How to Use Typography in Presentation Design [PowerPoint Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Jul 15, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 27
While working on a product pitch deck for our client Brian, he asked us a question that made us pause for a second:
"How do I make sure the text doesn’t look like it’s yelling at my audience?"
Our Creative Director replied,
“Typography sets the tone before you say a word.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on dozens of decks involving typography in PowerPoint presentations throughout the year. And in that process, we’ve noticed one common challenge: most people treat type like decoration, not communication.
So, in this blog, we’ll walk you through how to make typography work for you, not against you. We’ll show you how to use type to guide attention, create visual hierarchy, and build trust slide by slide.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Typography Matters More Than You Think
Let’s be honest. Most people think typography is just about picking a “nice-looking” font. If it’s not Comic Sans, it’s probably fine. Right?
Wrong.
Typography is not decoration. It’s not the cherry on top. It’s the plate that holds your entire message together. If you mess it up, people won’t just ignore your slides — they’ll misunderstand them.
Let’s say you’re presenting quarterly results to a boardroom full of investors. You’ve got five minutes, maybe less, to land your point. If your slides are cluttered, the fonts are inconsistent, or your line spacing is off, guess what happens? People get distracted. They tune out. Or worse, they read the wrong thing first and miss the punchline entirely.
We’ve seen it happen more times than we’d like to admit.
Good typography does three things:
It directs attention.
Your audience doesn’t read slides. They scan. And they follow the path your typography sets. If your headings aren’t strong enough or your spacing doesn’t breathe, your main point disappears.
It builds credibility.
Sloppy type feels like a sloppy message. On the flip side, when your text is clean, aligned, and well-chosen, it signals clarity. People trust that.
It sets the tone.
A heavy font feels serious. A light font feels modern. Serif fonts feel traditional. Sans-serifs feel clean. The typeface you choose whispers something before you even begin to speak.
This isn’t about being a design snob. It’s about using every tool available to make your message land. And typography is one of the sharpest tools in the kit.
Now let’s get into how to actually use it well in PowerPoint.
How to Use Typography in PowerPoint Presentations
We’ll say it up front: PowerPoint gives you just enough control to do typography well. Not like Adobe Illustrator-level control, but enough to make your slides look sharp, intentional, and well-structured.
The trick is to know what to change, why it matters, and how to keep it consistent.
Let’s break it down step by step.
1. Pick Two Fonts. Max.
You do not need a type circus on your slides. One font for headings, one for body text. That’s it. Maybe one more if you're feeling wild, but two is the sweet spot.
Why?
Because when every slide uses different fonts, it feels chaotic. It breaks rhythm. Your audience gets distracted without even realizing why.
So, here’s what works:
Use a strong sans-serif font (like Helvetica, Calibri, or Segoe UI) for headlines. It’s clean, modern, and easy to scan.
Use a readable serif or lighter sans-serif font (like Georgia or Open Sans) for body text if you want a contrast. Or just stick to one versatile font family and vary weights (bold for headings, regular for body).
If you’re using your company’s brand fonts, even better. But make sure they’re optimized for screen and readable from a distance. Not all brand fonts play well in PowerPoint — especially on older systems.
2. Define a Clear Font Hierarchy
Every presentation has a rhythm. A headline. A sub-headline. Some bullets. Maybe a quote. And your typography should reflect that rhythm clearly.
We use something called a type scale, which is just a fancy way of saying: define specific sizes and weights for different types of text, and stick to them.
Here’s a simple example:
Headline – 40pt, Bold
Subheadline – 28pt, Semi-Bold
Body Text – 20pt, Regular
Footnotes or Sources – 14pt, Light
Once you define your type scale, use it religiously. Don’t shrink text randomly to fit things in. Don’t bold something just because you want it to stand out. Stay consistent, and your slides will look instantly more professional.
We’ve had clients tell us, “Something about this slide looks off but I can’t tell what.” Nine times out of ten, it’s inconsistent font sizing or weights.
3. Never Use the Default PowerPoint Fonts
PowerPoint defaults to Calibri or Arial, which makes every deck look like it came from 2009. These fonts aren’t “bad,” but they don’t say anything either. They’re neutral, and not in a good way.
The moment you switch to something like Montserrat, Lato, or Source Sans Pro, your slides get a visual upgrade with zero design effort. Just remember to embed the fonts when sharing the file or export as PDF, so they don’t get substituted on other machines.
4. Watch Your Line Spacing (a.k.a. Leading)
One of the most overlooked details in PowerPoint typography is line spacing. PowerPoint calls this "line spacing" in the Paragraph menu, and the default setting is often too tight.
If your lines of text are hugging each other like they’re stuck in an elevator, increase your spacing. We usually go with 1.2 to 1.5 line spacing for body text. Headings can get away with tighter spacing, but paragraphs need breathing room.
Good line spacing does two things:
It makes your slides more readable at a glance.
It reduces the visual clutter even if you have a lot of text.
Pro tip: Always preview your slides in “Slide Show” mode to check if your spacing holds up from a distance.
5. Alignment: Left is King
You are not designing a wedding invitation. Center-aligned body text is a readability killer.
Unless you’re working with a single word or phrase that you want to spotlight, stick to left-aligned text for everything else.
Left-aligned text creates a straight edge that’s easy for the eye to follow. It helps your audience scan faster. Right-aligned or justified text looks uneven and messy on slides — avoid it unless you have a very specific layout need.
6. Be Careful With All Caps and Italics
All caps can work well for short headlines, but never use them for body text. It feels like shouting and kills readability. Same goes for italics — use sparingly, and only for emphasis or quotes.
And please, no underlining. This isn’t 1998. Underlined text looks like a hyperlink, which breaks the visual language of your slides.
7. Use Color With Intention
Typography isn’t just font and size. It’s color too.
We’ve seen slides where the headline is red, the body is blue, and the quote is green. Unless your brand guide calls for it (and even then, tread carefully), this creates chaos.
Here’s a better approach:
Use one color for headings (your brand primary color or dark gray/black).
Use a neutral color for body text.
Use one accent color (max) for callouts or important words.
Make sure your color contrast is high enough. Light gray text on a white background looks sleek on your screen, but in a dimly lit boardroom it disappears. If in doubt, go darker.
8. Bullet Points: Keep It Clean
Bullet points are fine. PowerPoint uses them, your audience expects them, and they help organize ideas. But the default PowerPoint bullets are clunky and outdated.
Instead, use custom bullet symbols (like simple dots or icons) that align with your overall design. Keep bullet text short — 1 to 2 lines max. And use consistent indentation and spacing across all slides.
We like to set:
Bullet text at 20–24pt
0.5 to 0.75 line spacing between bullets
Minimal indentation so the bullets don’t drift into the middle of the slide
And no, not every list needs to be a bullet list. Use grids, icons, or visual layouts where possible to keep things fresh.
9. Set and Use Slide Masters
If you want your typography to stay consistent across the entire deck, don’t design each slide from scratch. Use Slide Masters in PowerPoint.
Slide Masters let you define styles once — headline font, body font, text boxes, alignment, spacing — and apply them across multiple layouts. This makes your workflow faster, and your slides way more cohesive.
We create custom master templates for every client we work with. It saves them hours of formatting and makes the final deck feel polished, not pieced together.
If you’re not using Slide Masters, you’re working too hard.
10. Typography is Not a Space-Filler
Here’s where most people go wrong. They use text to fill the slide. They try to explain everything on screen.
The best typography in presentations doesn’t say everything. It supports the speaker. It sets the tone. It guides attention to the one idea that matters on that slide.
So instead of asking, “What else should I add?”Ask yourself, “What can I remove?”
We’ve redesigned decks that went from 80-word paragraphs to seven-word headlines, and suddenly the whole message clicked.
White space isn’t empty. It’s intentional. It frames your text and makes it stronger.
11. Always Preview From the Back of the Room
Last tip. Before you finalize your deck, test it. Put your slides on full screen and step back. Literally.
If you're in the room, stand at the back and look at the slide from 10-15 feet away. Can you read it? Can you tell what the headline is? Does it feel clean or crowded?
Your typography decisions should hold up not just on your laptop, but in the room where it matters.
We call this the “back row test.” Pass it, and your slides are ready.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.