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| Black and white gives a formal impression |
When you wear black and white, you give an impression of being "formal", color coordination conveys a meaning.
If you want to give a nice research presentation at a research conference or a nice impression at a job interview, you probably better wear a neat suit because what you wear conveys the information that you are serious.
Although people would not judge by your appearance in an ideal world, people also get used to the norm in the current world. Basically, communication is for your conversation partner, not for you, so you better get along with what people get used to for smoother communication.
Here are a few detailed format rules for PowerPoint presentations. Each small detail conveys some information even if you are intended to do so or not. You better know it and design your powerpoint slide along with your intention:
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| It might be difficult to give a serious presentation with this tuxedo! You can buy this here for your next conference! |
(1) How Many Colors Will Be Needed?
Usually, you want to choose three colors. The first one is
the base, which is for the background. The second is the main, which could be a
text color or figure color. The last is the emphasis. You also want to balance
btw causality and classic. A monotone presentation might be too classic, but using
too many colors is messy.
(2) Black or White Background?
You can use both, but the base color must be consistent, i.e., white background figures in a black background slide are not consistent. Usually, in the powerpoint, the main color will be the opposite color of the base color, e.g., black will be the main color in a white background, and you will use black in the text.
It is always better not to use a different color in the background. The purpose of the presentation is to communicate through your research, not let your audience know your favorite color. For the same reason, slide transition most likely becomes nothing but only distraction. My point is you don’t try to get extra scores with cheap, superficial techniques.
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| Simply no to a slide transition for research presentation. But if you want to know it more, you can learn it in here |
(3) Which Font Will Be Used?
The rules for choosing a font are (1) it has to be
consistent throughout your slides and (2) when you use a black background, a sans type of font must be chosen (e.g., Helvetica), not a serif type of font (e.g.,
Times Roman).
If you are lazy, there is a shortcut to having a consistent font throughout your powerpoint slide.
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| In the projected image, the thin line in serif could be smeared out when you use a black background. You can learn about font choice more in here |
(4) What Will Be the Emphasis Color?
Choose one vivid color as the emphasis color in the
background (such as red in white). Consult with a color circle to decide the
color.
(5) Use the Emphasis Color Where You Want to Emphasize
A third color will attract people’s attention. Use this color
to create emphasis.
Good luck on your presentation with fancy details!
