presentation theme colors

30+ Stylish PowerPoint Color Schemes 2024

Color is an element that can make or break a design, and that rule holds true for presentation design as well. Choosing the right PowerPoint color scheme is super important.

But there’s one extra thing to consider – where your presentation will be given. A PowerPoint presentation can look quite different on a computer or tablet versus on a projected screen.

When it comes to selecting a PowerPoint color scheme, this is an important consideration. We’ve rounded nearly stylish PowerPoint color schemes as inspiration. While darker color schemes might look great close-up on screens, opt for lighter backgrounds (for enhanced readability) for projected presentations.

Note: The last color in each scheme is for the slide background.

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1. Blue, Gray Green & Orange

With a bright overall scheme that’s easy on the eyes, this color scheme can help you create a modern PowerPoint presentation that’s readable and friendly. You can even tweak the colors somewhat to better work with your brand, if necessary.

The best thing about this color palette is that it lends itself to plenty of different presentation styles and applications.

2. Violet Gradient

Using the first two colors noted above, you can create a dark-to-light monotone gradient that can make for a modern PowerPoint design style.

Take this concept and expand it to any other colors you like for your spin on this modern color scheme.

3. Mint and Orange

On paper, these colors don’t seem to blend all that well, but with the right application min and orange on a black background can work.

Use a pair of colors like this for presentations where you are trying to make a bold statement or impact. This concept is often great for trendy topics or ideas that are a little unconventional.

4. Bright Blue and Light

The brighter, the better! Bright blue color schemes are a major trend in PowerPoint design … and for good reason. The color combination creates a bright, light feel with easy readability. Those are two things that pretty much everyone wants in a presentation template design.

The other thing that’s great about a color scheme like this – which focuses on one color – is that it matches practically everything else in the design with ease. It’s great for image-heavy presentations or those where text elements are a key focal point.

5. Teal and Lime

Two colors that you might not expect to see paired create a classy combo that’s interesting and engaging. Both teal and lime are considered “new neutrals” and work with a variety of colors easily. (What’s somewhat unexpected is putting them together.)

What’s great about this PowerPoint color scheme is that the extra interest from the hues can help generate extra attention for slides. The template in the example also mixes and matches teal and green primary color blocks to keep it interesting from slide to slide.

6. Colorful Gradients

Gradients are a color trend that just keeps reinventing and resurfacing. In the latest iteration, gradients are bright with a lot of color. Designers are working across the color wheel for gradients that have more of a rainbow effect throughout the design, even if individual gradients are more subtle.

What you are likely to see is a variety of different gradients throughout a project with different colors, but maybe a dominant color to carry the theme. Use this for presentation designs that are meant to be more fun, lighter, and highly engaging.

7. Light Blue Minimal

This color scheme with light blue and a minimal aesthetic is super trendy and so easy to read. You can add a lot of style with a black-and-white style for images or a deep blue accent for header text.

While a pale blue is ideal here, you could also consider experimenting with other pastels and the same overall theme for a modern presentation design.

8. Bright with Dark Background

The combination of bright colors on a dark background can be fun and quite different from the traditional PowerPoint color schemes that are often on white or light backgrounds. This design style for a presentation is bold and engaging but can be a challenge if you aren’t comfortable with that much color.

When you use a style like this, it is important to think about the presentation environment to ensure that everything will look as intended. A design like this, for example, can work well on screens, but not as well on a projector or in a large room.

9. Navy and Orange

The navy and orange color combination is stylish and classic for presentation design. To add a fresh touch consider some of the effects such as the template above, with color blocking and overlays to add extra interest.

What makes this color combination pop is the element of contrast between a dark and a bright pair. The navy here is almost a neutral hue and works with almost any other design element.

10. Dark and Light Green

A modern take on a monotone color scheme involves using two similar colors that aren’t exactly tints and tones of one another. This pairing of dark green and light (almost minty) green does precisely that.

What’s nice about this color scheme is that the colors can be used almost interchangeably as primary elements or accents. It provides a lot of flexibility in the presentation design.

11. Bright Crystal Blue

Blue presentation color schemes will always be in style. The only thing that changes is the variance of the hue. This pair of blues – a bright crystal blue with a darker teal – works in almost the same way as the pair of greens above.

What’s nice about this color palette though is that the dark color is the accent here. That’s a modern twist on color design for presentations.

12. Blue and Yellow

Blue and yellow are classic pairings and can make for a striking presentation color combination. With a bright white background, these hues stand out in a major way.

What works here is the element of contrast. A darker blue with a brighter yellow creates an almost yin and yang effect with color. The only real caution is to take care with yellow on a white or light background with fonts or other light elements.

Teal is a personality-packed color choice. If you are looking for a bold statement with a PowerPoint template, start here.

While the above color scheme also includes a hint of yellow for accents, the teal color option is strong enough to stand alone. You could consider a tint or tone for a mono-look. It also pairs amazingly well with black-and-white images.

Teal is a fun color option that will provide a lot of practical use with your slide deck.

14. Bright Coral

This color scheme is one of those that you will either love or hate. The bright coral color is powerful and generates an immediate reaction.

It’s also quite trendy and will stand out from many of the other more bland PowerPoint colors that you may encounter. This is a great option for a startup that wants to present with a bang or a brand that has a similar color in its palette. It may not work so well for more traditional brands or those that are more conservative with their slide designs.

15. Dark Mode Colors

A dark mode color scheme might be the biggest trend in all of design right now, and that also applies to presentation design.

This purple and emerald color paired with black with white text looks amazing. It is sleek, modern, and has high visual appeal without having to use a lot of images.

This works best for digital presentations when you don’t have concerns about room lighting to worry about.

If you aren’t ready to jump into dark mode on your own, the Harber template above is a great start with nice color, gradients, and interesting shapes throughout the slide types.

16. Navy and Lime

A navy and lime combination is a modern take on colorful neutrals that are anything but boring.

These colors have a nice balance with a white or light background and are fairly easy to use. With so many brands already using blue in their base color palette, this is an option that works and is an extension of existing elements for many brands. (Use your blue and add the lime to it.)

Also, with this color combination, the idea of a minimal overall slide structure is nice so that the power of the colors and impact comes through. They work beside images in full color or black and white.

17. Modern Blue

When you aren’t planning to use brand colors – or maybe as a startup or independent contractor so you don’t have them yet – a modern color combination can add the right flair to a PowerPoint presentation.

The bright grayish-blue in the Lekro PowerPoint template – you can find it here – adds the right amount of color without overwhelming the content. Plus, subtle orange accents help guide the eye throughout this PowerPoint color scheme. https://elements.envato.com/lekro-powerpoint-presentation-67YW3M

18. Blackish and Yellow

While at first pass, black and yellow might seem like a harsh color combination, it can set the tone for a project that should emanate strength. This PowerPoint color scheme softens the harshness of the duo with a blackish color, that’s grayer and has a softer feel.

Pair this combo on a light background or with black and white images for a stylish, mod look.

19. Orange and White

A bright color can soften the harshness of a stark PowerPoint design. Especially when used for larger portions of the content area, such as background swatches or to help accent particular elements.

The Sprint template makes great use of color with a simple palette – orange and white with black text – but has slide ideas that incorporate the color throughout for something with a more “designed” look to it. (And if you aren’t a fan of the orange, change the color for use with this template to keep the modern feel.)

Purple presentations are in. The color, which was once avoided by many in design projects, has flourished with recent color trends.

Because more funky, bright colors are popular, a presentation with a purple focus can be acceptable for a variety of uses. The use in Batagor template has a modern design with a deep header in the featured color, which works best with images that aren’t incredibly bold in terms of color.

21. Blue-Green Gradients

Another trending item in color is the use of gradients. This trend can be applied to PowerPOint presentations as well.

Use a blue-to-green gradient for a soft and harmonious color scheme that won’t get in the way of content. Use each hue alone for accents and informational divots throughout the presentation design.

22. Black and White

Minimalism is a design trend that never goes away. A black-and-white (or gray) presentation screams class and sophistication.

It can also be easy to work with when you don’t want the color to get in the way of your message. And if a design can stand alone without color, you know it works.

23. Reds and Black

If you are designing a presentation for viewing on screens, such as desktops or tablets, a dark background with bright color accents and white text can work well. (This combination gets a lot trickier on projector displays.)

While reverse text and red aren’t always recommended, you can see from the Nova template that they can be a stunning combination. But note, this modern color scheme is best for specific content and audiences.

24. Blue and Pink

This color scheme is a spin on Pantone’s colors of the year from 2016. https://designshack.net/articles/graphics/how-to-use-the-pantone-color-of-the-year-in-design-projects/ The brighter, bolder versions of rose quartz and serenity and fun and sophisticated.

The unexpected combo sets the tone with a strong, trustworthy blue and adds softness with the paler pink. The colors work equally well with white or darker backgrounds.

25. Blue and Green

Blue and green accents can help a black or white background come to life in a presentation template. The colors here can work with either background style, based on how you plan to display your presentation.

What’s nice about these colors is that they are pretty neutral – since both are found in nature – and can be used with ease for design or text elements in a PowerPoint color scheme.

26. Beige and Gray

If you are looking for a softer color palette, consider beige and gray. These hues can work well on screens or projected, making them a versatile option.

The nice thing about such a neutral palette is that it gives content plenty of room, so that will be the true focus of the presentation.

27. Tints and Tones

While the purplish blue-gray in the Business PowerPoint Presentation template is stunning, it represents a greater trend in presentation design. Pick a color – maybe your dominant brand color – and use tints and tones for the presentation color scheme.

By mixing the color with white or black and gray, you’ll end up with a stunning set of color variations that match your messaging.

28. Bold Rainbow

While most of the color schemes featured here only include a color or two, bright color schemes with wider color variations are trending.

This distinct “rainbow style” can be somewhat difficult to use without rules for each color. Proceed with caution.

29. Bright Neutrals

Lime green is the brightest “neutral” you might ever use. A fun palette that’s versatile can be a solid foundation for a color palette.

It works exceptionally well in the Rouka PowerPoint template thanks to a pairing with a subtle gray background. Using a light, but not white, background can be great for screens and projected presentations because it takes away some of the harshness of a white background. The subtle coloring is easier on the eyes for reading and viewing.

30. Rich Browns

Browns aren’t often what comes to mind when thinking of building a color scheme, but rich browns can be a modern option.

Pair a neutral beige-brown with a darker color for an interesting contrast that works with almost any style of content.

31. Mint Green

Go super trendy with a modern and streamlined palette of mint green and gray on white. While this combination can have a minimal feel, it also adds a touch of funkiness to the design.

Add another hint of color – think orange – for extra accents.

32. Dark Gray and Blue

It doesn’t get more classy than a combination of grays and blues. This new take on a classic color scheme adds another brighter blue as well to pick up on modern trends.

Just be careful with text using a dark background such as this one. White is probably your best option for typography (and look for a font with thicker strokes!)

By Matt Moran January 3, 2024

22 Best PowerPoint Color Schemes to Make Your Presentation Stand Out in 2024

There’s nothing worse than an amateur PowerPoint presentation. If you’re going into a business meeting or sales pitch, your presentation slides should look as professional as you do. That’s why choosing the right color scheme is so important.

In this post, we’ll be sharing a roundup of 22 of the best PowerPoint color schemes you can use to make your presentation look the part. 

All the color schemes on this list have been incorporated into templates created by professional designers, so they’re super-stylish and guaranteed to make your slides stand out.

Whether you’re an educator looking for a color scheme that will keep your students engaged, or a business professional who wants to make an impact in your next meeting, you’re sure to find something suitable below.

Tips for Choosing the Best PowerPoint Color Schemes

Before we jump into the roundup, let’s talk about how to choose the right color scheme for your needs. Here are a few things to bear in mind when you’re comparing your options.

1. Use High Contrast Colors

When it comes to color, contrast is the number one most important consideration. Text, icons, and other important graphics on your slides need to be highly readable, so you need to make sure to use high contrast colors for these elements. 

In other words, use a color with a significantly different tone/brightness from your background. Certain colors are inherently lighter/darker than others. For example, blue is much darker than yellow. As such, these colors tend to pair well together.

I’d also recommend never combining warm and cold colors, like bright red on bright blue or vice versa. This is because human eyes have trouble distinguishing interactions between the different wavelengths, which causes eye fatigue.

2. Consider Color Associations (Psychology)

People have certain subconscious associations with different colors. For example, people associate blue with trust, calmness, and reliability, which makes it a safe choice for business presentations. 

Green is associated with nature, peace, and organic products, which might make it a good choice if you’re working on a sales pitch for an eco-friendly product. 

Black evokes sophistication, seriousness, evil, and mystery, so it can work just as well for spooky Halloween lesson PowerPoints as for high-end fashion brand presentations.

Try to choose a color scheme that fits the kind of associations you want to make. If you’re working on a brand PowerPoint presentation, a safe bet is to stick with your brand colors.

3. Always Use Gradients

In nature, colors rarely appear in solid blocks – they transition gradually from one hue to the next and blend into each other.  

Because we’re used to seeing colors naturally act this way, you should try to do the same in your PowerPoint presentations by blending colors into each other using gradients. Blocks of solid color can look amateurish. 

The good news is that all the templates on this list are designed by professionals who understand this and therefore use natural color gradients to create a professional look.

4. Choose the Right Color Scheme for Your Screen Type

Finally, don’t forget to consider the screen you plan on showcasing your PowerPoint presentation on. Darker color schemes will look good on close-up screens like tablets and desktops. However, lighter colors work better for projections as they tend to be more readable. 

In particular, never use red text if you’re projecting your presentation onto an external screen, as if any kind of unwanted ambient light/glare hits the screen, the color will wash out. In fact, it’s best to avoid any brightly colored text if you’re using a projector.

22 Best PowerPoint Color Schemes

Alright, let’s jump into the list. Below, we’ve listed our top 22 favorite PowerPoint templates with awesome color schemes.

1. Shades of Grey and Yellow – Our Top Pick

If you’re looking for a darker color scheme to use for a business presentation, you can’t go wrong with the Hornette template. Darker shades of grey and black strike a serious tone that befits a corporate environment, which is offset by bold yellow highlights. 

We like how the high contrast between the darker shades and the bold yellow can be used to direct the readers’ gaze to the most important elements on the page and make key messages stand out. 

The template itself includes 50 slides, including a gallery and portfolio slide, and features creative layouts and useful graphics. All graphics can be resized and edited.

2. Teal and White

Teal is a color that blends blue’s dependability with green’s optimism and healing properties. The result is a calming, balanced color that’s packed with personality. 

This multipurpose PowerPoint template uses teal alongside plenty of whitespaces and is perfect for business and personal presentations. All elements are fully editable, and if teal and white isn’t your style, you can pick another of the 5 included premade color schemes included. 

3. Shades of Black

Dark themes are very on-trend right now. If you want to add a touch of sophistication to your presentation or strike a serious tone, you can’t go wrong with this Halbert PowerPoint template. 

The all-black color scheme looks slick and elegant, and the white text is highly readable. This template works best when you don’t have to worry about room lighting, and might be a good fit for fashion presentations.

4. Color Fun

If you want something a little more upbeat, try this Color Fun PowerPoint template. It uses a wide color palette, which can help provide enough variety to better organize the different sections and elements on your slides. 

It’s bright, upbeat, and sets a positive tone – without being too overwhelming. The designer has toned down the colors just enough that they’re not distracting and won’t cause eye fatigue.

5. Monochromatic Blue

This Tortoise PPT template uses a mix of light and darker blues to create a stylish, professional look. The download includes 150 slides in total, split into 5 colors (30 slides per variation). All graphics included are fully editable and resizable in PowerPoint. 

6. Minimalist Light Colors

Bold and bright colors can work well but sometimes, it’s best to keep things simple. This clean and modern PowerPoint presentation follows the principle of minimalism, with very light shades like beige and pale green. It comes in a 1920x1080p format and includes a bunch of awesome icons and graphic elements that are fully vector editable.

7. Orange Burst

Orange is the most vibrant color in the color spectrum. It’s full of energy and life, so it’s perfect when you want to really get your audience excited about the contents of your presentation. This PowerPoint template from aqrstudio uses orange gradients alongside circular icons and graphics.

8. Yellows and Whites

If you’re looking for a yellow template, check out Soaring by Jumsoft. It features an energetic, professional design and includes 20 master slides in the standard 4:3 side, as well as charts, diagrams, tables, and other awesome visual elements. You can choose the layout that’s most suitable for your content and customize more or less everything in MS PowerPoint.

Pastels are the color trend of the year. These lighter, softer shades of colors have been embraced by younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z and have rapidly become associated with self-care for their ‘calming effect’. If you want to incorporate them into your PowerPoint color scheme, check out this pastel template by UnicodeID.

10. Organic Greens

Working on a food-related presentation for a culinary business? Or perhaps you’re putting together a pitch deck on an environmental topic? Either way, this organic green PowerPoint template has the perfect color scheme for you. It’s ideal for health and nature-related slides.

11. Bold Red and Black

The NOVA PowerPoint template by Artmonk uses a stunning red-on-black color scheme. It’s a bold color combination that packs a punch, so it’s great for presentations in which you’re trying to break the mold and make a statement. It’ll look great on screens but might not show up well on projector displays due to the dark background.

12. Bright Multicolor

Here’s another awesome multi-colored palette that’s upbeat and fun. Wide color palettes like this are great for large slide decks as they give you a lot of options to choose from. I can see this one working really well for creative agencies and personal portfolios. 

13. Lime and Dark Blue

Blue and yellow is a classic combination. This lime and dark blue template offers a new twist on that classic combo to make it a little more exciting. If you already use dark blue as part of your brand color palette, this is a great template to use.

14. Pretty Pink

The Pretty Pink color scheme is perfect for creating feminine and youthful PowerPoint presentations. This would be perfect for female-oriented business products, or presentations about beauty, pop culture, and more.

Teal is the perfect color scheme for exuding wealth and intelligence. In color psychology, green connotes wealth and money, whilst blue evokes intelligence. Teal is the perfect blend of the two colors, which makes it a great choice for financial presentations and documentation.

16. Dark with Splashes of Color

If you want a luxurious and ultra-modern color scheme, Black with splashes of color is just the ticket. The black creates a sleek and professional feel, whilst the bold and colorful highlights make the key information in your presentation pop.  

Coral is a bold and vivid color scheme perfect for making an impact on your presentations. This PowerPoint template utilizes coral as the background of each slide which helps the text and other visuals to really stand out.

18. Classic Blue and White

If you’re looking for a clean, modern, and professional color scheme for your PowerPoint presentations, you can’t go wrong with classic blue. The color scheme evokes professionalism and technological prowess and is perfect for tech businesses and startups. The Contact PowerPoint from Envato Elements is a great example of how this color scheme can be used.

19. Pinks and Purples

Pinks and Purples is a vibrant and feminine color scheme that would work perfectly for beauty brands and retail stores. The colors are bold and inviting and have a luxurious feel. This Beauty Care template from Envato Elements utilizes this color scheme as well as unique shapes to make for a visually interesting presentation.

20. Winter Watercolors

Winter Watercolors is a great color scheme for festive presentations. The muted, blue, and green cold tones are easy on the eye and evoke a homily feeling. This would be perfect for creating slideshows for Christmas parties or other winter-themed events.

21. Coral Highlights

Unlike the last coral color scheme we looked at, which used a coral background with white text, this template uses mostly white slide backgrounds. Coral is used much more sparingly to highlight key elements on the slide. This gives the PowerPoint a more relaxed and feminine touch.

22. Primary Colors

This Primary Colors color scheme is perfect for adding a vibrant touch to your presentations. This color scheme is a modern take on the classic colors of red, yellow and blue, and would be perfect for creating fun and engaging business presentations.

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Learn to Pick and Create Custom PowerPoint Color Schemes!

Picking your PowerPoint presentation color palette is no easy task! You must look for a color combination that complements each other and calls attention to the presentation’s content without being distracting. Picking a color scheme for your PowerPoint presentation is an art, and takes practice and design knowledge. Luckily, there are many online resources that will help you create and pick your next PowerPoint color palette.

PowerPoint offers some pre-made color palettes you can use when making your presentations. However, it’s difficult to come up with a color scheme on your own when you already have a base color on your mind, or you need something that will go well with your brand’s color scheme.

Quick Color Theory

Using colors is both a science and an art. Professional designers spend their whole careers learning how to best harmonize colors and to create specific visual effects for their audience. However, there are still some quick color theory tips everyone can learn and use.

First things first! The color wheel is your best friend when it comes to picking color schemes for your PowerPoint presentation. The color wheel was first invented by Isaac Newton and has been a basic design tool for centuries. Just like its name says, it organizes color hues around a circle in a way that shows the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors .

The color wheel is an outstanding tool to consider because it’s an easy way to pick colors that will work well together. For example, colors that are next to each other will make your presentation look harmonious. If you want to create a high-contrast, eye-catching PowerPoint color scheme, then you might want to consider using colors that are on opposite ends of the color wheel.

If this sounds too complicated, don’t worry! Luckily, nowadays there are dozens of different color palette generators. You’ll be able to choose a base color, and it’ll automatically generate a harmonious color scheme for your PowerPoint presentation.

Colors vs Hues

You can mix the colors of the color wheel to create a practically unlimited amount of colors. That’s why professional designers prefer to distinguish between the terms ‘color’ and ‘hue’.

Color is an umbrella or general term that encompasses every hue, tint, tone, or shade we see. Hue, on the other hand, refers to primary, secondary, or tertiary colors. Hue is the ‘family’ to which a specific color belongs to. This essentially means there are 12 hues out of millions of colors.

For example, the color pastel pink’s hue is red. This means that red is the ‘color family’ from which this color comes from. Learning to recognize a color’s hue can help you recreate the color at a later time and easily find colors that are a good match for it.

Tint, Tone, and Shade: What’s the Difference?

Hues form the base of any color mixture out there. The only exception would be black, white, and gray – these are simply referred to as colors and not as hues. Mixing any of these with any other color will help you create different tints, tones, and shades out of a color.

• Tint – when you add white to any hue, the resulting color is called a tint. It’s a paler version of the original hue, and are also called ‘pastel’ colors. Depending on the amount of white added, a tint can range from a slightly pale version of the original color all the way to almost white (negligible amount of base color).
• Tone – when you add gray to any color, the resulting color is called a tone. Gray is a 50-50 mixture of black and white and is considered a neutral color. When added to any color, it tones down the intensity and brightness of the original color.
• Shade – when you add black to any color, the resulting color is called a shade. A shade is the exact opposite of a tint as it turns the original color darker (instead of lighter). A shade can range from slightly darker all the way to almost black.

Warm and Cool Colors

When talking about color theory, it’s important to distinguish between warm and cool colors. For practical purposes, you can divide the color wheel between these two groups:

Warm colors: Magenta, Red, Vermilion, Orange, Amber, Yellow

Cool colors: Purple , Violet, Blue , Teal, Green, Chartreuse

I know that’s quite a list to remember, so here’s a rule of thumb about these two groups. Red, orange and yellow hues, tints, tones, and shades all fall under the WARM category. Purple, blue and green and all their corresponding tints, tones, and shades are all COOL colors.

Warm colors are usually vibrant and are great for conveying joy and energy. Cool colors, on the other side, are more calming, relaxing colors. Deciding on what side of the spectrum you want your presentation color scheme to fall under can do wonders to help you upgrade your slide design .

6 basic tips to work with color in your PowerPoint presentations

The right color scheme can make your presentation a smashing success while the wrong colors can, well, smash it (and your credibility) to pieces. To design a presentation slide deck that looks clean and professional , using the right color scheme is vital.

Hopefully, these 6 practical tips will help you pick more easily a great color scheme for your next presentation!

1. Don’t play it by ear!

Stick to a single color palette. Picking colors at random is a sure way to make a presentation that looks a little bit off. Color palettes are ways to group different colors that are proven to work. For example, monochromatic, complementary, and analogous color palettes.

Go to the next section to learn more about these different types of color palettes and how to apply them to your presentations.

2. Keep in simple

Unless you’re an experienced designer, you want to keep your color scheme simple. Just because you’ve got millions of colors to choose from doesn’t mean you should overthink it.

For beginners, a monochromatic color scheme is a good starting point. You simply can’t go wrong with this scheme because all possible color combinations are going to look good together on your slides. You’re basically just working off of one color and just using various tints, tones, or shades to make your slides look easy on the eyes.

For more advanced designers (who don’t consider themselves experts yet), a maximum of 4 colors is recommended. It will not be easy balancing 4 different colors that most likely belong to both warm and cool color categories. So, you’ve got your job cut out for you. A good rule of thumb to remember is to select a dominant color and just use the rest as supporting or accent colors.

3. Use the tools at your disposal!

You don’t need to do everything on your own. There are hundreds of online resources you can use to make your design process easier, and so goes for working with colors! Online color scheme generators are great if you’re not confident enough in your abilities to create one on your own.

You just have to pick a color, a type of color scheme, and you’ll immediately get other colors that will work well with it. In the next section, you’ll find some of my personal favorites color scheme generators and how to work with each of them.

Also, when working on PowerPoint presentation design, the eyedropper tool is your best friend. When your cursor turns into an eyedropper, just click on the color you want to use and PowerPoint will automatically change the color for you. It’ll not only make your life easier, but it’ll also help you guarantee that you are always working with the right colors.

4. Make sure you’re working with high contrast

Contrast is important in presentation slides. It is a must that your audience is able to read whatever is on your slides. You need to use a color scheme that will make your content stand out. Don’t use light colors for text if your presentations also have a light or white background.

Another word of caution: complementary colors do provide good contrast, but you don’t want to use these in text-based slides. Complementary colors are great for using them in different elements. However, since they belong to opposite extremes in the color wheel, overlapping them can be very grating to the eye! If you want to use bright, complementary colors, a neutral-color background like white, black, or grey will usually be the best option.

5. Follow the 60-30-10 rule

I’ve mentioned earlier in this article that when using 3 or more colors, you want to use 1 main color and the others as secondary or accent colors. Here’s a guideline most designers follow when they use 3 colors:

60% main color – commonly used as background color

30% secondary color – commonly used as shape fill

10% accent color – commonly used in text, borders, and outlines

Note that this is just a guideline. It doesn’t mean you need to strictly follow the 60-30-10 rule, but it’s a good idea nevertheless. If you’re using 4 or more colors, you can follow the same guideline, that is, use the main color in a large percentage of your slides and balance the rest of the colors.

6. Take your business and audience into account

Finally, there’s one last thing to remember when working with colors in presentations. And that is to focus on your brand ! Business presentations are in many ways your introduction card for your audience. It’s the first thing your potential clients and investors will see of you and your company, and it’s an excellent opportunity to make an impression. Keeping your presentation on-brand and making sure it follows your brand identity guidelines is always a great idea.

Your PowerPoint presentation slide design can convey much more than what you might imagine. Take an extra time to ask yourself: What’s your company’s mission and vision? What ideas and values do you want your audience to connect with your brand? Bright warm colors are best for conveying things like creativity, joy, and youthfulness. Cool colors, like blue, black and gray, will rather make your presentation look more sober, sleek, and elegant!

A final tip: You might also want to take into account who your audience is. You want to use colors that will resonate with their beliefs and their values. If you’re trying to persuade a group of highly successful businessmen, you don’t want to use a cartoony shade of yellow as they may not take you seriously. Likewise, you don’t want to use colors you think looks great, but may actually have a more sinister meaning to your audience. Say, for example, the color purple. It may be associated with wealth in many countries, but in Thailand and Brazil, purple represents death or mourning.

Making PowerPoint Color Palettes: 5 proven examples that work!

The first step is to pick what kind of color scheme you want for your PowerPoint presentation. Color schemes, or color palettes, are colors that have been grouped together as they work very well for graphic design. There are certain techniques to guarantee that two colors work well together. For example, choosing from exact opposites in the color wheel.

Here you’ll find 5 proven color schemes that will work every time, plus examples on how to use them in your PowerPoint presentation!

#1. Monochromatic PowerPoint Color Scheme

Monochromatic color palettes are easy to use because you use a single color hue. The only thing you need to do is to pick a base color (for example, blue) and add keep adding white, grey, or black in order to change it. Adding white will create different tints of blue. If you add grey, then you’ll get different kinds of tones . And if you add black, you’ll be creating different shades of your picked color.

Using a monochromatic color scheme in your PowerPoint is very easy. All the tints, tones, and shades will naturally work well with each other since they all come from the same color hue.

#2. Complementary PowerPoint Color Palette

If you’re looking for a high-contrast PowerPoint color scheme, then a complementary palette might be the one for you! Complementary colors are those that lay on exact opposite extremes of the color wheel. Each color has its exact opposite. For example, red and green, or blue and orange. These are colors that work well together, even if at first glance they have nothing in common.

Many brands use complementary colors because they make for bright and lively combinations, great to catch your audience’s attention from the get-go. However, complementary colors are best used in moderation. If you pick a color for a background, and its complementary pair for text, it’s probably going to be too bright and distracting. But complementary colors work great for details over a neutral background to give life and energy to your presentation.

#3. Analogous PowerPoint Color Scheme

If you want a colorful PowerPoint color scheme, but a complementary palette is too bright and bold for your tastes, analogous colors are the way to go! An analogous color scheme consists of three colors that are one next to each other in the color wheel. This makes for a really balanced and harmonious color scheme. PowerPoint presentations with this kind of color palette will probably look very relaxed and easy in the eyes.

#4. Triadic PowerPoint Color Palette

If you draw an equilateral triangle in a color wheel, the combination you’ll get is a triadic color scheme. This type of combination is great for lively combinations that are not as hard in the abrasive as a complementary one. A perfect example of this is the Burger King logo!

If you wish to use this kind of color scheme in PowerPoint, is best to pick one as your main color. Then you can use the other 2 triadic colors for details and extra elements to make them pop.

#5. Tetradic PowerPoint Color Palette

Finally, a tetradic color scheme is another bold and vibrant option. Is perfect for colorful presentations, and to highlight your creative and playful side. You’ll get a tetradic color palette by drawing a rectangle on your color wheel. Just like with the triadic color schemes for PowerPoint presentations, is better is you pick just once color as your main one, and keep the other as support.

3 Amazing Free PowerPoint Color Schemes Generators

There are many different online tools for creating color combinations. Here you’ll find some of the most popular ones that are also completely free and available online. All of these are perfect for creating an amazing PowerPoint color scheme that will fit your tastes and needs.

1. Adobe Color Wheel

This color scheme generator is amazing if you need various color options! According to your color base and setting preferences, it’ll offer you a 5 color-palette for your PowerPoint presentation. So if, for example, you pick a triadic color scheme, you’ll get 2 extra options that are still aligned with it.

It’s perfect for creating PowerPoint color schemes, as it’s very easy to use. You just need to manually drag the pointer within the color wheel until you find your base color of choice. On the left side, you’ll find all the color scheme options. And below the color wheel, you have the option to change the color codes (see next section). If you know the color code of your color base, you can also add it manually!

2. Paletton

Paletton is another great option for creating PowerPoint color schemes for your next presentation. Just like Adobe’s Color Wheel, you just need to drag the pointer across the color wheel to pick your base color. The best thing about Paletton is that it has a double color wheel. The outer color wheel has all the traditional color hues. And the inner one will allow you to pick more neatly the specific tint, grey, or shade you want of that color. It’s truly a lifesaver when looking for PowerPoint color schemes!

Above the color wheel, you’ll find the options for monochromatic, analogous, triadic, and tetradic palettes. To get the codes to use your color scheme in PowerPoint, there is the Tables/Export option. This will give you the color names in both Hex and RGB codes. If you already know the base color you’ll be using, you can add it manually in Hex code in the lower left side of the color wheel.

This one doesn’t have a color wheel, but it’s still a very interesting option for creating PowerPoint color schemes. This website creates random color palettes, which is great is you don’t have something specific in mind. The Generate button will automatically give you amazing color schemes, according to your determine settings. You can change between these (monochromatic, analogous, complementary, etc.) in the More option > Generate method . You can also pick the Explore option to see popular and trendy palettes!

But more importantly, the best feature Coolors offers is that you can create a color palette from a photo. Pick the camera option to upload or search for any image you like. Once it’s uploaded, click on the image’s colors to create your own customized palette!

You can also copy the hex code of your palette directly into your clipboard, which makes it really easy to use for creating a PowerPoint color scheme!

How to add a Customized PowerPoint Color Palette

Great! Now you have your perfect palette. But you have to add it as a PowerPoint color scheme. This might seem complicated at first, but it’s actually pretty easy, and once you’ve done, the color theme will be there, ready for you to use. This way, you won’t have to worry about looking color by color afterward!

Go to the Design ribbon > Variants section > More . Hover over Colors and you’ll get all the default PowerPoint color themes. Go to the end and click the Customize colors… options.

A “Create New Theme Colors” Window will appear. This is where you create your customized PowerPoint color scheme! Add all the colors you need to the Accent categories by clicking on each one’s arrow and selecting the More colors… option.

In the new “ Colors ” window you’ll get, add the color code of the PowerPoint color scheme you’ve come with thanks to the generators. For example, this beautiful rose-tones color palette from Coolors.

Once you copy-and-paste the hex code of each color into each accent category, you just need to name your custom PowerPoint color scheme! Save it, and next time you open the Colors option in the Design tab, you’ll see your custom-made PowerPoint color palettes.

Custom PowerPoint Design

Hopefully, these color scheme generators and quick tutorials will help you to do better and more personalized PowerPoint presentations. Design can be pretty tricky, so using a color palette can definitely make your life a little easier.

PowerPoint presentations play a huge role in what your audience’s first impression of you is going to be. You can use your PowerPoint design to convey a specific message or highlight your brand’s image. A good PowerPoint can help you not only as a visual aid for your information, but also to showcase creativity, professionalism, playfulness, trustworthiness, and so on!

However, making a good PowerPoint presentation takes time and effort. Just look at all these steps in order to get a nice, custom PowerPoint color scheme. If you want to forget about everything PowerPoint and still get amazing results, check out our professional PowerPoint design service ! Our designers here at 24Slides will make sure that you receive a presentation that will impress your audience, showcases your information, and conveys your brand essence.

Don’t believe it? You can try it for just $1 . Send our designers any slide you want, and you can be sure you’ll receive back a complete masterpiece!

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7 Things To Keep In Mind When Selecting The Best Colors For Your Presentation

• By Judhajit Sen
• May 8, 2024

The impact of colors on slide presentations is profound. Colors don’t just about make slides look pretty; they influence how your audience feels and understands your message. Different colors evoke various emotions and associations. For instance, red can express urgency or danger, while blue can evoke calmness and trust.

Choosing the right colors is crucial. For instance, a pitch to new clients might need exciting colors to energize them, while a presentation to long-standing investors might require stable and reassuring hues.

Professionalism is key. Amateurish presentations can tarnish your image. Your slides should match your professionalism, making color selection vital.

But it’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about conveying information effectively. High contrast between background and text aids readability, while low contrast can hinder comprehension. Striking the right balance ensures your audience grasps your message effortlessly.

Color choice impacts perception. It aids retention and enhances visual appeal, making your presentation memorable. Whether you’re restricted by brand colors or have the freedom to choose, picking the right palette is essential for success. So, ensure your color scheme reflects your message and captivates your audience, setting the tone for your presentation’s success.

Key Takeaways

• Branding : Incorporate your company’s color palette to maintain brand identity and convey a consistent message.
• Readability and Contrast : Prioritize high contrast between foreground and background colors for optimal device readability.
• The 60-30-10 Rule : Balance dominant, secondary, and accent colors using this straightforward guideline for harmonized color proportions.
• Color Psychology : Understand how colors evoke emotions and perceptions to convey your message strategically.
• Color Groups : Differentiate between warm and cool colors to avoid mixing across groups and prevent visual discomfort.
• Color Schemes : Choose color combinations that suit your audience and setting, prioritizing readability and consistency.
• The Color Wheel : Utilize this tool to grasp color relationships and categories, guiding your selection process for cohesive presentations.

Seven Things to Remember When Selecting the Best Colors for Your Next Presentation

Incorporating branding elements into presentations is vital for conveying a consistent message. Start with your company’s color palette, ensuring it complements the logo and brand colors. This cohesion reinforces brand recognition without overpowering the message. For instance, HubSpot subtly integrates its signature orange across presentation slides, maintaining brand identity without overt logos.

Even with predefined templates, understanding color selection remains crucial. You may need to choose colors for visuals to ensure text clarity, enhancing comprehension within brand guidelines.

Colors wield psychological influence, shaping perceptions and emotions, thus becoming integral to branding and marketing strategies.

Consistency reinforces professionalism. Use consistent color schemes, fonts, and layouts throughout presentations to strengthen your message, identity, and credibility. Aligning with brand colors fosters trust and familiarity, which is essential for audience engagement and recognition . Whether using predefined palettes or online tools, maintaining brand-aligned consistency enhances presentation effectiveness.

Readability and Contrast

Creating slides with optimal readability and contrast is crucial for effective communication. When choosing colors, prioritize high contrast between foreground graphics or text and the background to ensure clarity and visibility. This contrast not only enhances readability but also aids individuals with color blindness in distinguishing content.

Using light and dark contrasts within color groups, such as black text on a white background or white text on a navy background, enhances text visibility and readability. Avoid color combinations that strain the eyes or lack sufficient contrast, like neon green text on a dark background.

Incorporating neutral colors, such as gray or white, as background shades can further enhance readability and professionalism. Whether using dark or light backgrounds, ensure text colors contrast sharply for maximum impact.

Before finalizing your presentation, test your color choices for readability, accessibility, and compatibility across different devices and screens. Utilize contrast checker tools to measure contrast ratios and color blindness simulators to assess accessibility. By prioritizing readability and contrast, you can create visually engaging slides that effectively convey your message to all viewers.

The 60-30-10 Rule

The 60-30-10 rule is a straightforward guide for harmonizing colors in your slides. It advises using 60% of a dominant color, 30% secondary color, and 10% of an accent color. The dominant color serves as the backdrop or main hue. The secondary color complements or contrasts with the dominant one. The accent color adds emphasis to crucial elements like headings or graphs.

To apply this rule effectively, consider the rule of thirds. This principle advocates for distributing color proportions to create balance and visual interest. By allocating 60% to the dominant color, 30% to the secondary, and 10% to the accent, you establish hierarchy and contrast without overwhelming your audience. For instance, you might employ a light background (60%), dark text (30%), and vibrant highlights (10%) to achieve this balance.

Color Psychology

Understanding color psychology is essential when creating presentation slides. Colors evoke emotions and perceptions, influencing how your audience interprets your message. Different colors carry distinct meanings and associations, impacting your presentation’s overall mood and reception.

For instance, red signifies passion and urgency, while blue conveys trust and professionalism. Warm colors like red and orange grab attention, making them suitable for highlighting important points, while cool colors like green evoke a sense of trust and stability.

Cultural upbringing, brand exposure, and personal experiences influence individuals’ emotional responses to colors. Therefore, while color meanings provide guidance, they aren’t absolute. It’s crucial to consider your audience’s context when selecting colors for your slides.

Color psychology plays a crucial role in marketing and branding. It aligns colors with brand identity and messaging to evoke desired emotions and perceptions. By strategically using colors that resonate with your message and audience, you can enhance the effectiveness and impact of your presentation.

Color Groups

Colors can be divided into two main groups: warm and cool colors. Warm colors include reds, oranges, and yellows, which tend to stand out and attract attention. On the other hand, cool colors encompass greens, blues, and purples, which recede into the background and draw less attention.

It’s advisable to avoid mixing colors from these groups as they can create unpleasant contrasts. For instance, red text on a blue background or green text against an orange background can strain the eyes and make reading difficult.

Creating a color palette using colors from the same group is beneficial when designing presentation slides. For example, a combination of blue, purple, and gray blends harmoniously without competing for attention.

While warm and cool colors generally have distinct effects, they may vary depending on quantity and contrast. For instance, small black shapes on a white background may appear more noticeable due to the contrast, emphasizing the importance of considering these factors when combining colors on slides.

Neutral colors like white, black, and beige complement warm and cool colors and serve as versatile options for backgrounds or accents. However, caution should be exercised when crossing the warm/cool boundary, as mixing colors across these groups can lead to visual discomfort, especially for individuals with color blindness.

Utilizing PowerPoint themes can simplify color combinations, as theme colors are curated to complement each other and perform well in various presentation environments. By understanding color groups and their effects, presenters can create visually appealing slides that effectively convey their message while avoiding visual distractions and discomfort for the audience.

Color Schemes

A color scheme in presentations is a collection of colors that work well together, creating a pleasing and unified appearance. You can easily find suitable color palettes using online tools, or you can start with your logo or brand colors and build from there.

Professional presentations often use specific color combinations, such as gray and yellow or blue and white. These combos are seen as professional because they balance sophistication with energy and optimism or trustworthiness with clarity and authority, making them perfect for business settings.

Consider your presentation screen when choosing colors. Darker schemes suit close-up screens, while lighter ones are better for projections to ensure readability. Avoid bright colors, especially red text on projectors, as they wash out easily.

When choosing colors, think about your audience and setting. Neutral colors like blue, gray, and white are great for professional presentations, while brighter ones like yellow or green might work better for creative or educational topics. Always prioritize readability and avoid jarring color combinations.

Stick to your chosen color scheme throughout the presentation for consistency. Limit yourself to three or four colors to maintain cohesion and avoid distractions. Ensure enough contrast between text/graphics and the background for clarity.

The Color Wheel

The color wheel is a potent tool for understanding color relationships and categories. It features three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) , three secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) , and six tertiary colors (like red-orange or yellow-green) . This wheel helps in creating diverse color schemes for presentations.

Isaac Newton, at the age of 23, invented the color wheel. He realized how colors, perceived by humans, blend to form captivating combinations. His categorization included:

1. Primary Colors : Red, yellow, blue 2. Secondary Colors : Orange, green, violet (formed by mixing primary colors) 3. Tertiary Colors : Colors like red-orange or blue-violet (resulting from mixing primary and secondary colors)

Understanding the color wheel involves recognizing warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) and cool colors (blues, greens, violets). Warm colors evoke feelings of energy and brightness, while cool colors suggest calmness and serenity.

Three fundamental color combinations are essential:

1. Complementary Color Combinations : Colors opposite each other on the wheel create high contrast and catch attention. 2. Analogous Color Combinations : Colors adjacent on the wheel, offering balance with one color dominating the foreground and the other as the background. 3. Triadic Color Combinations : These vibrant and harmonious colors evenly spaced on the wheel form a dynamic contrast. Creating a triangle on the wheel reveals these three colors.

Selecting the Perfect Palette: Best Color Choices for Your Presentation

Choosing the right colors for your presentation is more than just making it visually appealing. It’s about conveying your message effectively and creating a lasting impression on your audience. From branding alignment to readability and psychological impact, here are seven essential considerations when selecting colors for your next presentation.

1. Branding : Ensure your color choices align with your brand identity to reinforce recognition and trust.

2. Readability and Contrast : Prioritize high contrast for readability and accessibility across different devices and screens.

3. The 60-30-10 Rule : Harmonize colors using this simple guide for balanced color proportions.

4. Color Psychology : Understand how colors influence emotions and perceptions to evoke the desired response from your audience.

5. Color Groups : Differentiate between warm and cool colors and use them strategically to create harmony and avoid visual discomfort.

6. Color Schemes : Explore various color combinations, considering your audience and setting, to maintain consistency and enhance readability.

7. The Color Wheel : Use this powerful tool to grasp color relationships and categories, guiding your selection process for cohesive and engaging presentations.

By mastering these fundamental principles, you can craft presentations that mesmerize your audience and convey your message.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How do colors impact presentations? Colors play a significant role in presentations, influencing the audience’s emotions and understanding. They can evoke various feelings and associations; for instance, red can convey urgency, while blue instills calmness and trust.

2. Why is choosing the right color important? Selecting suitable colors is crucial as they reflect professionalism and enhance message clarity. Different presentations require different color tones; for example, vibrant hues may energize new clients, while stable shades reassure long-term investors.

3. How can I ensure my presentation looks professional? Maintaining professionalism in presentations is vital for a positive image. Matching color schemes to your brand’s identity fosters consistency and credibility, reflecting your expertise.

4. What role does readability play in color selection? Readability is essential for effective communication. Optimal contrast between text and background aids clarity, ensuring your message is easily understood. Consistency in color usage enhances readability and professionalism throughout the presentation.

Enhance Your Presentation with Perfect Colors

Are you struggling to find the right colors for your presentations? Let Prezentium , the AI-powered business presentation service provider, be your guide. With our expertise in visual design and data science, we offer three specialized services tailored to your needs:

1. Overnight Presentations : Send us your requirements by 5:30 pm PST, and wake up to a stellar presentation delivered to your inbox by 9:30 am PST the next business day.

2. Prezentation Specialist : Our team of experts transforms your ideas and meeting minutes into captivating presentations. We also assist in creating new designs and templates.

3. Zenith Learning : Join our interactive communication workshops and training programs, combining structured problem-solving with visual storytelling for maximum impact.

Harness the power of color psychology and strategic color selection to elevate your presentations. Whether you need to align with your brand, prioritize readability and contrast, or master the 60-30-10 rule, Prezentium has you covered.

Don’t miss the opportunity to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression. Contact Prezentium today and take your presentations to the next level!

Why wait? Avail a complimentary 1-on-1 session with our presentation expert. See how other enterprise leaders are creating impactful presentations with us.

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Best PowerPoint Color Palettes and Color Themes for Presentations in 2024

This article is about PowerPoint color palettes and color themes. It is well known that a good color palette can completely change how your presentation looks. But if you’re someone who doesn’t have the time to pick out color palettes, and experiment, then don’t worry. This article will help you out. Here are some of our top picks of the best PowerPoint color themes that can transform your presentations from average to all the rage!

Psst… if you want the TLDR version of this article check out our Insta post (and follow us for more such posts):

View this post on Instagram A post shared by SlideBazaar | PowerPoint Templates (@slidebazaar)

Also, check out PowerPoint background , animated PowerPoint background , and confetti animation PowerPoint for a visually impressive touch.

Table of contents

Dark background and light text​ – red and black, blue, yellow and white color theme​, blue and white color palette, dark duotone gradient and light color combination, orange and white color theme, black and green color palette, blue – green gradient color scheme.

Here are the color codes for you to copy and paste: #292929 , #E33737 and #CCCBCB and here’s what a template made with that color scheme looks like:

This PowerPoint color theme gives your presentation a very sleek and stylish look. If you design your slide well, you’ll have a beautiful presentation that is legible, engaging and impactful. Red and black go really well together, and combining them with grey or white, gives your slides a professional touch. Feel free to copy the color codes try them out on your slides. You can also speed up the process by simply downloading the above template and then customizing it to your needs, which barely takes a few minutes.

Why and when to use this color scheme?​

• Black and white is a sophisticated color combination but when combined with a contrasting and striking accent color, the overall deck will look sleek, stylish, and engaging.​
• The color red is chosen as the accent color here due to its effect of getting the audience excited about an idea. Moreover this color prompts the user to take quick actions, hence this color can be used to highlight areas which need to be quickly acted upon.​
• Use this accent color to call attention to specific phrases or points which require more focus.

Here are the color codes: #21325E , #F1D00A , and #F0F0F0 . This is what a PowerPoint presentation with that color scheme would look like:

This color scheme for PowerPoint gives your presentations a very refined, professional look. The combination of the three colors, navy blue, yellow, and white looks really good. This type of PowerPoint color palette is perfect for corporate presentations. Try it out today by using the color codes, or by using the PowerPoint template above.

Why and when to use this particular color scheme? ​

• For a lively presentation that also serves the purpose of being executive, a combination of navy blue, yellow and white colors work well.​
• The color yellow is an attention grabber and should be used in small doses to highlight important facts, dates, statistics, etc.​
• These decks will be useful in presenting business reports of start-up brands or other budding companies.

The color codes are #113F67 ​, #226597 ​, and #F3F9FB . Here’s what those colors would look like in a PowerPoint presentation.​

This is yet another PowerPoint color palette that’s perfect for professional presentations. Blue and white is a very common color pattern, often used in business presentations. It’s fairly simple to use, and can really beautify your presentation. Download the template above to get started.

Why and when to use this particular color scheme?

• One of the most commonly used color schemes in PowerPoint, especially by various business corporations for their presentations, this colour scheme is a no-nonsense choice and can be powerful when used effectively.
• According to color psychology, this blue exudes traits like loyalty and trust, hence this theme can be used while presenting company profiles or business plans.
• Tech businesses and start-up brands also go with templates with this chromatic pattern for their presentations.

The color codes are: #C00000 – #113F67 and #FFFFFF . Here’s what your presentation will look like with this color scheme:

This particular PowerPoint color palette gives your presentations a modern, even futuristic vibe, depending on how you use it. Personally I am not a fan of gradient colors, but if executed well like in this template above, it can look absolutely gorgeous. So if you’re interested in this color palette for your next presentation, download this template and customize it to your needs.

• Duotones gradient themes are in trend right now due to the modern vibe it gives off.
• Using gradients in PowerPoint backgrounds are more beneficial in accommodating contrasting hues without going over the top.
• These colors create a strong impression yet makes the overall presentation look legible and comprehensive. Balance the colors well while creating the deck without making the gradient overpowering for the eyes.

The color codes are #F96D00 , #F2F2F2 , and #222831 and here’s what a PowerPoint slide would look like with that color theme:

This beautiful PowerPoint color palette consists of a combination of orange, white and black. You can make some amazing slide designs with these colors, I mean just look at the slides above! Orange is a great color to use since it’s not a very common color you see in presentations. Your presentation will definitely stand out, and be engaging with this color scheme.

• Orange is deemed to be a color which stimulates our creative juices. To mellow down the bright hue, it is paired with white and black.
• If the end goal is to try something new or engage in creative activities, orange color focused template should be used for your presentation.
• Usually used in informal scenarios, this is apt for educational purposes mostly, or for group activities.

The color codes are #191A19 , #4E9F3D – #1E5128 , and #FFFFFF . Here’s a PowerPoint template with the color scheme:

This PowerPoint color palette is great for technology related presentations. It is already giving me low-key matrix vibes. You can also use this color scheme for finance related presentations.

• This color combination is mainly seen while presenting topics related to gaming, technology, and other futuristic elements. Alternatively, they are also useful in presenting finance reports when used in balance with white.
• Green encourages participation of audience when used with the right color pair. For interactive queries or sessions, use this color theme.

The color codes are #4F98CA – #50D890 , and #FFFFFF . Here’s what a PowerPoint presentation would look like with this color scheme:

Another color scheme for PowerPoint which is great for corporate and business related presentations. The colors are mild, and are pleasing to the eyes. It’s a great theme if you want a simple design for your presentation.

• Blue-Green gradient is another favorite theme among corporates and tech related brands while creating presentations.
• This color scheme is pleasant to the eyes, and is efficient in delivering calculated messages when combined with black color text.
• While being presented on a screen, these colors ensure that the audience doesn’t get lethargic, and makes it easier to process.

There you go, some of our top picks for the best PowerPoint color palette for your presentations! We hope this article was helpful, and you’re able to create stunning presentations with it. We’ll be updating this article with more color schemes, and templates, so make sure you bookmark this page and come back later! Until next time, cheers!

At SlideBazaar, we help you create engaging and memorable presentations. Choose from our collection of professional templates or opt for our custom design services for a personalized touch. Your presentations deserve to be elevated to new heights, and we’re here to help you achieve just that!

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How to change theme colors in PowerPoint

• Written by: Richard Goring
• Categories: PowerPoint design , PowerPoint productivity
• Comments: 13

PowerPoint color themes are key to make your presentation look consistent and professional. Using theme colors correctly also makes it easy to change colors and branding later. And understanding how they work means that you can avoid the annoying way that slides change and get messed up when you copy them from one deck to another. Keep scrolling to find out how you can create your own color theme in PowerPoint, and apply it across Office.

First up, what is a PowerPoint color theme? The color theme sets the colors you find in the PowerPoint color palette, under the fill color or text color options. The main colors are set by you, and then PowerPoint creates the various shades underneath each one.

Set PowerPoint theme colors

How do you change theme colors in PowerPoint? To choose your color theme, go to the Design tab on the ribbon, and under Variants, select Colors, which will show you a range of options built into PowerPoint.

If you don’t want any of the pre-set color themes, you can choose the Customize Colors option down at the bottom of the list, which brings up a pop-up box that allows you to alter any of the colors. Select any of the color scheme options, and then More Colors at the bottom, which allows you to choose anything from the color wheel, or input your own RGB values, which may be useful if you want to use your brand colors in your presentation.

Once you’ve chosen the colors you want, you can save the theme with any name you like. That saved theme can be applied to any other PowerPoint deck, but will also be accessible across all Office programs, so you can set the same color themes in Word, Excel, or Outlook.

• In Word , go to the Design tab on the ribbon, then Colors, just to the right of centre.
• In Excel , go to the Page Layout tab in the ribbon, and you’ll find Colors on the far left.
• In Outlook , compose a new message, then go to the Options tab on the ribbon, with Colors also on the far left.

You’ve got to love the way the same thing is hidden in so many different places! Maybe they’re like horcruxes, or something?

If you’ve downloaded BrightCarbon’s very own free PowerPoint add-in BrightSlide it is even simpler to set theme colors. Head to the BrightSlide tab and under the File & Master section select Theme Colors. The Theme Color editor will appear allowing you to set colors based on HEX, RGB or HSL values or using a color picker. It also give you a live preview of the palette and allows you to import and edit spot colors.

There are three categories of color to select in your theme:

Accent colors: The six Accent colors are the ones that are most useful in the PowerPoint color scheme. These are the main colors you’ll use in your presentation, and all Charts and SmartArt will be created using these colors by default.

Text/Background colors: The four options here don’t have to be dark and light, as the name suggests, but it’s recommended, as PowerPoint will use these colors as the background color for charts, and the text color for labels, assuming that you’ve chosen dark and light colors. It’s changing these to colors that are too dark or too light that can cause problems with poor contrast ratios , so try to keep them light and dark colors as appropriate, which will help with your overall PowerPoint color scheme effectiveness and accessibility. You’ll also be able to access these four colors in the theme colors menus.

PowerPoint hyperlink color: If you want to choose a special PowerPoint hyperlink color, and a color for links that have been clicked, you can, but the colors won’t appear in the theme color menus anywhere, so don’t think you can sneak another two colors into the PowerPoint color palette for general use.

PowerPoint color picker

Selecting specific RGB spot colors can be tricky, but using a color picker really helps – either to ensure you’re perfectly matching your brand colors, or picking colors from an image, webpage, or document that you like. A color picker tool will provide the precise RGB value for any color you can find, which you can then input to create your new presentation color scheme. There’s the PowerPoint color picker – built into the program – available from Office 2013 and later, which you can find by selecting an object (anything works for this), then going to the Home tab on the ribbon, over to Shape Fill on the right-hand side, and then selecting the Eyedropper option half way down the menu. Irritatingly, this PowerPoint color picker only works to pick colors within the PowerPoint slide window, so if you have an object on the slide already (like a logo), or can paste an image into it, then it’s fine.

If not, there are plenty of great separate color picker tools that will allow you to pick up the RGB value of any color on your screen. There are loads of them, from incredibly feature-laden, to super simple pick a color, get an RGB code. Simple generally works for me, so things like Pixie and Color Cop are both good.

Theme vs standard vs spot colors

Now that you’ve set your theme colors, use them. Consistent use of the same family of colors makes your presentation look better and not too garish, which your audience and branding department will thank you for. It also means, as mentioned before, that if you change the theme colors, then all your content will change automatically to match. Not just on a single slide, but through your entire presentation. So if you change brand, or need to repurpose slides to fit a different theme, say for a conference, using the main theme colors, and all the various shades, will save you a lot of time.

If you copy and paste your slides into a different deck, with a different presentation color scheme, then your slides will also change to match the new PowerPoint color scheme, making everything consistent, with no additional effort. Incidentally, if you’ve ever copied slides into a new deck and wondered why everything has changed, this is why.

The standard colors are different to the PowerPoint theme colors, in that they’re fixed, and won’t change automatically when you apply a new theme or copy slides into a new deck. This can be advantageous. Say you want to use color to convey meaning – using red for negative and green for positive is a common combination. Here, you’d want to use the standard colors, rather than theme colors, as the colors won’t change, and your meaning won’t get lost if things alter in the future.

The same is true with spot colors. Sometimes you may want to add a specific color into the slide. This might reflect another brand in the deck for instance. In any of the color menus, you can choose More Fill or Outline Colors from the drop-down menu, which reveals the same color options pop-up as before, allowing you to choose anything from the color wheel, or a specific RGB value. Again, these spot colors won’t change if you alter your color theme, so just be aware of any overuse.

My colleague Amy put together some thoughts on how to use color to make presentations more effective , which is also worth considering.

Transparency, gradients, glows, and other effects

The presentation color scheme also applies to the many other formatting effects in PowerPoint. If you choose a theme color for a shape, and then make it semi-transparent, the shape will change color if you apply a new theme in the future. Likewise, if you add a gradient fill using only theme colors, then the gradient will change if the theme is altered. Other effects like glow and the shadow functions, or the change fill or font color emphasis animation effects also use the theme colors by default (although you can select spot colors).

In general, we recommend using the PowerPoint theme colors wherever possible to promote consistency in everything that you’re doing. But it’s worth noting how far the color theme reaches, so that if it changes, and something goes wrong with your slide, you can more easily identify why.

Try creating your own PowerPoint color scheme. And, while you’re at it, you can download a free PowerPoint toolkit from BrightCarbon, all of which is programmed using a rather nice color theme, which you can use, or alter, and watch as all the objects change color to suit your tastes.

Richard Goring

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Fantastic, tutorial. Brilliant again! 👌🏽

Thanks Mike! Much appreciated. Glad you liked it.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for sharing the information. I really appreciate it.

This is EXACTLY what I have been searching for, thanks Richard! I have been trying to get my SmartArt colour changed for hours now. Thank you

Really useful thank you. Is there a way to share defined themes – so that other people can import/use the same theme rather than everyone having to set it up themselves?

Hi Toby, yes you can, using either a Template or Theme file. In PowerPoint, do all the adjustments you want, then go to File > Save As, and then under the file name box, in the drop down menu (which by default says ‘PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)’, choose either ‘PowerPoint Template (*.potx)’ or ‘Office Theme (*.thmx)’. Both of these save all the colour/font settings you’ve made and can be opened as a blank presentation or applied to an existing presentation.

If you open the file as a new presentation, there are some differences: Office Theme – this will save all the colours/fonts/styles and slide masters/layouts. PowerPoint Template – this will save everything the Office Theme does, but also any custom slides you’ve made in the presentation. So it can be a good starting point for a deck if you always use the same core set of slides.

If you want to apply either to an existing document: In PowerPoint – Go to the Design tab > Themes > Drop down arrow > Browse for Themes In Word – Go to the Design tab > Themes > Browse for Themes In Excel – Go to the Page Layout tab > Themes > Browse for Themes

P.S. One day I’ll teach Joby all this. 😉

thank you Richard – that’s really helpful! i’ll use the office theme as that will (presumably) apply to Word, Excel and PPT…which is just what we need! Good luck with Joby though…i think that will be a lot harder to do than creating a bespoke colour palette. haha

I wish I understood this:

If you want to apply either to an existing document: In PowerPoint – Go to the Design tab > Themes > Drop down arrow > Browse for Themes In Word – Go to the Design tab > Themes > Browse for Themes In Excel – Go to the Page Layout tab > Themes > Browse for Themes

When I browse for Theme (to pick up the new Theme with new colors put out by the brand dept), it just imports the master pages from the Theme doc (and the colors), rather than making the new color palette available to the existing pages. But all the existing pages still have the old theme/masters applied. I hope I don’t have to re-apply masters to hundreds of pages! To avoid that, right now, it looks like I need to rebuild the colors in the existing masters, I can’t seem to get the new color palette into the old masters. 🙁 That’s all I want! I can’t seem to find exactly how to do this one arcane thing anywhere on the web! And who knows, maybe it’s because I’m on Mac. There are so many features in PPT that are not available on Mac.

Hi Richard, I’ve encountered something in PowerPoint I never have before, and I wondered if you ever saw it yourself … I program the colors to the brand appropriate rob/hex & when I go back into it I see the color values have been adjusted to a similar mix, but it’s not what I specified. Do you have any insight?

I LIKE MY FRIEND RICHARD!

?? Why so difficult ?? 1 click with one of the 28 free features of the free iSlide PowerPoint add- in! Just check it out here : https://islide-powerpoint.com/en/support/tips-ideas/15-minutes-en   Actually, personally I think this tool should be mandatory for everyone! Or even better, bought and integrated by Microsoft itself!

This website was… how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Appreciate it!

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• Presentations

How to Quickly Change Theme Colors in PowerPoint

It's simple to change theme colors in PowerPoint when you know where to look!

In this tutorial, we'll walk through how to change theme color in PowerPoint, quickly and easily. We'll also look at how you can create your own PPT theme colors and easily use them in your PowerPoint presentation.

What Are PowerPoint Theme Colors?

PowerPoint theme colors are like a color scheme that you can apply to your PowerPoint presentation. Different themes might have different color options (or variants) to choose from. You can reuse this color scheme, and even use your theme in other Microsoft applications, like Microsoft Word and Excel.

PowerPoint theme colors consist of the following:

• Background Colors . These are the background colors defined for your theme. PowerPoint themes include two dark colors and two light colors.
• Accent Colors . PowerPoint themes include six accent colors, which can be applied throughout your presentation. For example, design elements like charts will often draw upon these set colors.
• Hyperlink Colors . These colors are used for hyperlinks. You can define a color for both active hyperlinks and visited hyperlinks.

PowerPoint comes with multiple themes included, so you can easily change theme colors in PowerPoint without installing or downloading anything special. Let's walk through that process now.

How to Change Theme Color in PowerPoint

Are you ready to learn how to change theme color in PowerPoint? Use this step-by-step guide:

First, let's start with a new PowerPoint presentation. 

Instead of choosing a blank presentation, let's choose one of PowerPoint's default themes. This theme is called Madison and it's included with Microsoft PowerPoint.

Once you've selected your theme, just click Create to get started.

So, here we are in our new PowerPoint presentation document. Let's click on the Design tab to look at our color options.

This particular theme has four different color schemes we can choose from. We can find them over on the right hand side. These are our variants.

Click on one of the thumbnails to change the colors. In this example, I've changed the color scheme from the green variant to the blue one. 

Themes that come with variants make it really easy to change the color scheme. But what if you want to do something custom? 

Click on the arrow under our variants. This will give us three options:

• Color . This is where we can change and customize our theme colors.
• Fonts . This is where we can change the fonts used in our presentation.
• Background Style . Here, we can change which background color we're using from our theme or open the Format Background panel.

Let's choose the Colors menu. You'll see that there's a whole host of reset colors we could choose from if we'd like to. Simply click on a preset from the list, if you'd like to use any of these options.

However, you'll want to do something custom. Let's choose Customize Colors from this list, instead.

Remember that list of the different parts of PowerPoint theme colors? Well, here's that list again! We can change the four preset background colors, six accent colors, and two hyperlink colors. 

So, for example, let's change Background Dark 2 to a different color. It's currently a dark blue. Click on the colored square to get started.

Now, PowerPoint gives us a choice of color pickers we can use to select our new color. Choose between the options at the top of the Colors dialog box. You can choose between:

• Color Wheel . A wheel of color with a value (light and dark) slider
• Color Sliders . A variety of sliders (grayscale, RGB, CMYK, and HSB) use can use for selecting very precise colors. This is a good choice for specific colors, like working with hex codes or specific values.
• Color Palettes . Choose colors from preset palettes. You can also import additional palettes if you'd like to.
• Image Palettes . Import an image and use it to select specific colors from the image itself.
• Pencils . A simple and straightforward color picker that looks like a box of colored pencils.

Try toggling between all of them, to see which color picker you prefer. For this example, I chose a green color to test it out.

Once you've made your choice, you can close the Colors dialog box. 

Then, we'll need to save our customized theme colors. Give your custom theme colors a name, and then click Save . 

You'll notice that my background has turned from dark blue to green, now that my custom theme colors are applied. 

How to Use Your Own Custom Theme Colors in PowerPoint

Now that we've explored how to change theme colors in PowerPoint, let's talk about how to create and customize your own. The default themes are nice, but sometimes you might want really different PPT theme colors for your project.

Let's say you're working with a PowerPoint template that doesn't have variant color themes included. Are we stuck with what we've got? Nope, you can customize it! Let's test this out with this professional PowerPoint presentation design:

This PowerPoint template actually comes with some variant color schemes installed. That makes things really simple. 

Just like before, select the Design tab. Then on the right hand side, we can choose between four color Variants here. Here's the PowerPoint theme by default:

And here's what it looks like with one of the alternate theme colors:

But let's say none of these colors are what you're looking for, or maybe your PowerPoint template doesn't come with variants. What do we do then?

Click on the arrow drop-down, on the color variants. 

Then choose Colors > Customize Colors to get started.

Remember these options from earlier in this walk-through? The same ideas apply.

Take note of the Preview on the right hand side of the Create Theme Colors dialog box. We can use this to help us guide our color choices.

So, in this theme there's two green colors used to create a gradient throughout the presentation. We can see that the theme designer assigned that to Accent 1 and Accent 2 in this color list.

We can click on the colors in the Create Theme Colors dialog box to customize them. In this case, I changed Accent 1 to a pink color and Accent 2 to a blue color. You could change these colors to anything you prefer.

Once you're happy with your selections, give your custom color scheme a name and click Save to keep and apply it.

Check out the result! Now, my PowerPoint template has a custom theme color applied. You could take these ideas and apply them in any way that best suits your presentation.

How to Choose PPT Theme Colors for Your PowerPoint Presentation

Now that you know how to change theme color in PowerPoint, which colors should you choose for your presentation? You want to make sure your colors make sense for your goals and for your brand.

• Do you have existing branding to reference? If so, it may be a good idea to use the colors that are part of your branding. For example, if your business has a logo that is green, consider using that same green, for consistency.
• What do you want to visually communicate? Consider making a list of keywords. That can help you select colors if you don't already have a color scheme in mind. For example, a word like "exciting" might warrant more vibrant colors.

If you're looking for some extra ideas and insights, check out this article for some additional, PowerPoint design ideas:

Now, let's explore some tips you can consider when selecting your theme colors in PowerPoint:

1. Color Is Very Communicative

Check out this colorful PowerPoint theme. What does it visually communicate to you? While it's very cheerful and vibrant, it might not be the best choice for something like a bank or a law firm. That's because it looks a bit too informal and playful. These would be industries where we'd want to evoke emotions like trust, stability, and formality.

However, this could be a great choice for something like a clothing brand or even a portfolio. Your color choices can really speak volumes.

2. Consider the Atmosphere You're Creating

PowerPoint presentations contain multiple slides. They should be visually related. Your theme needs to be consistent. In this consistency, we have the ability to create atmosphere. Check out this example. The color scheme is in black and white, and it makes for a classy, sophisticated look. The photography looks even more glamorous, and the theme color plays an important role in that. 

3. Contrast Can Make a Big Impact

In this example, we've got a black and white theme with just a pop of light blue. Notice that the saturation this one is lower. This means that instead of white against black (which would be high contrast), we have white against a soft gray. The blue is also a soft, muted blue. Instead of a dramatic look, like the previous example, we've left with something softer and more relaxing. 

4. Saturation Can Bring a Lot of Energy

This next example also has a single, spot color, but notice how vibrant and saturated it is. It's a saturated purple that blends into magenta. It's really bright and it has high contrast against the white background. This is a much different feeling, isn't it? It has high energy. The gradient also brings a sleek, stylish look. 

5. Hue Can Also Make a Big Impact

This example is also vibrant but notice how the hue makes a big difference. Hue refers to the color or shade. Orange is potentially warmer and sunnier than the purple example. Notice how playful this presentation is. While both this presentation and the previous one have vibrant PPT theme colors, the atmosphere is certainly different. Shape plays a big role here too. It might be easy to associate these shapes with oranges, for example. 

Check Out More PowerPoint Theme Design Inspiration

Looking for even more PowerPoint design inspiration? Check out these collections from Envato Tuts+. There are many of designs to check out to help inspire your project. You can even download some of them for free!

The Best Source for PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Use)

If you're looking for PowerPoint templates, Envato Elements is an amazing resource to have on your side. One, low monthly price gets you access to thousands of PowerPoint templates. They're all included, all for one price. 

There are thousands of PowerPoint design templates included , all with unlimited access. This means you can download, use, and customize any theme you'd like with no limits. In addition, you get access to a huge library assets , including everything from fonts, stock photos, graphics, and much more. It's all included.

So, if you're looking to jump start your project, consider checking out Envato Elements . It's an awesome resource and a cost effective way to get your project finished quickly.

Learn More About Microsoft PowerPoint

Looking to learn more about working with Microsoft PowerPoint? Make sure to check out the collection of free PowerPoint tutorials, here at Envato Tuts+. There's no better time than today to dig and learn more. Why not check out a PowerPoint tutorial today?

Which Theme Colors in PowerPoint Will You Choose?

So, which PPT theme colors are perfect for your project? It can take some time and experimentation to figure out just the right theme to work for your presentation. Now that you know how to change theme color in PowerPoint, consider trying a few different ones out!

Remember, if you need some design help, consider checking out the library of PowerPoint presentation templates on Envato Elements. It's a quick and easy way to get your project done and done well. Keep in mind that all of the templates are customizable too. You can change up the PPT theme colors in any way you like.

Good luck with your PowerPoint presentation!

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Add color and design to your slides with Themes

PowerPoint provides a variety of design themes —including coordinated color schemes, backgrounds, font styles, and placement of placeholders. 

Note:  You may be looking to learn about using the Design Ideas button available for Microsoft 365 subscribers. See about  working with PowerPoint Designer.

Pick a theme when you do File > New to start a new presentation.

These built-in themes are great for widescreen (16:9) and standard screen (4:3) presentations. To change the slide size, see Change the size of your slides .

If offered, choose a color variation, and then select  Create .

If you change your mind, you can always change the theme or variant later on the Design tab.

On the Design tab, pick a theme with the colors, fonts, and effects that you like.

To apply a different color variation of a particular theme, in the Variants group, pick a variant.  

Note:  If you don't see any variants, it could be because you're using a custom theme, an older theme designed for earlier versions of PowerPoint, or because you imported some slides from another presentation with an older or custom theme.

Select right arrow in the Variants group to select different  Colors , Fonts , Effects , or Background Styles and choose from built-in options or customize your own.

Create and save a custom theme

You can create a custom theme by modifying an existing theme or by starting from scratch with a blank presentation.

Select your first slide, and then on the Design tab, select the down arrow in the Variants group.

Select  Colors , Fonts , Effects , or Background Styles and choose from built-in options or customize your own.

When you're done customizing styles, select the down arrow in the Themes group, and then select  Save Current Theme .

Give your theme a name, and select Save . By default, it is save with your other PowerPoint themes and will be available in the Themes group under a Custom header.

Use or create themes in PowerPoint

Combining colors in PowerPoint: Mistakes to avoid .

Apply multiple themes to a presentation

Apply a template to your presentation

What is color theory?

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• Slidesgo School
• Presentation Tips

How to Choose the Best Colors for Your Presentations

Choosing colors for your slides is one of the most crucial decisions to make even before starting to work on your Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation. Basically, colors can help you communicate your message more effectively, and they can evoke many different feelings or emotions on your audience. Keep reading to find out how to choose the best colors for your presentation.

Color Psychology

Color temperature, neutral colors, some tips on how to combine colors for your presentation.

It is quite important to know how your audience perceives colors and how these are related to the topic you are talking about. For example, red can convey a sense of danger, but also love, depending on the context. These are some common connotations that colors have on humans:

• Red : Evokes passion and strength. It’s an energetic and intense color that represents power and determination. It’s usually present on brands related to beverages, gaming and the automotive industry.
• Blue : Conveys a sense of security, confidence, responsibility and calmness. It is the most representative color in the healthcare and finance industries.
• Yellow : This is the color of light. It is a stimulating color that conveys energy, awakes awareness and inspires creativity. You will surely find yellow in the food industry.
• Green : Undeniably, the color of nature, life and peace. This color conveys a sense of growth, balance and stability like no other. It is quite popular among big companies, especially in the energy and tech industries.
• White : It is considered the color of purity and innocence. When it comes to evoking simplicity, optimism and integrity, white is second to none. You will find it for sure in the healthcare industry, and it is making its way in the fashion industry too.
• Black : Even though black is associated with seriousness, it can also convey elegance and courage. Fashion brands and luxury products make good use this color.

Take note of these hints and try to choose the color that best suits your message. For example, in this template we used bright and vibrant colors, since it is an education-themed presentation intended for a very young audience:

Click here to download this template

Colors can be grouped based on their temperature , which can be determined by comparing any given color in the visible spectrum with the light that a black body would emit when heated at a specified temperature. So, according to their temperature, there are two groups of colors: 

• Warm colors: These range from red and orange to yellow. If you click on the footer below, you will be able to download one of our templates containing a palette full of warm colors:

• Cool colors: These range from green and blue to violet. Again, click on the footer below to download a template that contains cool colors:

Mainly, warm colors convey energy and optimism—it is like giving a warm reception to your audience. On the other hand, cool colors are associated with serenity and confidence, just what you need to have a peaceful time.

White, black and all shades of gray are not considered neither warm nor cool. In fact, we could say colors such as creme, beige, brown and others with a high amount of gray are also neutral.  These colors do not influence others and can actually be combined with almost any color. As for their meaning, elegance and solemnity are pretty much guaranteed, as well as harmony.  When combining neutral colors, oftentimes a bright color is used as a contrast to highlight certain elements and bring them to the front. Click on the footer below to see an example of a presentation with neutral colors: 

To achieve a nice color harmony and make the most of it, it is best if you take into account the color wheel, as well as the concepts of hue, saturation and brightness. 

• Hue is basically what differentiates a color from any other. Thanks to the hue, you can visually tell apart red from blue, for example.
• Brightness defines how light or dark a hue is, and measures its capacity to reflect white light.
• Saturation refers to how pure a hue is. A saturated color appears more vivid, whereas a desaturated color looks duller.

With this information, you can make several different combinations: 

• Monochromatic Color Scheme: These contain different shades of a single color. Click on the footer to see one of our monochromatic templates based on red.

• Complementary Color Scheme: These are composed of a pair of opposing colors on the color wheel. If you click on the footer below, you will be able to download a presentation template with this scheme.

Analogous Color Scheme: This scheme includes colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Click on the footer to see an example of this scheme applied to a presentation: 

Triadic Color Scheme: This uses three colors equally spaced on the color wheel. Click on the footer to download a presentation that makes use of the triadic color scheme.

In order to get the best combination, you will need to consider how many colors you will use in each slide and how you will manage the contrast between them. These should also be suitable for your intended message or your brand.   Finally, try not to overuse very intense colors—use them only for emphasis. Keep everything consistent by applying the same color to each instance of an element within your presentation (for example, use the same color in all the titles). Include illustrations or pictures that work well with the chosen palette. If you need to apply filters to the pictures, you can refer to our “ How to Apply Filters to the Pictures in Google Slides ” tutorial, or its PowerPoint equivalent. Some of our templates include color variants, making it so much easier for you to adapt them to your topic and/or brand. Just click one of the options that you will find below “Themes” on the right side of the screen. 

Selecting color variants

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Change Theme Colors in PowerPoint to Customize Your Presentation

Complement a presentation’s message with the right color scheme – learn how to create custom theme colors in powerpoint..

Color adds a lot to any design, even if it’s something as simple as a presentation. Whether you’re creating a slideshow for a meeting, a project, or something else, you can tailor your presentation to any color scheme with PowerPoint theme colors.

Choosing Theme Colors

Creating an engaging color palette for your presentation helps create a unified look and sparks visual interest. Black and white text on a screen can quickly detract from your message, while bold, too-bright colors can distract an audience from your message. Here’s how you can improve the look and feel of your PowerPoint with a new theme color:

• Step 1: Select the Design tab
• Step 2: Choose a theme from the gallery
• Step 3: Select theme colors from the dropdown on the right side of the top panel

The screenshot below shows how to select a theme and theme colors in Office 365 PowerPoint, but the process is identical in PowerPoint 2019.

Note that themes incorporate more than just color. Each theme offers a range of colors, backgrounds, shapes, and fonts to completely change the look of your slides. Select a new theme to see how your entire presentation can be easily altered.

Choosing Theme Fonts

If you love a theme color but don’t like the font, you can simply change it. Here is a quick and easy way to change the font across your entire PowerPoint presentation:

• Step 1: Select Slide Master from the View tab
• Step 2: Choose Fonts and click Customize Fonts
• Step 3: Select Create New Theme Fonts
• Step 4: Pick out a Heading font and Body font
• Step 5: Press Save

This will change either the heading font or body font for your entire document. This is the easiest way to customize theme colors to fit your needs. If you fall in love with a particular theme but wish to change more than just the font, read on to discover how to create a custom theme. You may be surprised how easy it is to create a unique presentation theme.

Creating Custom Themes

While there are many PowerPoint color schemes to choose from, you may wish to create a truly unique presentation theme. This allows you to change every accent color, hyperlink color, and backgrounds for an innovative look and feel. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a customized theme for your presentation:

• Step 1: Click on the Design tab
• Step 2: Press the down arrow in the Variants group
• Step 3: Choose Colors and click Customize Colors
• Step 4: Determine the entire range of colors for your new theme

As you select colors for the theme, keep in mind how they complement each other. Picking a color scheme can take some time and a lot of experimentation. If you want something guaranteed to look good, go with a color scheme from our list of 101 color combinations , or check out our color scheme tool to build your own.

Now that you have a truly customized theme, you’re ready to add multimedia and music to complete your personalized and engaging PowerPoint presentation. Whether you’re showing off your skills in class, or kicking off a new project at a board meeting, a dynamic presentation can keep your audience captivated, while providing memorable talking points.

Check out our custom-made and fully customizable free PowerPoint templates . With hand-picked color palettes, along with unifying fonts and clever layouts, all you need to do is add your text!

Mockup image via mirtmirt .

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