Preparing Overheads for the Visual Presenter
You don't need acetate sheets any more! Use plain paper. Remember the overhead projection plate or screen is NOT a white board.

• Paper layout - landscape
  Materials need to be designed in a three (height) by four (length) ration to fit a television screen/monitor. This means margins should be approximately 1 ½ inch on all sides.
  Background paper can be white but sometimes that causes a glare. An ivory or light blue background works best.
• Font typestyles and sizes - Use a minimum size of 24 points. Use fonts that are sans serif, without lines on the ends of each letter, making it easier to read on a television screen. Examples: Helvetica, Arial, Eras, Geneva, Tahoma
• Colors that work -- Bright saturated colors are difficult to read on television or a computer screen. A dark blue background with yellow or white text looks the best. Here's a great chart to use as an example:

Source: Smaldino & Herring, Active Learning at a Distance, AECT, February 1997

Note: In the new PowerPoint Windows XP version, they provide you with a series of color schemes (background, letters, colors for charts) that are workable.

• Number of Words/Lines
  The number of words per line and the number of lines per page should be limited. To many letters and numbers on a television or computer screen make the information difficult to read. A good rule is to limit words to six per line and six lines per page. Information is best presented using "bullet" points or key words.
• Letters
  Use a combination of small and capital letters.

Preparing Graphics for PowerPoint or Display from Computer
Computer graphics, photographic slides usually have a two (height) by three (length) ratio. This means that the edges of the visual material will be cut off when it is converted to video.

The central 80 percent of a computer monitor is the "safe area" for transferring text and graphics to video. Keep all information in this area, or else it will be cut off when converted to video.