Graphics and Fonts: Best Practices??

[Ridge Kennedy]

Dear Friends,



I have been asked to prepare a training program for PowerPoint (Office 2003
on Win XP Pro workstations). The focus is on providing a structured
approach, building from an outline in Word using heading styles; using slide
and title masters, and generally trying to avoid a lot of the direct
formatting and disconnected elements that appear in the .ppt presentations
we see around here.



One of my challenges is to encourage our graphics/designer type people to
use appropriate graphic image formats. I've done some research in this
group's archives and developed the following information. I'd appreciate it
if anyone on the list would comment, correct and further educate me, so that
I can feel that I'm on terra firma when presenting this material.



**************



Including Images in a Presentation



Avoid using copy and paste to put images in a .ppt document, unless you plan
to open and edit the graphic image from inside .ppt. Best practice is to
Insert>Picture>From File.



Why: When you cut and paste this way you embed linking information in the
PowerPoint document which bloats the file and adds (probably minimally, but
a little??) to the possibility of document corruption.



Bitmap Images



The best file format to use is .png (Portable Network Graphic)

Pros: Colors are 24-bit and therefore more accurate, the format allows you
to choose a "transparent" color so you don't see boundary boxes. TIF files
produce boundary boxes, GIFs have transparency but lack the color depth.



(Is there a rule of thumb for sizing bitmap graphics - resolution in dpi or
something like that??)



Vector Images



EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile) or WMF (Windows metafile)



Pros: Compact, transparent (no boundary boxes), scaleable and highly
compatible with all Office applications. Drawbacks: Export filters from
Graphics programs can produce anomalies (boundary boxes, for example) and
may produce clumsy renderings (translate a circle into a bath comprised on
hundreds of tine straight line segments.)



Windows XP and Office 2003 support EMZ and WMZ files which are compressed
EMF and WMF files.



Using EPS graphics



General Recommendation: Do not use EPS in PowerPoint. My understanding is
that the chief objection to .eps is that the images may not be able to be
printed on non-postscript printers. In our shop, I've also seen that the
images are extremely large (logos currently in use range from 300 kb to
nearly 600 kb. Same images in .wmf are 8 to 17 kb. Artists still insist
that .eps is better).



If there is any rationale I can add to encourage *not* using .eps, I'd like
to hear it. This is an uphill battle.



Fonts



If you want to be sure fonts are available and audiences will see what you
want them see, stick with Times-Roman and Arial.



If you really feel it's important to have a decorative font, choose a
TrueType (or OpenType ??) fonts. If it is imperative to use an Adobe Type 1
font, create a graphic image of the type and place the graphic in your
presentation.



********************



Any information will be greatly appreciated.



Sincerely,



Ridge (in New Joisey)

 

[Echo S]

Hi, Ridge,

I think your "best practices" document is definitely headed in the right
direction. You've obviously done your homework!

A couple of things caught my eye.

1. Not sure what you mean by boundary boxes on the TIFs, but PPT will
recognize transparency in TIFs. (I still like PNGs better, though. I seem to
have less trouble with them, but I'll have to leave it to the others to
explain why!)

2. Fonts. While I agree with your recommendations, still, not all TT fonts
can be embedded. Here's some good info for you: Embedding fonts
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00076.htm

 

[Guest]

Just some things to consider about Times as a font.

Most of the complaints I receive about Times is that it is very hard to read
when projected. I have read, for example, it's not a good reading font for on
a computer screen (like designing Web sites). You may want to check on Web
site usability because some of the same issues Web sites have also apply to
PPT.

I also sat in on a VTC where slides were sent over the VTC. The slides were
simple text, with a title and bullets. All the fonts were the same size, but
the title was in Arial and the bullets were in Times. We could read the
title; it was, despite the blurriness of the transmission, readable. Times
really suffered, though. It tended to run together and was barely readable.

 

[Guest]

I would not recommend Times Roman. Stick with Arial, Verdana or Tahoma. The
most important thing is to choose a font that will be on every computer that
might be used for a presentation, and to ensure the font size is adequate for
legibility - at least 24 for text. Don't use capitals.

Terry

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

General agreement with most of what you've suggested. Quibbles:

The best file format to use is .png (Portable Network Graphic)

Pros: Colors are 24-bit and therefore more accurate, the format allows you
to choose a "transparent" color so you don't see boundary boxes. TIF files
produce boundary boxes, GIFs have transparency but lack the color depth.

JPGs are a good choice for photographic images; they can be smaller than PNGs.

(Is there a rule of thumb for sizing bitmap graphics - resolution in dpi or
something like that??)

Generally, ignore DPI, use pixels; set the image to the same size as the video
display that the presentations will be shown on. In other words, if your video
setup is typically 1024x768 (as it will be for most video projectors) that's
the size to make the images.

Using EPS graphics

General Recommendation: Do not use EPS in PowerPoint. My understanding is
that the chief objection to .eps is that the images may not be able to be
printed on non-postscript printers. In our shop, I've also seen that the
images are extremely large (logos currently in use range from 300 kb to
nearly 600 kb. Same images in .wmf are 8 to 17 kb. Artists still insist
that .eps is better).

They're right, except when it comes to using EPS in PPT, which does a generally
botch job of things. In most DTP apps and when printing to PS devices or
Acrobat, EPS are great.

If you really feel it's important to have a decorative font, choose a
TrueType (or OpenType ??) fonts.

One that permits font embedding, then be certain to embed the font. Otherwise,
it won't work.

 

[Ridge Kennedy]

Thank you all for sharing your experience and expertise. R.