CMW compiled the following fact sheet outlining ways to enhance the legibility of slides that need to be displayed within a video. We hope these guidelines create an awareness of the best practices for creating video-friendly PowerPoint slides.
Action & Title Safe Areas
When formatting slides for use in video, it is important to keep in mind the variations in the televisions and monitors that will be used to display them. Televisions with a picture tube have what is known as an overscan area, which is the area of the video image that is not visible within the frame of the screen. The size of the overscan area varies for every television; some will show more of the picture, while some show less. The most effective way to ensure that the important elements of your slides are visible inside your video no matter where it is being viewed is to utilize a guide within PowerPoint. Click here to download a PowerPoint template that indicates the standard “video-safe area”. All slide content should be formatted within the video-safe area. This will help ensure that no content gets cut off if the DVD is viewed on certain televisions and monitors.
Color
Televisions have a limited range of colors that can be correctly displayed on a picture tube. This color range is referred to as Broadcast Safe Colors. Overly saturated or very bright colors tend to flicker on the screen and appear to vibrate back and forth. This is particularly true of pure white, which should be replaced instead with a very light grey (e.g. R 235 G 235 B 235).
Thin lines
Many PowerPoint slide decks contain very thin lines as either design elements or as part of a chart or graph. On a video these lines will appear distorted or may even disappear. All lines or shapes should be no thinner than 3 pixels whenever possible.
Fonts
Generally speaking, the larger the font size, the more legible the content will be once the slide has been converted into a video. It is recommended that the slide copy should be at least font size 21. It is also recommended to only use sans-serif fonts, since even at larger sizes, serifs will still be too small and appear distorted. For slides with a great deal of content, it can be difficult to increase the font size and still keep everything within the video-safe area. The best solution, when possible, is to break those slides into multiple slides to ensure that all of the content is as legible as possible. Increasing font sizes may also make it very difficult to find room for references at the bottom of each slide. One possibility is to combine all of the references on their own slide(s) at the end of the video. This preserves the information and also it’s legibility.
Example
Below is a representation of a slide that it is poorly setup for video, and to the right is the video-safe formatted version of the slide.
Bad Slide |
Good Slide |
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If you have questions about how CMW can assist you with video-safe formatting PowerPoint slides, please call 800-737-1123 and ask to speak with a multimedia developer.
About Creative MediaWorks, Inc.
Creative MediaWorks is committed to being a full service graphics provider—offering creative design, digital imaging and multimedia services. The goal of each project is to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction while producing excellent quality graphic media on-time.
For over 20 years we’ve built a solid reputation as a trusted multimedia partner in the healthcare community. Creative MediaWorks specializes in the development and production of compelling visual graphics for healthcare meetings, which include: interactive CD/DVD-ROM programs, website development, mechanism of action animation, animated directional signage, multimedia presentations, scientific poster layout, large-format digital printing, dynamic PowerPoint presentations and more.
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44 South Main Street Pennington, NJ 08534 |
Phone: (800) 737-1123 Fax: (609) 737-6345 |
info@creativemediaworks.com
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