Perhaps it’s just me, but sometimes I have a difficult time reading the presentations and policies that are given to me to review during a GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) verification. The chosen font size is just TOO small.

Case in point (and this is extreme): I recently did a verification where the client used five point type for their presentations. Bring up MS/Word and select the font size: you don’t even see 5 listed (or 6 or 7, either); meaning, you have to manually enter a “5” to get five point. I couldn’t read it very well, even with my corrected lenses.

Not sure how readable this is?

Take a document and set to font size to five, print, and try to read it; I suspect that you, too, will have a difficult time.

Anyway, I’m not trying to get anything definitive on this, but rather would like to see a general agreement that some font sizes are just

WAY TOO SMALL!

My default is 12 point, though I do use 11 for footnotes and embedded tables. Even my emails default to 12 pt.

I of course realize that the required information is extensive, and that 11 or 12 points would most likely not work for a table; but I think nine does.

Make the GIPS presentations readable

Hopefully, you want your clients and prospects to be able to read your GIPS presentations. If yes, then making them more readable is a goal you should have, and font size should factor in.