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A week or so ago, we started a discussion about some quick tips that make a world of difference when you’re projecting lyrics. These slides have the potential to work right alongside your music team to lead people into worship, but also have the power to distract your whole congregation if done incorrectly. Needless to say—it’s worth the time to make them right! Here’s three more simple steps that will keep your lyrics looking good!

Ditch The Slide Labels & Instructions

As both a designer and just a person who appreciates good visuals, this is a common problem that leaves me shaking my head every time that I see it. Sure, there is a certain amount of value that comes from including instructions and labels on your slides…but they look so ugly! Leave some room for your congregation to have some common sense and, trust me, they’ll figure out what’s going on without you having to spell out every detail.

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Consistent Font Sizes

One of the biggest questions that people ask me is what font size they should use on their slides. I typically prefer my lyrics as small as possible while not excluding those in the back of the room. This will vary from one church to the next based on screen size vs. room size, but I think it’s best to show as much background as possible. Whatever font size you choose, keep it consistent from slide-to-slide and song-to-song. Experiment and find out which size is right for your church and save it as a template that you can use each week. Jumping to different sizes can come off as messy and make you seem unprepared. (However, I do like to make a noticeable increase in font size on power slides that have a lot of emphasis in a song but not necessarily a lot of words. You’ll see this in the following tip.)

Avoid Repeating Lines

It’s all about keeping it simple. Why have two lines if one will suffice? Why have four if two is all you need? If a song has a repeating line, cut one of them from your slide and show off that background! Not only does it look a lot cleaner, it portrays that the song is really easy to jump in to for those just coming in.

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What are some other tips for better lyric slides?

 

Kendall Conner

What do you get when you combine production, design, and communications together with a passion for the Church? It turns out, this is the precise formula to make up Kendall Conner. For over 20 years, this Christ-led creative has been bridging the gap between media and ministry. In addition to serving as the creative pastor in his local church, he is the Chief of Operations for Church Motion Graphics, a ministry-focused design studio that serves thousands of houses of worship around the globe. Kendall specializes in equipping church media leaders and volunteers to utilize creativity in their services to share the hope of Jesus.

10 Comments

  • Jimmy says:

    I love this post. I couldn’t agree more. We import lyrics off CCLI and it drives me crazy that they insert repeats, misc, etc.

    I was at a tech conference this past weekend and a guy was telling everyone to use different fonts on each song. I cringed every time he said it. I think consistantcy across songs and slides put more focus on the words and less on the design. In the end you want to make it “easy” for them to sing along and taking away distractions is 90% of the battle.

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Jimmy. I have similar frustrations with CCLI! It’s hard to believe that they don’t fix that, right?

      I love your thoughts on the “why” of keeping the font consistent across all of your songs. You’ve got the right idea!

      Keep up the good work and be blessed! :)

    • Jason Dyba says:

      Changing fonts for each song is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard :-)

  • Dan Browne says:

    Love it bro. Completely agree. I also try to keep consistant backgrounds between our two worship sets if at all possible. Especially if one song is flowing to the next. On top of that I try to run with a “idea” for the backgrounds. We are currently doing a series Called Soaked: Jump In so with this specific series everything has a liquid element to it as it relates to the backgrounds, I’ve actually inclouded motions more then usual over stills. With other series or single messages I will use backgrounds that I’ve broken down into folders such as Grunge, Boken, Abstract, Texture, etc… with those images working together as a complete set rather than a random drop one here and go.

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Dan, this is a great philosophy for your backgrounds. We always try to keep a consistent theme on Sundays, too. It pains me to visit churches that jump from theme to theme as they change songs. It’s so distracting! Keep up the good work! :)

  • Steve John says:

    Quick question, what is the name of the font that you used in this example? I love how that font reads easy. Thanks!

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Hi, Steve. It’s Helvetic Neue Condensed Bold. We’ve been using it for quite some time now.

  • Justin says:

    Very helpful series!

    What do you think of coordinating the font used between the slides and bulletin? That is, would using the same font in both be a wise decision — or is that too much?

  • Samantha says:

    This is so true. Are you using motion graphics or still images in this post? Also are there any links?

    • Kendall Conner says:

      I always prefer motion graphics! :) The link to where you can buy them is right at the bottom of the post.

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