Presentation Matters

Does this ever work? On the Mac there’s no problem, because the Mac version of PowerPoint doesn’t even pretend to let you embed your fonts in the file. So if you are using a Mac presentation you just know that you need to stick to common fonts for the presentation.

On the PC side, however, there is an option to embed fonts. In theory, if you want to use an unusual font that you just know won’t be on the PC at the venue, you could use it happily on your PC, embed it and away you go.

Easy!

Not.

I tried it recently and used something like Gill Sans which made my slides look great on my PC laptop. I embedded the fonts, went to the conference and loaded up my presentation only to find some horrible serif font was showing (Times? Can’t remember). All my formatting was screwed and I had to spend a sweaty 20 minutes converting it to Arial.

I have tried this more than once now and it NEVER works!! Is it just me? I don’t think I am doing anything wrong, and it seems like such a great concept – I am just disappointed it doesn’t work.

UPDATE

I have just read a great post from Slides that Stick – where fonts on the Mac and PC are compared. It explains why Helvetica looks clean and attractive on the Mac yet looks somewhat indifferent on the PC. The author (Jan Schultink) hasn’t managed to create a workaround yet. I guess it boils down to using pedestrian fonts (Arial etc) if you want your presentation to look the “same” on a PC as it does on your Mac OR take your MacBook with you. This, sadly, is not an option for major conferences where everything is very tightly controlled.