34. A Case for Case II: Serif or Sans: Font Design in Presentations

All the typeface fonts available to your presentation graphics fall into two major categories:

• Serif, in which the letters have decorative hooks at the ends of the strokes. The most common serif fonts are , , and .

• Sans serif, in which the letters have only straight or round strokes, with no decorative flourishes. The most common sans serif fonts are , , and .

The little hooks in serif font make text easier to read because they enable a reader’s eyes to distinguish individual letters. Please note the feeling in your eyes in the serif and sans serif versions of the same sentence:

See the difference? Does that mean that serif is preferable? Not necessarily. First and foremost—as always—consider the Less Is More principle for presentations. The differential in fonts is diminished when you reduce a sentence to a headline, as all text in all presentations must be treated. A headline uses only key words, primarily verbs and nouns, with very few articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and adjectives, the parts of speech that form a complete sentence. Please note the headline version of the previous sentence in both serif and sans serif:

The four-word headline conveys the same basic information as the earlier nine-word sentence, and the brevity reduces the difference between the serif and sans-serif versions. Each version of the headline is easy to see and grasp.

In a presentation, the presenter would discuss the fox’s quickness and the hen’s laziness. In a document, which must stand alone, the descriptive adjectives and the articles are necessary for narrative clarity. For visual clarity, however, serif fonts make the full sentences easier to read.

Another factor to consider in choosing between serif and sans serif is popular usage. In the previous chapter you read about two of the most ubiquitous and important attention-demanding signs in the world: and , each of which is composed in sans serif.

Finally, consider personal taste and the Latin phrase De gustibus non est disputandum—that is, “There is no argument about taste.”