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Rules and Recommendations

All presentations should be made in a version of PowerPoint. If this poses a problem for you, you should contact Kathy Embler and she will provide you with an alternative solution.
Use one of the provided templates. In case you want to use one of your own making, make sure to CLEAR this with the AV consultants, they will mostly accept it or give you some good pointers on how it can be improved. Be sure to use a "landscape" layout.
Use the width to height aspect ratio of most graphics displays is 4:3 You will get this format by selecting the "File", "Page Setup", "on-screen-show".
Your company name and/or logo are only allowed to appear on the title page.
Also minimize the use of product trademarks. Occasionally, a speaker believes that a presentation may be a place to obtain some free advertising for a product or an organization. This is not allowed at DAC since this is a technical conference.
Do not use recurring text in headers and/or footers.
Do not use any sound effects.
Use large font sizes. 24 point and higher for regular text and 20 point for descriptive text (text with arrows, etc.)
Use only lines with a width of at least 2pts. (In more complicated graphs, 1.5 pts. is acceptable.)
When using a template of your own, remember that a dark background with lighter content is favorable for projection in large rooms. This is so because a light background over shines thinner lines and characters. The quality of projectors has improved enormously which allows good results with a white background and darker content. Even though that combination is now readable and clear, it tends to be hard on the eye. Non-serif fonts (e.g., Helvetica, Arial) have proven to project significantly better than the serif ones (e.g. Times Roman). We urge you to please try and avoid those.

Under certain circumstances we may have to deviate from these general suggestions, as is the case for those presentations that are to be videoed and will be published on the web. We will communicate those specific requirements to the respective presenters directly.
Make sure to choose a transition mode between each slide, but choose one which does not distract too much (e.g. dissolve, wipe right). Use only one type of transition throughout your presentation. Only consider using a different transition if you are moving onto a completely different subject.
Use clip-art only if it helps to state the point more effectively.
Use contrasting brightness levels, e.g., light-on-dark or dark-on-light, in all of your text and diagrams.
Stay away from using red text or lines on a dark blue background. This combination is very difficult to read as the contrasting brightness level is almost completely equal. For this reason it is also totally undistinguishable for the color blind.
Use the MS equation editor or MathType to make your formulas.