20 Most Popular & Professional Presentation Fonts to Use in 2023
Table of Contents
Presentations are important business communication tools or materials that marketers and professionals use to share improtant business ideas, progress reports, information, facts, or figures with a group of people.
Although there is always a presenter available to present the information and coordinate discussion among the audience. The majority of the time during presentations, the audience also read through the presentation slides which makes it imperative that you use the right fonts for presentations.
Fonts play a crucial role in the readability of your presentation slides. Beyond this, they also set the tone of the message and effectively convey the message of the presentation to increase its overall success.
Hence, you must choose the right PowerPoint fonts for your Powerpoint presentations. In this article, we have identified the 20 best and most popular presentation fonts to use to create professional presentations this 2023.
Keep reading!
Brief Overview of the Best PowerPoint Presentation fonts
Presentation fonts play a significant role in the way the core messages in the presentation are conveyed and understood by the audience. This is why you need to be intentional about the type of fonts you choose for your presentations.
The four main types of fonts that you most certainly choose from include the following: Serif font, Sans serif font, script font, and decorative font.
1. Serif Fonts: These are classic fonts designed by William Caslon in 1734 and have been around since then. This font is known for having decorative flicks or an extra tail at the end of each letter.
Serif fonts add a sense of timelessness and tradition to a brand and are popular among law, finance, journalism, and jewelry-making businesses among others. Popular Serifs include Times New Roman, Garamond, Century, Bodini, Lucida, Bookman, and many more.
2. Sans Serif Fonts: These are modern, sharp, and stylish fonts without the extra tails at the end of the letters. They are well known for their clarity and legibility and make the perfect choice for brands looking to appear futuristic.
Popularly used in technology, gaming, consulting, fashion, automobile, and manufacturing industries. Popular sans serif fonts include Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Tahoma, Open sans, Futura, Lucida Sans, and many others.
3. Script fonts: Script or Cursive fonts are characterized by curvy, stylish typography element that makes them look similar to handwriting.
Depending on the type of script font you use and what you are using it for, some can be highly decorative and feminine while others can look more plain and retro. Some of the popular script fonts include Dancing Script, Lobster, Pacifico, Allura, Parisienne, and many more.
4. Decorative Fonts: Slightly similar to the Script fonts, Decorative fonts are decorative versions of Serif, Sans Serif, Script, and other font types that are mostly used to capture attention and create unique designs. Some of the popular decorative fonts are Cooper Black, Abril Fatface, Gilroy, Bourton font, and many more.
7 Tips to Consider When Choosing the Best Fonts for Your Presentation
Your choice of fonts for your presentation determines its success which is why you need to be very intentional and well-informed about the different types of fonts available and how they all impact your presentation’s success.
To choose the best fonts that increase your presentation readability, legibility, and easy comprehension of your message, we have identified 5 key tips you should consider when choosing the best fonts for your presentations. They include:
1. Choose a simple font
The general idea of choosing a professional font for your presentation is to aid readability and get them to stick with you. Using complicated (hard-to-read) fonts like most scripts and decorative fonts will make your presentation design look chaotic, making it hard for your audience to read what’s on your slides.
However, simple and easy-to-read fonts like serif and san serif fonts, contribute to the overall aesthetics of the design and encourage readers to pay attention to you. Check out the perfect presentation design ideas for inspiration.
2. Prioritize a Sans Serif font over a Serif font
Although we have earlier stated that you should Sans serif and serif fonts over the script and decorative fonts. However, if you are faced with choosing between a San Serif font and a Serif font, you should choose a sans serif font over a serif.
This is solely because the sans serif typeface is much easier to read on-screen compared with the serif font style that has a tail at the end of the letters. Using a modern sans serif font can enhance legibility, readability, and audience attention.
3. Avoid all caps fonts
Although several findings have reported that using capital letters in writing conveys a feeling of power, the audience may perceive this as you shouting at them. In addition to this, using all-caps fonts can also be difficult to read, especially in a block of text.
4. Choose a font that looks good in big and small sizes
The general rule for choosing font sizes in your PowerPoint presentation is not to go below 24 points for the title and 14 – 16 points for the text. To increase readability, keep in mind to choose a font that looks good when thin or thick to aid clarity and quality irrespective of the size even when scaled from 120 points down to 12 points.
5. Choose a different font for your titles and headings
For better readability, consider using different fonts for your title, heading, and subheading fonts to create better emphasis and visual hierarchy. However, keep in mind to not have more than four (4) fonts in your presentation to create a cohesive and visually organized design. The fonts should also be bold and have a bigger font size.
6. Choose complementary fonts
Presentations have to be visually appealing with all design elements well coordinated. If you looking to create balance and coherence in your design, consider using fonts that complement each other to make the design stand out. You must also ensure that this font stands on its own but look good when used together.
7. Choose the right colors and contrast for your font
Colors evoke power and can significantly impact how the font appears in your presentation. Remember that the whole idea of choosing the right fonts is to aid readability and engage your audience. Choosing the right colors and aiming for a clear contrast ensuring that the colors don’t clash. Check out the finest guide for how to create an attractive presentation design.
20 Most Popular and Professional Fonts for Presentations in 2023
Here are the best 20 professional fonts to use for your presentations in 2023.
Presentation Font #1: Verdana
Verdana is highly recognized as one of the best fonts for PowerPoint for its optimization for digital display and its easy compatibility with almost all Windows and Mac computers. Interestingly, Verdana is a recent font created by Mathew Carter in 1996 for Microsoft which further shows you should choose it for your presentation.
Verdana’s best features include its wide spaces with tall lowercase letters and counters making it an excellent choice for body text, which aids readability.
Presentation Font #2: Tahoma
Tahoma is one of the most unique, custom fonts developed in 1995 and has grown in popularity among presentation designers. Although it looks similar to Verdana, Tahoma is more tightly spaced and formal than Verdana. An exciting feature of Tahoma is that it’s easy to distinguish each letter from another.
For example, the lowercase letter “i” is different from the uppercase “I”, making it easy to eliminate errors in presentations. Tahoma is particularly a good choice for presentations due to its readability and clear letters.
Presentation Font #3: Calibri
Calibri is a popular sans-serif font that has made it to the list for its simple, clear and subtly rounded edges. Although it has been replaced in Microsoft Office 2007 with Arial, it is still the ideal choice Sans Serif PowerPoint font for its universal readability
Presentation Font #4: Georgia
Like Verdana, Georgia is also one of the recent fonts designed by Matthew Carter in 1996. As a popular modern serif font, Georgia features thick and thin strokes with tall lowercase letters giving a classic look which makes it an excellent choice for your professional presentations.
Interestingly, Georgia is known to be a good alternative to Times New Roman only that it’s slightly larger.
Presentation Font #5: Palatino
The Palatino is one of the popular presentation fonts designed by Hermann Zapf in 1949 originating from the Italian Renaissance.
Influenced by his calligraphic works, the Palatino font was created primarily for advertising, print media headings, and low-quality paper and small-sized prints. Palatino’s solid and wide structure greatly enhances readability especially when read or view from afar, making it an excellent choice for your PowerPoint presentations.
Presentation Font #6: Corbel
As a font designed with the sole aim of providing clean text without clutter on the screen, the Corbel font makes an excellent presentation font to consider in 2023. Corbel is a humanist simple sans serif font released in 2005 for Microsoft’s clear-type rendering and specifically designed for LCD monitors.
Its clean and clear characters with wide spacing don’t clutter the screen and make a great choice for presentations that calls for massive contrast. Although it is slightly similar to Candara fonts, Corbel’s lowercase I’s and ‘J’s have box dots instead of circles on Candara making them more assertive.
Presentation Font #7: Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a classic presentation font that gives a warm and friendly appeal to PowerPoint presentations like Helvetica. If you are looking for a font that best pairs with a simple font like Times New Roman, there’s none better than Gill Sans font.
An interesting feature of Gill Sans font is its multiple options and compatibility with various other fonts. It also contains legible prints that make it easy for your audience to read the presentation from a distance.
Presentation Font #8: Garamond
Garamond font was created in the 1500s by Claude Garamond, making it one of the oldest fonts. Rather than being a font itself, Garamond is a style of font that offers users many unique options such as Adobe Garamond, Monotype Garamond, and Garamond ITC.
Its commanding and well-structured characters provide a great contrast between the title and text, making them a perfect choice for body text.
Presentation Font #9: Futura
Futura is a popular go-to font for many brand logo designs. Created in 1927, Futura’s variants and versatility make it a popular don’t choice for PowerPoint presentations.
This typeface projects the feeling of adaptability and forwardness with a touch of modernity making it an ideal choice for headline and body text.
Presentation Font #10: Lato
Lato is a basic sans-serif font with a modern appeal and normal and bold weights that help offset the light in different designs and headings.
It is a versatile font with nine weights ranging from hairline and thin to light to bold, making it a perfect choice for any presentation. Lato works well as a sliding header or the main header and its ability to convey professionalism makes it a good choice for your pitch decks.
Presentation Font #11: Roboto
The Roboto typeface is a basic sans-serif font that is modern, easily recognizable, and approachable. It features professional, easy-to-read, and well-designed characters that you can use across different presentations. Roboto is most appropriate for body texts and pairs easily with other fonts.
Presentation Font #12: Century Gothic
Century Gothic is a sans serif typeface with a geometric style released by Monotype Imaging in 1991.
It was designed solely to compete with the Futura font and has a similar style to Futura but a larger x-height. It is mostly used in advertising, displays work, and is a great choice for headlines, and small quantities of text.
Presentation Font #13: Segoe
The Segoe font is Microsoft’s choice for its logo and other marketing materials since the days of Windows Vista.
Though it shares similarities with Verdana, its warm, inviting looks with wider space and heavier letters make this family of fonts a perfect choice for your presentation headers.
Presentation Font #14: Montserrat
Montserrat is a new geometric sans serif typeface designed by Julieta Ulanovsky, an Argentine graphic designer in 2011. Inspired by posters, and signed and painted windows from the first half of the twentieth century in the historic Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Montserrat is one of the popular font choices that fit well in headings and PowerPoint slides.
Its bold characters help your slide titles and headers to stand out to your audience, showing the audience what to expect each time you move to a new slide.
Presentation Font #15: Open Sans
Open Sans is a sans serif typeface designed in 2010 by Steve Matteson and is a commonly used font for body paragraphs due to its legibility. It was designed with open forms, neutral but friendly appearance. As a basic sans serif font, Open sans provides a perfect way to visualize the larger pieces of text you might include on a slide.
It has excellent legible characteristics in its letterforms and was optimized for print, web, and mobile interfaces.
Presentation Font #16: Abril Fatface
Abril Fatface is a slab serif font that has a bolder appearance that helps to grab the attention of the audience. It is a great font for creating eye-catching headlines on your presentation slides but keeps in mind that it should only be used with short headings or pieces of text.
A bold font like Abril Fatface can be hard to read if used in paragraphs or longer sentences. It pairs nicely with fonts like Helvetica or Verdana. A good alternative for this slab serif font alternative is Rockwell or a bold Trocchi.
Presentation Font #17: Helvetica
Helvetica is a widely used classic sans serif font that has retained its spot as a popular people’s choice for a good reason.
Developed by Swiss typeface designers, Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in 1957, Helvetica is an excellent font choice to use for headers and titles in live presentations where some of the audience might be far away from the front row (viewing from a distance.
To effectively communicate and create presentations that stand out, ensure that you use Helvetica as a bold text on headings and titles.
Presentation Font #18: League Spartan
League Spartan is a new simple, modern, and geometric sans serif font with a bold, uniform, and minimalistic nature that makes it a good font choice for headings and titles. League Spartan works best as a header in infographics or cartoon-style presentations with the sole purpose of converting difficult or complex information into easy-to-remember points.
On a general note, League Spartan’s simplicity makes it a great choice for infographics. However, keep in mind that using League Spartan in bold settings can make paragraphs and letter bodies heavy. So stick to the normal font when using it.
Presentation Font #19: Playfair Display
Playfair Display is an open-source chic and highly fashionable serif font designed by a Danish designer, Claus Eggers Sørensen who developed it off of Baskerville font.
It has a strong box with the majority of its character placed in between the baseline and X-height. Playfair Display has high contrast between its thick and thin lines making it an ideal font choice for logos, strong titles, and headers.
Presentation Font #20: Raleway
Raleway is an elegant sans serif typeface designed by Matt McInerney in a single thin weight with a display face that features both old style and lining numerals.
However, due to popular demand, it was given a heaver and italicized version for users. While the bold and light versions of Raleway have been designed to be very versatile, its italicized version help increases legibility with the off-centered markings.
Raleway font can be used anywhere from bold headers to lighter body texts in a presentation. Keep in mind that when written in bold and capitalized text, it makes a good fit for titles and header font that can easily capture the audience’s attention.
Conclusion
Presentation fonts like colors do the magic trick on the visual appeal of presentations. Without the right choice of fonts, your presentation may fall apart and fail to engage your audience during presentations.
Although there are no hard rules when it comes to choosing the right fonts for presentations, however, we have identified the top 20 most popular and professional fonts to choose from. Nonetheless, take your time researching more fonts that you can use beyond the ones we have identified above.
Good Luck!
