The ubiquitous carrier of information within a slide is text and used effectively can significantly add to a presentation.

Appropriate use of text will:

• Summarize the discussion,
• Focus the audience,
• Promote retention, and
• Assist the presenter.

Text, however, must neither become the primary means of communicating information nor is it meant to replace the presenter.

The first observation to make is that the audience can read significantly faster than the speaker can talk: anywhere from 5 to 10 times as fast. Also, vision is the primary means for humans to gain information. Together, these have the consequence that, with text presented in front of them, the audience will read the text and ignore the speaker.

To use text properly, we will consider the following features:

• Layout,
• Typeface selection,
• Font size, and
• Language.