Font and placement for worship slides

[FocusMM]

Hi. I just wanted to find out from other churches what Font(s) they normally use for their worship song slides. Does one work better than the other? Do you use ALL CAPS? Do you change up the fonts for different songs?

Also, how many lines per slide do you use. We try to keep it at four lines or less. And do you center the lyrics or position as a lower third?

We use ProPresenter with motion backgrounds behind the lyrics. We had changed up the fonts a bit to appeal to the younger crowd and make it look more contemporary. But the Pastoral staff wants to change it back to a more standard font but has allowed me to get feedback from other churches. Thanks

DeWayne Towe
Media Director
New Life Christian Center

[[Admin] osborn4]

We stick with one font for all songs, Currently using Impact, but only because it goes with the current sermon series. I wouldn't choose to use it long term.

Previously Tahoma or Arial bold, Qlassik, X360 and some others. Simple, open, usually san serif. Black Chancery is a surpisingly readable font and looks great for the holidays.

I do try to match the song font with the text font that I use for the sermon slides.

All caps is harder to read, in general.

Usually 4 lines max, top center. But that's because short people need it at the top to see over the heads of the people in front. I would prefer center over top, but that just doesn't work logistically.

Left, center, right will vary depending on the background.

[Chkurgrnd]

Anivers or Delicious are the two fonts that I have used more recently. I think any of the fonts on the before mentioned page would work well for you presentation wise. Obviously it is your call. I agree that one font should be used for the entire service.

We are a more relaxed and casual feeling congregation and I like to reflect that in our worship. It goes with the style of worship as well (more Hillsong, Delirious, Matt Maher, Crowder type of sounds). We have Easy Worship and utilize it to the max.

The biggest stressing point I make to our team is the lines of the song have to make sense as they are singing them, and not leaving the first word of the next line at the end of the previous line. Usually a verse gets broken up into 2 screens. I know from years ago and bad Powerpoint that when you get too much text on a screen, people tend to freak out... we are to be about distraction free worship. 4-5 lines of text now... max.

All caps is not a good thing because it is too exciting and etiquette from online browsing will tell you it seems like it's angry or shouting and I'm with Joel in saying it is harder to read. Punctuation? That's your call but I tend not to.

I might be different too but if there is a 'yeah' or some extra word that doesn't need to be there, drop that puppy!

EW and ProPresenter both center the lyrics in the center of the screen, but dependent on the height of the screen(s) you may need to tweak. I always enjoy a centered group of lyrics .

[Mustangnaz]

For normal Sundays:

-Proper capitalization and punctuation
-Verdana (I believe) font, bold, 35-40 point
-2 point outline and shadow
-Centered horizontally and vertically
-4-6 lines

For special worship and youth services:
-Only deity capitalized, no punctuation
-Bohemian typewriter font, 30-35 point
-2 point outline, no shadow
-Usually left aligned, vertical based on background
-2-4 lines

[riafekim]

For me font depends on what service/song. I am always on the lookout for fonts that are easily readable.

Most of the time I center text but have left justified it a few times. I saw it at a different church once and thought it was cool. I very rarely go more than four lines.

In the end I just do not want to make the words and backgrounds a distraction. It is there to help them worship. If it distracts or takes away from the real reason the people are there then I've failed. I've heard of a large church using a black background with an arial font. Simple, but does the job.

[petereit]

Tahoma, bold with dropshadows
Try to keep to 3 or fewer lines per slide, but always follow the lyric flow
All text centered, vertical and horizontal
Initial cap on every word because Pastor likes it that way.

[KeckCreative]

Font Used: Swis721 Condensed Bold
Font Color: White with very thin black outline and drop Shadow
Position on screen: Center Horizontal / Center Vertical
# of Lines: Generally 4, but depending on song can be up to 6

I generally stick to the same font family for everything projected (lyrics, scripture text, announcements). For special services (i.e. Christmas, Good Friday, Easter) I will use different font families, but everything within that service stays within the same font family. Lyrics are projected over motion backgrounds (i.e. Digital Juice motion graphics mainly).

I would recommend against using all caps as someone mention previously, it can be hard to read.

I tend to leave the more artistic fonts to Announcement Titles. Actually I typically use Digital Juice Fonts or get creative with standard fonts in Photoshop.

[Gene]

Normal text for songs, Bible readings, prayers, etc. in Verdana (though the others listed are some good options).

Section titles are part of the service graphics (see my various service sets in the MXC), and use different fonts depending on the design of the graphics.

[FlamHappy]

Tahoma 62pt

[Dan Rector]

We use MediaShout to 640x480 screen (long story)
Standard font is Maiandra GD 34pt with outline and drop shadow (would use 40pt for equivalent PowerPoint slide)
Typically 3-6 lines per slide although have done as few as 1 or 2 and as many as 8 depending on lyric flow.
Typically centered (both horz and vert) - occasionally left aligned on certain backgrounds
No titles, no punctuation (for the most part), Capitalize first letter of each line.
CCLI info (with song title) on last slide in lower left - sort of 'music video' style
We will use different fonts (depending on series) for welcome, section, and sermon slides
Scripture generally Georgia italicized but may change with series as well depending on series font.

[superfly]

I usually use Arial Rounded MT because it's easy to read, the letters are bolder than normal fonts, but not properly bold, and 30pt. I also use dark backgrounds, white text with a black border, and a dark shadow on the text to make it stand out more (if your app can do it - we use OpenLP which can). I also align the text to the left, and vertically align it to the top, because the older folks in the congregation find it easier to read than if it's centred.

I agree with other posters - don't make it all caps, it's harder to read. In terms of punctuation, I stick to what is written in the lyrics of the song, but I generally make the first character of every line a capital.

[tpichler]

We typically use a 3 pixel black outline with Tahoma or Verdana, 54 point font at 1024x768 on a 120" screen. The teleprompting screen is 64 point Tahoma White on Black with no font outline and no background image (Same resolution and screen size).