Tips for a good

1
Tips for a good Journal club presentation

• If the room will be dark, consider a dark blue
  background with pale pastel text.
• Pale yellow and blue work well. White does not
  project well
• If the room will be bright, a pale background
  with dark text works well
• Overall, be careful with color. Use no more than
  2 colors/slide for text and not many more for
  graphics.
• Red should be reserved for creating emphasis as
  the eye is immediately drawn to red in a slide.
•  
• Always strive for large differences in contrast
  between text and background, otherwise the slide
  will be difficult to read
• The golden rule is 5 lines with 5 words/line
  for text slides
• Large blocks of text are to be avoided

2
This color is not bad for the title

• But
• As
• You
• Get
• Farther
• Down
• The page
• It is not so great

3
Bad example

• I saw a seminar a few weeks ago by a very famous
  scientist from UCSF
• It was astoundingly bad, primarily because the
  text was nearly completely unreadable due to the
  color scheme

• I saw a seminar a few weeks ago by a very famous
  scientist from UCSF
• It was astoundingly bad, primarily because the
  text was nearly completely unreadable due to the
  color scheme

4
Fonts and Backgrounds are important

• Simple black and white is very good for journal
  club presentations

• Other contrasty combinations work well too

• White on black is sometimes is too contrasty and
  does not always project well

• Pale pastels on a dark background project very
  nicely
• Yellow and blue work well, white does not

• Fonts make a big difference in clarity
  Trebuchet
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity Arial
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity
  Helvetica
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity Times
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity - Courier

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Selecting fonts

• Fonts make a big difference in clarity
  Trebuchet
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity Arial
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity
  Helvetica
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity Times
• Fonts make a big difference in clarity Courier
• Red text is to be avoided except for emphasis as
  it draws the eye
• Fluorescent colors are also to be avoided as they
  distract the audience
• Bold text does not project well when blown up as
  in a large meeting hall
• Bold white text is a complete disaster
• Particularly with serif fonts like Times

6
Use animations with extreme care

• Simple appears are ok

• As are sliding in from one part of the slide or
  another

• As are sliding in from one part of the slide or
  another

• As are sliding in from one part of the slide or
  another

• Getting too fancy is distracting to the audience

• Getting too fancy is distracting to the audience

• Getting too fancy is distracting to the audience

• Getting too fancy is distracting to the audience

• You get the idea, right?

7
Titles should be 28 to 32 point fonts

• Text should be either 24 point
• Or 20 point
• Or rarely 18 point but
• Not smaller
• Do not make images too small

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For more information

• An excellent Powerpoint tutorial can be found
  here http//gethelp.library.upenn.edu/workshops/bi
  omed/ppt/index.html
• Every person who has the need to convey
  information graphically, particularly
  quantitative information, needs to read
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  by Edward R. Tufte