# Font size calculator: how big should slide text be? > Slide text should be at least 18 pt, and in a larger room it has to grow with the distance. For a 75 inch display seen from 6 meters (20 feet), body text needs about 24 pt, titles 36 pt and footnotes 16 pt. Enter your screen and your farthest seat to get the sizes for your room. - Source: https://ai-presentations.com/tools/font-size-calculator/ - Updated: 22 October 2026 - Language: English - German version: https://ai-presentations.com/de/tools/schriftgroessen-rechner/ Enter the size of the screen and how far the farthest person sits. You get the smallest title, body and footnote size in points, with a live preview. This is an interactive tool. Use it on the page: https://ai-presentations.com/tools/font-size-calculator/ ## How to use it 1. **Choose your screen.** Pick a common size or drag the slider to the diagonal of your screen, TV or projection. Your slide is treated as 16:9, the PowerPoint default. 2. **Set the distance of the farthest viewer.** Enter how far the last row sits from the screen, in meters or feet. Plan for the farthest person, not for the middle of the room. 3. **Plan for weaker eyesight if needed.** Switch it on for an older audience or a dim room. It adds 30 percent to every size. 4. **Read the sizes and the preview.** The three sizes are the smallest ones that still read from your distance. The mock slide shows how much text fits at that size. 5. **Check your own deck.** Enter the body size you use now to see how far away it can still be read. Then set the sizes in your slide master so every slide follows them. ## How it works The calculator turns the question into geometry. A PowerPoint slide is 13.333 by 7.5 inches, which is 960 by 540 points, so one point is the screen width divided by 960. A letter looks as large as the angle it covers at the eye, so the height it needs is the distance times that angle. Dividing by the cap height of a typical sans serif font, which we take as 70 percent of the font size, gives the size in points. The reading target is our own rule of thumb: capital letters should cover 15 arcminutes at the farthest seat for body text and 10 for footnotes. A letter at the limit of 20/20 vision covers 5 arcminutes, and comfortable reading needs a clear reserve above the smallest letter a person can identify, so we chose three times for body text. Titles are the larger of 1.4 times the body size and 28 pt, and weaker eyesight adds 30 percent. Three floors keep the result in line with common guidance. Body text never goes below 18 pt, which is what Microsoft's [accessibility guidance for PowerPoint](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/powerpoint/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities) asks for. Footnotes never go below 12 pt and titles never below 28 pt. Guy Kawasaki's [10-20-30 rule](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/rule-of-thumb/192718) asks for 30 pt in pitches; the calculator reaches that size for a large screen or distant seats and stays at 18 to 24 pt in a small room. Every size is rounded up to the next one in PowerPoint's font size list. The lines and characters per slide are a rough estimate. They assume a one-line title, margins of half an inch and an average character width of half the font size, and real layouts differ with the font. Treat the numbers as a guide, and test the deck on the real screen. For a deck that people read on their own screens instead of watching it, smaller text can work, and the [guide to fonts for presentations](/guides/best-fonts-for-presentations/) explains when. ## Brief for the AI A complete brief for the AI. Replace the [placeholders] with your facts. ```text Create a presentation for [audience] that will be shown on a 75 inch display, with the farthest viewer 6 meters away. Set body text to at least 24 pt, titles to at least 36 pt and footnotes to at least 16 pt. If text does not fit at these sizes, shorten it or split the slide instead of shrinking the font. Write every title as a full sentence that states the message. Use the figures in the attached [file]. ``` [Open this brief in the editor](https://app.slaide.de/registrieren?prompt=Create+a+presentation+for+%5Baudience%5D+that+will+be+shown+on+a+75+inch+display%2C+with+the+farthest+viewer+6+meters+away.+Set+body+text+to+at+least+24+pt%2C+titles+to+at+least+36+pt+and+footnotes+to+at+least+16+pt.+If+text+does+not+fit+at+these+sizes%2C+shorten+it+or+split+the+slide+instead+of+shrinking+the+font.+Write+every+title+as+a+full+sentence+that+states+the+message.+Use+the+figures+in+the+attached+%5Bfile%5D.&utm_source=ai-presentations.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tool%3Afont-size-calculator&utm_content=markdown) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the minimum font size for a presentation? 18 pt for body text, which is the floor in Microsoft's accessibility guidance for PowerPoint. In a larger room the minimum grows with the distance: a 75 inch display seen from 6 meters needs about 24 pt. Titles should be clearly larger than body text, from 28 pt up. ### What font size should I use on a projector? It depends on the screen and the farthest seat, not on the projector. A 120 inch projection seen from 10 meters (33 feet) needs about 24 pt for body text, and one seen from 14 meters (46 feet) about 32 pt. Enter your screen and your distance to get the sizes for your room. ### What font size works in a small meeting room or on a laptop? On a 14 inch laptop seen from 70 centimeters the geometry asks for less than 18 pt, so 18 pt is the floor. A 55 inch screen seen from 4 meters needs about 20 pt. Text below 18 pt only works in a deck that people read on their own screens. ### How big should slide titles be? At least 28 pt and about 1.4 times the body size. For 24 pt body text that is 36 pt. A full-sentence title often needs two lines, so cut words before you cut size. ### How do I check that the font is big enough for the back row? Show the slide on the real screen, sit in the farthest seat and read a footnote. If you cannot, the size is too small for the room. The calculator does the same with numbers: it works out how large a letter must look from your distance and converts that into points. ### Is the result a rule or an estimate? An estimate based on our own rule of thumb: capital letters should look three times as large as the smallest letter a person with normal eyesight can identify. Eyesight, light, the font and the contrast change that, so use the result as a minimum and test it in the room. ## Related pages - [Best fonts for presentations](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/best-fonts-for-presentations/): Which fonts work for presentations, how many to use, what size to set and how to stop fonts changing when a PowerPoint file opens on another computer. - [Presentation rules](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/presentation-rules/): What the 10-20-30, 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules say, where each one helps, where it misleads and which are worth following in a work deck. - [Slide master in PowerPoint](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/slide-master/): Open, edit and save the slide master in PowerPoint: fonts, colors, logo, layouts, placeholders and footers, with exact menu paths and fixes for common problems. - [Visual hierarchy](https://ai-presentations.com/glossary/visual-hierarchy/): Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements so the eye reads them in order of importance. Definition, the five signals and how to apply them on slides. - [White space](https://ai-presentations.com/glossary/white-space/): White space is the empty area around and between elements on a slide. Definition, why it improves clarity and how to use it, with examples and mistakes. - [Aspect ratio](https://ai-presentations.com/glossary/aspect-ratio/): The aspect ratio is the proportion of a slide's width to its height, such as 16:9 or 4:3. What each ratio means, its PowerPoint size and which one to choose. --- ai-presentations.com is published by Slaide (https://www.slaide.de), a sole proprietorship run by Nathalie Scholl in Heilbronn, Germany. [How this site is written, checked and corrected](https://ai-presentations.com/editorial-policy/).