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DARK BACKGROUNDS, LIGHT TEXT
The absolute easiest slide show to read is white type on a black background. But this gets to be really boring very fast. Dark blues and wines are a definite improvement in backgrounds, bright yellow and cyan type start the move. Gradient backgrounds add. The present day presentation programs offer some very good templates that get you started in the right direction. Just remember that some of these templates were created with overhead shows in mind and will not work well as slide shows. Also you must keep in mind that there is nothing unique and the next presenter might just be using the same format and his imaging lab just might be doing a better job. Use these templates as a guide, but switch colors, add clip art, photographs and drawings, just keep it bright and full of action. Templates tie your show together but should not restrict you in any sense.
TEXT
Plain easy to read text is the name of the game. Don't use a lot of different fonts there is nothing to be gained and a lot to be lost. Don't put your speech on the screen: use key words and outlines, after all you are there to give the speech. A good guide is no more than 8 words per line and no more than 8 lines per slide. Of course a lot of long words and those numbers go down. Keep each slide as simple as possible use as many as is necessary. The use of build slides allows more information to be on the slide because they are highlighted one at a time. Text size should be as uniform as possible throughout the presentation. Main headings should be 36 to 48 points. Body type should be 20 to 32 points. Text slides should never have anything that you want people to read that is smaller than 12 points. Any fonts that you use that are not standard program fonts will have to be embedded or converted to curves. There are two major types of fonts, TRUE TYPE and POSTSCRIPT. Windows programs come with True Type fonts and if you want to use Postscript fonts you will need Adobe type manager. I suggest that any postscript fonts be imbedded in the slide.
FONT COLORS
Once again White is the easiest to read. Bright, light really stand out. Avoid medium and dark RED or BLUE. I prefer headings in light bright colors and the smaller body type in white. Try to use the same size fonts in your headings throughout your presentation, this helps the uniformity of the show. Body text is harder to keep to one font size but will help.
PHOTOGRAPHS & DRAWINGS
Scanning of photos and drawings should be sized to fit the space used and done at 125 - 150 lines per inch. This should keep your scans under 4 meg. Resizing scans will either make the scan size unnecessarily large or will cause them to pixilate. Photos add something unique to a presentation but like charts and graphs can be overdone. Scans need to be saved in a format that is compatible with your presentation. Usually most will accept bitmaps such as Tiff, Tga, Gif, Pcx, Pic,Jpg, or Eps.
Jpeg (Jpg) is good in that it takes up less space Try converting all your image files to Jpg in order to save space if you are saving to disk or E-mailing the show.
CLIPART
Your presentation program comes with clip art and clip art programs are available in all computer stores. Clip art is usually vector files and as such are easy to edit and recolor. These files are small and don't require as much space as scanned images. Clipart can add a lot to your presentation. To break up the monotony, add humor and visually get your point across.
EPS
Encapsulated Postscript Files can be exported by most graphics, publishing and presentation programs. EPS files contain all of the data in the file and can be sized without causing pixilation. In order to image EPS files well requires a RIP program to convert these to a language that your printer or film recorder understands. Some labs charge extra if they have to image EPS files.
LOGOS
Logos can be scanned or created in the draw portion of your program or imported from a graphics program. A small logo in one corner ties a presentation together. This should go into the master to ensure uniformity. Most large corporations require that all presenters utilize a standard template which includes the corporate logo. Some logos require that you have Pantone or Spotone Colors. These are usually handled best by programs like Publisher, Quarkxpress, Illustrator, Photoshop, PageMaker and CorelDraw. Even if you use PMS colors there are no guarantees that they will be exact color matches one should always test to ensure color.
TEST SLIDE
Total Chrome offers to image one free test slide in order for you to test your presentation template, fonts, scans, and other slide components. This service is the second best thing we offer. The first being the "for your information" and "presentation setup" sections of this site.
The free test slide will be imaged at 8k resolution as will your presentation slides, mounted in "Byers" plastic mounts and returned with a hand written note making suggestions as how you might improve your presentation. So test that idea for a great background, color combination, or layout. You won't make it better if you don't try!
And a reminder save your presentation with the DOS Eight Dot Three format. This means the file name is up to eight letters followed by a period and the file extension of three letters (MYSHOW.PPT). Know how many slides are in your presentation. Remove any blank slides unless that is what you want. Send us only those images that you want. We do not image single slides out of a show, (1,5,8,21,35,and 40).We will image every slide in a presentation. If you can not delete slides or save just one slide then give us a call and we will explain these procedures.
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