Visuals - Flip Charts

B.O.B. was looking for guidelines for how big visual aids should be for a small audience of about 20 - 25 people? I will be using several visual aids on a flip-chart and want to make sure the graphics and text is the appropriate size. The thread was Visual Aids and ran in December 2005

Rod advised:
It depends on distance rather than audience numbers, and it's not a matter of size alone - thickness, colour, contrast, and lighting intensity are also important factors. Not all members of your audience will have equal visual acuity.

Red/green colour blindness is the most common, so try to avoid combinations where confusion of these colours might cause problems.

Remember, you're presenting a speech and not administering an eyesight test!

With an audience of 25, the distance from your flipchart to the back of the audience is likely to be around eight metres (25 feet). For this arrangement, my recommendation is to use a character height of at least 40mm (an inch and a half). Avoid thin point markers. Make it easy for your audience to see and understand your visual aids.

For graphics, make sure that the important features are clearly illustrated and avoid non-essential detail. Visuals are support for your message - they're not the message itself. You can explain detail. For example, on a graph, label an axis with a large 'P' rather than the word 'Price'.

Keep each visual simple. Rather use a larger number of visuals with less information on each. Use different colours to differentiate ideas, items on lists, etc.

You can check the effect by looking at your flipchart under incandescent lighting from a distance of eight metres. Fluorescent lighting is closer to daylight and doesn't have the same effect on colours as incandescent lighting. Colours at the red end of the spectrum (reds, oranges, and yellows) sometimes become difficult to read. If you can't read your text easily and instantly, change size, boldness, and/or colour.

Once you've planned your size and chosen your markers, if you need to go 'live' on your visuals, set out your chart in feint pencil on the chart beforehand. It's then a simple matter to write boldly over the pencilled letters (which are invisible to your audience).

Rick added:
Standard fluorescent lights are just as different from sun light as incandescent. Incandescent lights are heavy in the red end of the spectrum and light on the blues. Fluorescent lights are the opposite. Warm fluorescent lights have more reds (but they aren't as energy efficient). Full spectrum fluorescent lights do a good job of imitating the sun.

I haven't seen any problem seeing reds and oranges if they are dark enough. (Dark yellow is brown.) Printed material under fluorescent lights could be had to read because they don't have a lot of red component. Actually, the human eye can see the least detail in the blue range because we have the fewest blue receptors in our eyes. However if this is causing a problem with your graphics, reread Rod's paragraph on simple and bold.

From the 1984 edition of the _Technical_Presentations_ manual, the Supplement says, text should be half (13 mm) and inch for every 10' (3 m) away the back row is. It also suggest no more than three colors except for pictures. It suggests limiting text to seven lines of seven words.

John F suggested if you have a marker that has a short edge and a long edge, use the long edge for writing as this will produce thicker lines that are easier to read.

Joy warned never, never use yellow or other pastel colors. They can't be read more than a few feet away.



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Project 8: Visual Aids - technology

Visuals are more than gestures and PowerPoint.
To check out postings on either of these, use the labels below. You may also want to check out other references to Handouts and Flipcharts.

In July 2006 there was a discussion on vsual aids entitled Speech or Presentation.

Where technology is involved, Rod recalled one of the more valuable lessons concerning preparation. Ask yourself what are the things that can go wrong, and what will you do under each set of circumstances. Power failures, computer system failures, microphone failures, all kinds of equipment failure, noisy environments, minor flooding, contaminated food giving everyone 'the runs' during the afternoon sessions, VIPs arriving late or not showing up...

Many of these things may never happen, but knowing what you would do if they did provides a lot of confidence.

I didn't realise I was learning this lesson at the time (I was only 11 years old), but I was given a splendid example of this at a Scout camp. Patrick Moore, the astronomer, was coming to talk to us about the stars. Being in England, it was cloudy and wet and no stars were visible. We went into the barn, where Patrick told us that he's show us some slides of the stars. After the third slide, the projector lamp failed. Fifty years ago this entailed dismantling the projector to fit a new one, but Patrick had both a spare and the tools to change the lamp. About 10 minutes later, there was a huge lightning strike and all the power went off. Patrick produced a torch and a couple of candles. Our Scout leaders found some more candles, and Patrick held 30 small boys absolutely fascinated as he spoke to us about the stars. Even after all these years, I can still relive the experience. I thought I had only learnt something about the stars that evening. It took at least 20 years for me to realise that I'd learnt more than that.

The light output of the projector should be a function of image size (usually measured on the diagonal). It's also very strongly influenced by ambient light levels. If the lights can be dimmed in the conference room, well and good, but this often causes the speaker to disappear into the shadows if the projector lacks the necessary output illumination.

I remember one District conference held in the Grand Hall of a Golf Club. The room had a very high ceiling (about eleven feet at the sides, plus the apex) and was mostly glass facing the outdoors from floor to ceiling on two and a half sides. The thin vertical blinds only covered the bottom six feet to prevent outsiders from looking in. No problem at night, but during the day you might as well have been outside. The projectors and TV monitors that we planned to use couldn't be seen during the day, so we spent the entire previous night with ladders and trestles, taping black plastic sheeting over the glass.

The best option is to use a projector with a lot of illumination power so that it can project bright images above the ambient lighting in the room.

On the other side of the coin, too much power can wash out the projected images on a small screen. Modern projectors can adjust brightness and contrast within limits, but often this isn't enough and it may be necessary to adjust the original images in PowerPoint to suit the circumstances.

Whenever possible, check YOUR slides on the projector/screen combination in the room in which you will be presenting under the likely lighting conditions, and do this well ahead of your presentation so that you have time to make whatever changes are necessary to your slides or choice of equipment.


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The names "Toastmasters International", "Toastmasters" and the Toastmasters International emblem are trademarks protected in the United States, Canada and other countries where Toastmasters Clubs exist. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.