Designers love them. Capital letters look sleek, modern, powerful. And admittedly: in a logo or on a poster, that can work. But on a slide? Don’t do it.
You think: “If I put it in capitals, it’ll stand out more.” In reality, the opposite happens. You make it heavier.
Why capitals are slower to read
Research that has been going on for almost a century keeps reaching the same conclusion: we read text in capitals up to 10 per cent more slowly. Capital letters are all the same height and angular. They lack the tails and ascenders that make lower-case letters so recognisable. On top of that, almost everything we read is in lower case. That’s what our brain is trained for.
Look at the comparison: the text in lower case simply reads more smoothly.
Does your audience have to decode? Then you’ve lost them
On a slide, every second of reading is a second your audience isn’t listening to you. They’re deciphering, and meanwhile your story gets lost. A waste of your presentation.
Watch the tone
CAPITAL LETTERS COME ACROSS AS ANGRY. As if you’re shouting. Everyone knows it from that one email or comment online. Not the impression you want to make when you want to come across as clear, respectful and professional.
So when do you use them?
Sometimes. Very occasionally. For one or two words that really need to stand out: STOP, START HERE, NO. It works precisely because you rarely do it. When everything is shouting, nobody hears anything any more.
In short
Lower case gives calm. It makes your slides easier to read, so your audience has room to listen to you. No stumbling blocks, no puzzles.
Curious how readable your slides really are? With the Presentation Check, we take a fresh look at your presentation. In the training, you learn to design slides your audience understands at a glance.
