiring managers are older and would have trouble reading the resume especially if they printed it out. Now years later I see the validity of the statement because I face that problem when people use small fonts in their resume.
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@bluetea@ioc.exchange 2026-06-04 12:05
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz reading uses the auditory loop; you can't listen and read at the same time. I do things like keywords or headings on slides. Occasionally text of a quote. I use images of theorists, diagrams, and illustrative photos.
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@chessert@mastodon.online 2026-06-04 12:09
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz When I served in the Army, there was a minimum font size for PPT presentations. I want to say 18pt?
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@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to 2026-06-04 12:11
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz but also something as simple as an X,Y chart with linear axis and > ~~4 variables the lines are in color, hard to tell apart, and the legend is at the bottom, so one has to look down at legend then up at chart total basic fail
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@tanquist@masto.ai 2026-06-04 12:27
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz I've heard this idiotic phrase at almost every conference I've attended: "I know you can't read this but..."
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@renespronk@c.im 2026-06-04 12:51
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz Personally I blame the prelevalence of online presentations. Small fonts are more acceptable in such a setting because all attendees have a high resolution screen directly in front of them. Pesenting an in person training, let alone a talk at a conference in a long shoebox shaped room - minimal text, super large fonts. As a trainer I've worked with companies whose presentation template was created by a design company. Cool, but only aimed at online presentations, so unusable for training. And no, slide content is neither 'the talk', nor is it reference reading for the attendees. A violin is important in a concerto, but it's not about the violin, but about its effect on those listening, a means to an end. If you disagree, feel free to use minute fonts and add lots of preferably unrelated clipart, or super complicated ai generated infographics. Wingdings, anyone?
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@d1@autistics.life 2026-06-04 13:06
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz The font "size-up" button is right there. Smash it! Lots of times! Shown is the "Increase Font Size" button in #LibreOffice. Shortcut is Ctrl + ] #OpenSource
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@em_and_future_cats@mastodon.social 2026-06-04 13:25
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz That’s a perfect idea for proofreading! I try to adjust font size so others can see, but depending on the projector and room size it’s hard to judge with a laptop screen. Making sure the font is contrasting well with the background helps ( i .e. background is a picture and font is white, the picture has to be dim so the font stands out) but this makes so much more sense!
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@Giliell@mastodon.social 2026-06-04 13:36
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz I'm trying SO FUCKING HARD to teach my students how to do a good presentation. Your presentation should be readable. Your presentation should add to what you're saying (visuals) and support it (key points). If your presentation is 1:1 what you're saying, then one of you is unnecessary.
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@Rickd6@mstdn.ca 2026-06-04 14:28
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz happens on road signs too.
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@catmisgivings@stranger.social 2026-06-04 14:41
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz at work only about half of us were issued email addresses so the main mode of communication from HR to all staff is via the TVs in the break room They will just copypaste a whole page letter from the president of the company onto a PowerPoint slide and call that communication
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@chessert@mastodon.online 2026-06-04 14:56
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz My absolute favorite in the Army were the 35+ slide presentations which the presenter read to you verbatim off the screen, with few or no illustrations. Always time well spent. /s 🤣 🫡
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@Centretowner@urbanists.social 2026-06-04 15:17
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz A little while back, three candidates gave us presentations. The first talked about how good a communicator they were, using text too small to read on a regular screen, much less in a slide deck. The second talked about how good a communicator they were, using an unreadable font where every character resembled the Threads logo. The third just had a clear presentation. We picked the third.
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@ELS@sfba.social 2026-06-04 15:30
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz Our strategy was to type your text in pica on a 3” x 5” index card and photograph the card. The goal was large font, but also less text. Ensure that any text is useful for the audience, not just to cue you. Don’t use your image text to cue yourself.
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@wolfnowl@universeodon.com 2026-06-04 15:56
@freakboy3742@cloudisland.nz And don't put things on your slides that you're going to say. You're not there to read the screen to people. Slides should augment your talk.