what colors are good for presentations

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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10 Color Palettes to Nail Your Next Presentation

Bring your a-game to your next pitch meeting with these sure-to-dazzle color palettes..

Color is a powerful design tool. The right scheme can energize and motivate, soothe and inspire. With that in mind, we’ve put together a batch of ten eye-catching color palettes, each intended to have a different psychological effect on your presentation audience.

Perhaps you’re a young startup and need to excite potential investors , or maybe you want to ensure that viewers remain focused on important data. Whatever the style of presentation or pitch, you’ll find a color palette that suits your presentation needs in the list below.

• Introducing Creative Flow on Shutterstock Enterprise
• 7 Creative Tips for When You’re in a Slump

Simply take a note of the HEX codes in these inspiring color palettes, and apply your swatches to backgrounds , typography , or sales presentation templates for your next PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides pitch.

Now, let’s get started! It’s time to nail that pitch.

License this image via Pikoso.kz .

What Are the Best Colors for Presentations?

The best colors to use in PowerPoint , Google Slides, and other presentation software can vary widely depending on your audience, brand, and what you’re trying to achieve with the presentation.

A pitch for a new client might require exciting, inspiring color choices that help your audience to feel energized , while a data-heavy presentation to long-standing investors might require a more stable and reassuring color scheme.

• 10 Psychological Color Palettes to Win Friends and Influence People
• How to Use the Color Wheel to Build a Brand Palette

Below, you’ll find 10 color palettes for presentations that tap into the power of color psychology , helping you to choose colors that will always work in your favor.

These stylish color palettes can work for a variety of presentation purposes, like corporate reports, brand launches , and Q1 forecasts.

Scroll down to find the perfect presentation palette to help you bring the power of color to your next pitch.

1. The Perfect Color Palette to Energize Your Audience

Orange has been proven to promote energy and appetite in viewers, so it’s the perfect color choice for presentations that need to have an upbeat feel.

To keep your audience engaged throughout a long presentation, it helps to balance orange’s energy with the soothing, expansive mood of violet blue .

Blue-sky thinking is blue for good reason—this is a color that provokes inspiration and openness to new ideas.

To keep your energized palette crisp and clean, turn to ice white and pitch black to ensure your text remains crisp and legible. 

2. The Best Color Palette to Calm and Reassure the Room

Sometimes, it’s more important to calm and reassure your audience than to energize or surprise them. Presentations focused on mental well being , health , or wellness wouldn’t benefit from a neon palette , for example.

Instead, bring a zen mood to the boardroom with this palette of soothing hues. Spring green , mulberry purple, terracotta, and blue gray have a grounding effect and mimic the soothing colors found in nature to create an ultra-relaxing effect. 

3. The Perfect Color Palette to Boost Confidence

Red is traditionally the color of confidence, proven to make viewers feel stronger and more self-assured in its presence. However, pure red can be overtly aggressive, and the forceful effect of the color can be heightened on bright screens. Much better to temper red’s aggression with softer red orange , fuchsia , and shell pink .

This is still a highly confident palette with its graduation of warm hues, and its assertion is even stronger when paired with mysterious and authoritative plum purple .

4. The Best Color Palette to Appeal to Corporate Businesses

This color scheme gives a nod to the traditional palettes of the financial and legal world. Bottle green and cognac brown are teamed with dark racing-green and old gold for an established and luxurious effect.

Corporate presentations can be difficult to enliven, as they require a degree of formality and convention. However, this palette steps away from oft-used navy blue toward something more interesting.

Evocative of leather and velvet, this is a cocooning and moneyed palette that will help corporate clients feel like you understand their formal world. 

License this image via AlonaPhoto .

5. The Best Palette to Look Cool and On-Trend

Many startups, entrepreneurs, and young brands want to appeal to Gen Z audiences , and they need to have a cool color palette to match.

Whether you’re presenting a new product launch or looking to entice an on-the-pulse angel investor, this violet and neon palette will cement your cool credentials.

Look to urban colors, such as neons and grays, to create presentation slides with an ultra-cool mood.

This urban-inspired presentation palette combines deep and inky violet with acid lime yellow for a high-contrast effect, while concrete gray and moody black provide a neutral offset.

6. The Perfect Color Palette to Look Innovative

Young companies or startups pitching for their first round of investments need a palette that will communicate a spirit of innovation and fresh thinking. A perfect color palette for tech businesses or science startups, this palette has a futuristic, forward-looking mood.

Purple is the most intellectual and mysterious of all colors, making it a good fit for businesses offering something a little different from the norm, especially in the tech sector .

Neon pink is an unexpected choice for work presentations, but here it’s the perfect companion to purple and violet blue, bringing energy and a youthful mood. 

7. The Best Color Palette to Appear High-End

Elevate your high-end presentations with this luxurious color scheme that borrows from vintage color schemes of the 1930s and 1940s.

If you’re pitching for a high-end brand or simply want to bring an elegant mood to your presentation slides, this claret and copper scheme will help your PowerPoint templates feel opulent and expensive.

Dark brick red and olive green are traditional establishment colors that give a nod to beautiful brick architecture and vintage uniforms.

This affluent color palette would also be a good fit for the hospitality, travel, or luxury goods sectors. Team with metallic backgrounds and crisp white text for simple luxury.

8. The Best Color Palette to Improve Focus

If you have vitally important data or a specific message you want your viewers to remember, consider this presentation palette of focus-promoting colors that will prevent your audience from mid-pitch window gazing.

Blue and green are the two colors most associated with improving focus and concentration, with blue promoting expansive thinking and green providing a harmonic, nature-inspired mood.

In this business color palette, rich teal combines both of these hues for a serious focus hit. Earthy burnt orange prevents teal from feeling lethargic, while giving the palette a grounded edge that feels serious and cerebral. 

9. The Best Color Palette to Promote Sustainability

As sustainability is a central concern for many businesses today, it might be in your interest to give your presentations an environmental edge.

While businesses are often advised to avoid greenwashing , for the purpose of presentations, green is still the most reliable color for communicating environmentally-themed messages. It helps to immediately situate your audience within an eco-friendly mindset .

Whether you want to discuss how your company can become more eco-friendly or promote a sustainable product to a potential buyer, this fresh and verdant palette will give your slides a nature-inspired mood.

Emerald green , sage, and deep bottle green are made crisp and contemporary when teamed with chalk white.

10. The Perfect Color Palette to Boost Creativity

We could all do with a little more creativity in our working day, and you can turn to selective color choices to boost your weekly brainstorming session.

For presentations that need to appear creative or boost the creative potential of your audience, bright colors are stimulating, expressive, and promote a sense of childlike play and experimentation.

This is a colorful pick-me-up scheme for work-weary souls—a perfect presentation color palette for team-building days, ideation sessions, or for subjects that are more outside-the-box than usual.

Orange and pink perk up the palette with warm tones , while viridian green and azure blue bring a fresh, tropical feel to this fun, creative color palette.

License this cover image via VISTA by Westend61 .

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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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The Psychology of Color in PowerPoint Presentations

• April 12, 2013
• Kevin Lerner

Discover how the colors you choose for your PowerPoint presentations can guide the emotional response of your audience.

What are the best colors for a powerpoint presentation it all depends on who your audience is and what you want them to feel.

When used correctly, color can help audience members sort out the various elements of a slide. But its power goes beyond mere clarification. To some extent the colors you choose for your visuals guide the emotional response of your audience.

Blue: The most popular background color for presentation slides

Blue is one of the most common background colors. It’s calming and conservative, which is why it’s very popular with business presenters, as well as for for trainers. Studies have shown that blue has the power to slow our breathing and pulse rates. Dark blue backgrounds with light text are great for conservative corporate no-nonsense presentations. Lighter blue- more common in re cent times- work well in relaxed environments with the lights on, and help promote interaction.

Examples of BLUE in Presentations

• Quest Diagnostics: A serious company with a seriously navy blue background. The subtle angled lines promote a feeling a movement and technology. Blue complements the Green of Quest’s logo, and the white title bar provides a clean but stark contrast to the body.
• This blue template for waste management firm Republic Services provides a conservative backdrop for the financials and white bullet points. The yellow titles stand out, as does the orange, red and blue themed imagery at the bottom, not to mention the company’s logo.
• This slide for Dr. Soram Khalsa’ Complementrix Vitamin system features a template with a dark blue with angled lines. And the inner portion of the template featured a light blue-hue burst of a sun-ray to convey bright life and energy.
• This slide for Lender Direct featured an image of a file folder, edited in Photoshop, with a 80 % transparency set against a light blue background. The light blue graphic helped to convey a sense of openeness , and professionalism, while maintaining the company’s blue brand.

Green: Stimulates interaction and puts people at ease

Green stimulates interaction. It’s a friendly color that’s great for warmth and emotion. Green is commonly used in PowerPoint presentations for trainers, educators, and others whose presentations are intended to generate discussion. It’s also a great color for environmental and earth-oriented discussions.

Examples of Green in Presentations

• This slide for Hills Pet Nutrition features a modern green background with textured lines promoting a warm, but contemporary feeling. Great for their topic on pet affection.
• Money is green and so is this presentation for Presidio Finance. The white text contrasts nicely with the forest green finance images, helping to project a no-nonsense image of success and accomplishment.
• In this slide for TD Waterhouse, we created top title bar in dark green, integrating smoothly with their lime green logo. The green-hued process chart on the slide image stands out comfortably against the textured grey background.
• The flowing green arcs at the bottom and green title text helps substantiate this slides message of health and vitality. Executive Success Team’s green logo and brand also promotes a relaxed and comfortable feeling, just like Mona Vie.

Red: Handle with Care in Presentations!

Red is one of the most influential colors in your software palette — but it also carries negative cultural attachments, so use it carefully. Red is also a great color for conveying passion. Or talking about the competition. Do not use Red in financial information or tables and charts.

Examples of RED in Presentations

• The rich red of Oracle is maintained in this template, featuring red title text in an inset red rectangle and a red bottom bar of binary numbers for a look of blazing edge technology
• Trace Security uses a similar red title bar element, tying in to their black and red logo and brand.
• Red and black are also colors for Sales Training Consultants, and in this slide, we used a flat beige background, with a title bar in bright red together with red bullets and a red target graphic.
• The body pages of the Grenada presentation feature Red, but in an inset border. Text is inversed in white, as is the main body area. The key states in this map are highlighted in red.

Purple: Mystical and Emotional color in presentations and design

Purple is often associated with royalty and wealth. Purple also represents wisdom and spirituality. Purple does not often occur in nature, it can sometimes appear exotic or artificial. Nearly all the clients who come to me with presentations featuring purple or lavender are women. It’s a feminine color and it’s a good color for emotional or spiritual presentations.

Examples of Purple in Presentations

• Crosley & Company’s branding is maintained with a dominant dark purple background, and orange titles.
• A soft lavender background option gives these two medical doctors a chance to add some warmth for their mostly women audiences.

Yellow, Orange, & Gold: Attention-getting colors of affluence and prestige

Yellow can create feelings of frustration and anger. While it is considered a cheerful color, people are more likely to lose their tempers in yellow rooms and babies tend to cry more in yellow rooms.

Since yellow is the most visible color, it is also the most attention-getting color. Yellow can be used in small amount to draw notice, such as key words, or highlights but not in backgrounds. Rather than using flat yellow as a background color, consider a more “golden” or orange color. Simply adding texture to a yellow background or superimposing a photo (in Photoshop) with low transparency, can add more richness to the yellow background image.

Examples of Yellow / Gold in Presentations

• This flat yellow slide is for Web-Reach, an internet consulting firm in Miami. Even though their message was to compete with the Yellow Pages phone book, their yellow background was flat and uninspired.
• With a simple fix in Photoshop, yellow became Gold, and the same slide became more robust. We added a red bar to the top, and a grey arc to the left. Same information, just a textured golden hue helped deliver elegance and style.
• A golden textured earth background helped this slide convey the message of international elegance. The green money background blends with the gold, and the black text brings a nonsense message to the page.
• A golden textured background for Fountainhead Consulting with elements of yellow, blue, red, and grey.

Black: A strong and definite color that’s often overlooked!

Don’t forget your basic black. Often overlooked, black is a background color with useful psychological undertones. Its neutrality makes it a good backdrop for financial information. Black connotes finality and also works well as a transitional color which is why the fade to black transition is powerful, as it gives the impression of starting fresh.

Examples of Black in Presentations

• It’s a matter of black and white for this construction company. It’s intro slides were pure white text on a black background, emphasizing the company’s core beliefs. After the 3 b&w slides, the room lit-up with a series of dynamic colorful slides as the speakers enlightened the audience.
• Over 10 years old, this slide from Ryder transportation remains one of the strongest visuals. Set against a flat black background, the company’s grey logomark conveys a true sense of stability and no-nonsense action. The monotone building blocks tell a strong story.

White: Pure, Fresh and Clean. But a little boring.

White is also a calm and neutral color for presentations. It’s terrific for conveying a fresh start such as a fade to white. It represents purity or innocence. Good for positive information where you want the focus purely on the message, and not competing with a brand image. It’s clean/open and inviting and can create a sense of space or add highlights. But it can also be perceived as cheap, flat (it’s the default color for PowerPoint slides) and harsh on the eyes. Consider grey as a better background color.

Examples of White in Presentations

• To help to maintain a clean and open look this consumer collaborative called on us to integrate their brand colors set against a plain white background. The blue and orange bars provided a conservative frame, while the arcs provided a contemporary look of flow and motion.
• This slide for a large architecture and construction firm featured a flat white background offset by a colorful series of modern buildings and logos.

Grey and Silver: A conservative color; Good when Black or White won’t work.

According to psychologists, grey is often thought of as a negative color. It can be the color of evasion and non-commitment since it is neither black nor white. Some say that Grey is the color of independence and self-reliance. A few years ago, silver was the most popular color for cars. And in the presentation world, this calm color is making a comeback. Grey (or “Silver”) is a softer background than the harsh default color of white, and works well on almost all presentations. A dark grey background with light text…or light grey background with dark text…you can’t go wrong!

Examples of Grey in Presentations

• Farmers Insurance’s silver background integrates subtle ray of light elements to help add depth and texture to this slide. The red, blue, and black stock images blend comfortably with the rest of the page. And the white border around the letters add a level of modernism and clarity.
• The stainless steel background of this slide helps promote a modern contemporary look, helping to link the 4 brands together.
• A clean flowing blue arc with a non-obtrusive silver background help make this slide for Margie Seyfer appear fun but conservative
• Interim Healthcare’s brand is maintained, but a muted image in silver help add depth and dimension to the slide’s message, while supporting its key points.

We perceive dark colors as being “heavier” than light ones, so graphic elements that are arranged from darkest to lightest are the easiest for the eyes to scan. On charts, it’s best to arrange colors from dark to light.

Remember that most eyes aren’t perfect. Because color perception deficiencies are common, certain color combinations — including red/green, brown/green, blue/black and blue/purple — should be avoided.

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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!)

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10 Best (Trendy) PowerPoint Color Scheme Combinations (2019 PPT Guide)

Great designs aren't an accident. Talented designers make conscious decisions about color and the message that it sends to an audience. 

As you prepare to speak, you're probably building a PowerPoint presentation to support your points. Choosing the best colors for your presentation requires careful thought. You need to match to the content and mood of your speech.

In this tutorial, you'll see the best PowerPoint color themes that you can use for an impactful message. Then, we'll look at PowerPoint color scheme ideas that are ready to use from Envato Elements.

The Importance of Color in Every Presentation

Remember that PowerPoint helps you build supporting slides for a speaking engagement. Every slide should tie into the message that you're delivering. The colors that you choose will play a part in supporting the message.

Let's look at how color impacts your presentation. We'll also discuss how to choose the right colors.

1. Color Sets the Mood

Above all, color sets a mood for a presentation. Think about the difference between a slide that starts with bright fluorescent color and a slide that starts with a grey opening slide. They're sure to set different tones before you even begin to speak.

As soon as your audience sees the first slide, they'll begin to form expectations for the content. And matching the color palette to your message ensures a successful presentation.

As you work to match your presentation visuals to your presentation message, keep a few basic color moods in mind:

• Red  is a color that invokes passion and intensity. Think of a bright red bullseye, for example.
• Light blues and greens  are cool and calming. Bodies of water and foliage come to mind and using these colors can help your audience connect with the outdoors.
• Yellow  feels optimistic and energizing. Reminiscent of spring and flowers in bloom. 
• Purple  has a history of feeling regal and royal. There's a sense of luxury and exclusivity.

Maybe there isn't a single "best color for PowerPoint presentations." Instead, it's about using colors that complement your message.

2. Color Palettes 

While choosing a single color is an important choice, an even more important decision is how you combine them. Few presentations will feature a single color, so it's the  color palette  or combination of colors that are important to consider as well.

Monochromatic  color schemes all key on one central color but use various shades, like the example below:

Complementary color schemes cross the color wheel for visual appeal. Think of the reds and greens you see around the holidays or the purple and gold uniforms of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Another option is a  triad  or three samplings of colors across the color wheel. It's great to use a color wheel tool to sample colors across a range. Keeping the arrangement of the triad in mind ensures the colors complement instead of clashing.

To learn more about color schemes and how you can use multiple colors, make sure to check out the tutorial below:

3. Top Color Trends for 2019 (and How to Explore Them)

If you're starting to think about color as a conscious choice when building a presentation, it helps to explore the best PowerPoint color scheme ideas. The best tool for the job is Adobe Color .

Not only can you explore color options, but you can also create cohesive palettes using the tool. Using the palette options and selecting your key colors helps you generate a palette that's ready to use in PowerPoint.

Make sure to check out the Trends section  to find fresh styles that are sure to resonate with an audience. Many top designers use this site to create on-trend colors, and you can sample from their creations.

So far, we've covered the principles that you can use to generate PowerPoint color scheme ideas. But if you want a head start, you can use pre-built templates with the best colors for PowerPoint presentations.

On Envato Elements, you unlock an unlimited number of PowerPoint templates that you can use to design your presentation. Each of these templates features the best PowerPoint color scheme ideas that you can use.

For a single flat rate, you'll unlock thousands of options with the best colors for PowerPoint presentations. Throughout this section, you'll see templates from Envato Elements and color schemes that help you give a bold presentation. 

Let's see 10 of the best PowerPoint color schemes. You'll see selections from top PowerPoint templates in the Envato Elements with fun names I've created for winning color schemes. 

1. Gradient Complements

A great way to blend multiple colors is by using a  gradient,  a blend between two colors. That's on display in the outstanding Analysiz PowerPoint template, where blues and reds blend seamlessly.

Maybe you don't think of red and blue as colors that you'd use side-by-side, but gradients are a great way to bring together two colors. Then, you can use either of the primary colors (red and blue) for critical elements. Consider a gradient if your brand has colors that aren't commonly paired together.

2. Shades of Seafoam

Remember, cool color tones like light blues and greens create a sense of calmness. That's exhibited perfectly in the PowerPoint template ,  The X Note .  It's one of the most popular templates on Envato Elements thanks to its flexibility.

Above all, The X Note features those calming and cooling effects that use shades of blue and seafoam green. You can use this for a calming presentation that's got a casual but professional feel to it.

3. Monochrome Color Shades

Pezia is another template you'll unlock with a subscription to Envato Elements. This template has a light and dark color schemes.

No matter which version of Pezia you start with, you'll find that the color scheme is monochromatic. A single color is used in various shades to lead the viewer's eye between key points naturally.

Shades of the same color are an engaging color scheme. You can use deeper shades for essential points and lighter shades for less common elements.

4. Approach With Seriousness

Yellow and black color shades are typically used for caution type, but they can also be used in combination as an engaging color scheme. These two colors in conjunction are sure to grab an audience's attention for your presentation in a template titled Company Profile .

Historically, these colors have been used in classic examples like caution tape. But just as those colors are used to grab before crossing a threshold, it's also a way to show serious content with the best presentation color schemes. 

When you use yellow and black together, you're sure to show the audience a sense of seriousness. No matter the message, this is one of those color palettes that immediately commands attention.

5. Shades of Pink

Remember, choosing a color palette is about setting the tone. The best PowerPoint color schemes align a color selection to the content and concept in your presentation.

What if your presentation focuses on softer, more classic elements? Consider the shades of pink in the STYLE Multipurpose PowerPoint theme .

A template like this is perfect for brands like fashion, cosmetics, and more. It creates a sense of elegance thanks not only to the color selection, but also the white space between elements.

6. Earth Tones

If you're building an outdoor business or advocating for the environment, earth tones might be the perfect choice for you. And those tones are captured perfectly in the Mandalika PowerPoint template .

Earth tones capture a wide variety of the best colors for PowerPoint presentations. Combining the perfect colors that harken back to clay, shrubbery, and more, they bring the outdoors indoors. This template provides an example of mixing and matching seemingly unique colors into the perfect palette.

7. Highlighting Success

The color scheme in this section is an excellent reminder that only a single hue is enough to create an engaging presentation. The best colors for PowerPoint presentations seek to complement the content, and this is the best example.

I like to call this color scheme, "highlighting success." A single bright color like the green shade in this color scheme is enough to accentuate your content. In the Blendu PowerPoint template, the best highlight color comes to life to emphasize your content.

When you use a single, eye-catching color, you draw a viewer's attention quickly. Use a color palette like this fluorescent green to stand out.

8. Pastels Plus

Everyone's familiar with the pastel shades that seem to come out every Spring. And the color palette in Color Fun captures those pastels perfectly with a bit more contrast.

While classic pastel templates focus on light, desaturated versions of colors, this template embodies "pastels plus." It samples the same primary hues but uses more contrast for a fun presentation.

The best color schemes for PowerPoint presentations are eye-catching. I love the Color Fun template for its unique "pastel plus" colors. It blends a wide variety of colors into a cohesive palette.

9. The Color of the Year Palette

If there's a single most powerful company for setting color trends, it's Pantone . They've got a tremendous amount of knowledge and expertise in color calibration.

More notably, they also name a color of the year based upon design trends. For 2019, that color is Living Coral . This shade of pink was named as the most in-vogue color, and luckily, there's a corresponding template called Living Coral PowerPoint theme .

When you use a trendy color template like Living Coral, you're sure to align your design with the latest in presentation trends. Not only is it visually appealing, but it's also culturally relevant.

10. Spectrum of Colors

Many of the color schemes in this round-up use just a few simple colors to create attractive presentations. And while it's true that the best PowerPoint color schemes use a "less is more" mindset, sometimes you'll want to use more colors.

That's where a template like Spectrum comes into play. It's got a tasteful and balanced selection of colors from across the rainbow. Yet, it doesn't feel overly bright and overwhelming to the audience.

You've seen 10 of the best colors for PowerPoint presentations. But that's not all—there's even more included in the tutorial round-up below. Check it out for even more ideas for PowerPoint color scheme ideas.

As another option, you can also source excellent PowerPoint color scheme ideas with templates from GraphicRiver. There are more excellent PowerPoint color schemes on GraphicRiver, but you'll pay only for individual templates you choose.

Design a Presentation With Trendy Color Schemes Today

There are as many PowerPoint color schemes as there are hues in the rainbow. Choosing the best colors for a PowerPoint presentation is an essential step in the design process. With the help of the ideas in this tutorial, you're on your way to punchy presentations with the best color choices.

Don't forget: using a pre-built template with the best PowerPoint color schemes is sure to jumpstart your design work with the best colors for PowerPoint presentations . That's the value of using Envato Elements, the all-you-can-download library for creatives.

Use the best presentation color schemes to complement your message. When you do, you're sure to reach your audience with an impact.

What Colors To Choose For Your Presentation?

Colors are not only a matter of personal taste. They convey feelings, influence people’s mood, and even carry specific meanings. That is why you should leave nothing to chance when choosing the colors of your PowerPoint presentation. However, you don’t need to be an expert in graphic design or color psychology to select accurately the shades of your backgrounds and fonts. In this article, you will find a series of tips to help you pick the right color scheme. Get ready to come through your presentation with flying colors!

1. Choose the right color to convey the right feeling

Psychologists have taught us that colors can influence people’s perceptions and even trigger emotions. That is the reason why they have become such important elements in branding and marketing. The same goes for your visual aids: your audience will not have the same emotional response if you use a bright red background or a light blue one. Once you have identified the feelings at the core of your message, you will be able to choose the colors that can transmit them. Let’s have a look at the most common colors and discover the feelings and connotations they communicate.

RED – A powerful color to use with moderation

In the Western world, red is associated with love, passion, strength, and energy. It is a great color to put emphasis on a specific feature but can be tiring throughout a whole presentation since it raises the heart and respiration rates. Remember red is also the color of anger and danger. In conclusion, use red with care, only if you have a specific goal, for example, if your topic is food and you want to increase your audience’s appetite!

BLUE – The safe choice

More than one-third of people consider blue their favorite color, so grab this opportunity!  The most popular color has a calming effect and suggests peace, sincerity, confidence, and security. It is therefore a great option as a background, especially used in the finance, business, computing, communication, and healthcare areas.

GREEN – A color with harmonizing effect, perfect for nature-related presentations

The third and last of the primary colors can have a positive impact on your public since it represents life, nature, and peace. Moreover, it conveys feelings of balance and growth. Green is also believed to increase interaction, so if you want to set a mood that leads to dialogue, go green!

YELLOW – Feed your presentation with positive vibes

Let there be light! If you want to be sure to capture everybody’s attention, yellow is the stimulating color you need. It inspires happiness, optimism, and creativity. Nevertheless, try to use a soft shade of yellow in your background, since a bright yellow can be perceived as unsettling.

ORANGE – Show your creative side

Why not try the color of innovation and creativity? If you want to convince your audience to try something new, orange will do the trick: it is the hue of extroversion and confidence.

PURPLE – Great for luxury topics

Even though purple is an intense color that can surprise your audience, the right shade of purple can transmit creativity, wisdom or even mystery. This color can also give a sense wealth and luxury. It is a good choice if you want your background to be original.

BROWN – A warm and earthy color

This color is generally associated with the Earth and more specifically wood. A light brown color with a discreet wood texture could be a great option if your presentation includes environmental elements. Besides, it suggests the idea of durability.

GRAY – A formal yet modern color option

Forget about the negative connotations of gray ! It might be considered as a conservative color, but it is definitely a popular one. It offers a softer alternative to the white backgrounds.

BLACK – A powerful color to be used sparingly

It is well-known that black never goes out of fashion. Even though it is not the most popular color for backgrounds, it can be used to suggest elegance, luxury, and seriousness. It may not be ideal for a whole presentation, but black slides can easily be used to indicate a transition or make a powerful statement.

WHITE – The simple color option, when your message is King (as it always should)

The classic white background works ideally to evoke purity or simplicity. However, some people deem it as unoriginal. It is also tiring for the eyes when projected on a screen, therefore a light grey background is often considered a better option. Nonetheless, it helps get your message across clearly and simply.

2. Combine your colors attractively to please the eye

Some colors simply don’t match! Be careful when you associate the font color and the background one! For instance, blue and green are red’s worst friends. Two colors too close together on the spectrum, such as black and brown or red and orange, will make your presentation unattractive and hard to read. On the other hand, the right combination could convey the perfect message: dark blue and golden symbolize refinement while dark blue and white refer to the ocean and suggest tranquility.

You can obviously choose a basic color scheme: one hue for your background and another for your font. You can nonetheless try more complex combinations with 3 or more colors. In this case, check that the palette you use is pleasant to the eye and that it evokes the emotions you want to transmit.

A great example of color matching can be the 2021 Pantone colors the year : Illuminating yellow and Ultimate gray. The first is bright and vivid, the second firm and reliable; together, they represent strength and optimism.

3. Improve your readability with the right contrast

Establishing the right contrast between your background shade and your font color is essential. The basic rule is a light font over a dark background or a dark font over a light background. A high contrast means an optimal readability, and thus a high level of impact on your audience. To avoid having the same level of saturation in both colors, try to choose different hues and tones. For example, the pastel shade of a color will create a better visual impression when combined with the pure hue of another color.

One last piece of advice: if possible, always try to visualize your presentation on the screen where it will be projected, in order to check the final visual impression. Now you have another string to your bow: you are ready to consciously choose the right colors for your PowerPoint presentation!

We hope you like these tips. Your feedback is very important to us. Tell us what is (are) the color(s) you love to use in your 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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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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• By Illiya Vjestica
• - January 26, 2023

What are the Best Colours for Your PowerPoint presentation?

Choosing the best colours for PowerPoint isn’t as black and white as it seems. Many factors go into picking a powerful palette – involving everything from your audience’s emotions to your talk’s cultural context and, of course, to how your slides look.

Suppose you’re taking it as seriously as you should. In that case, you need to consider all of these when deciding on your colour scheme – as nailing this aspect of your presentation’s design will help you to communicate your message in the most impactful way possible. Interested? Let’s get stuck in.

Complementary colours

It would help to consider contrast when picking two or more colours for your presentation.

Contrasting colours are valuables when it comes to heightening the visual effect of your slides. They’re instantly impactful – reeling your viewers in by drawing their eyes to the screen. Also, they enhance your slides’ other elements – such as any fonts or tables used – increasing their visibility when used correctly. There’s a reason why black is nearly always paired with white and blue with yellow or orange. Together, they create a powerful impression… and it’s all thanks to contrast.

There’s a simple way to discover contrasting colours, and that’s by using a simple colour wheel. With this tool, you can easily see which colours are the opposite of which… helping you to refine your palette and ensure your presentation has colourful clout.

It also helps to follow the 60-30-10 colour rule . It’s generally for interior decorating but can support picking a colour scheme.

What Colours should not be used in PowerPoint?

When choosing colours for your slides, it’s important to create a contrast between the background and the text. I recommend avoiding using light text on a light background.

For example, a yellow background with white text often makes the text difficult to read. Likewise, with yellow text on a white background, it’s challenging to see.

Make sure your presentation content can be seen at the back of the room. You can use a colour contrast checker to ensure you have a strong contrast ratio to ensure your slides will be readable. This will help make your text more readable and provide a clear contrast between the text and background of your slides to enable your audience to follow along easily.

What are the Most Popular Colours for PowerPoint?

Here are some of the best colour combinations in PowerPoint. You can choose to experiment with your own as well.

Red & Black

Black & Yellow

Others include:

Blue & Yellow

Black & White

Orange and blue

Yellow and purple

Black and white

The selection method is slightly different for more complex presentations using three or more contrasting colours (triadic colours, for those who want to know). Pick three equally distanced colours around the colour wheel to choose the best complementary shades. These colours should, again, work beautifully together – providing that perfect contrast you crave.

Popular triadic choices include:

• Orange, green and purple
• Yellow, blue and red

Generally, we wouldn’t advise throwing a fourth colour into the mix – or more, besides. While using bright colours can have a wonderfully eye-catching effect on your PowerPoint slides, using too many at once could make them too “busy” – overloading the audience and detracting from the potential power of the colour combinations you’ve used. Adhere to the cliche “less is more”, and your simple yet striking presentation should speak for itself.

Colour psychology

You’re probably already familiar with the basic principles of colour psychology. Essentially, it’s been said that specific colours have set effects on people – specifically, causing them to feel a particular way. For instance, red is purported to inspire anger, blue to calm, and yellow to feel joy.

While there’s something to be said for this, colour psychology (as many people understand it) isn’t a flawless theory for one big reason: emotions aren’t quantifiable! Therefore, we can’t honestly claim that specific colours create the same feelings in every person – everybody’s different, and shades carry unique meanings for most of us.

You want to tap into your audience’s context of specific colours and other psychological and physical factors that may come into play. This is where the true magic of colour psychology lies. By understanding what influences your audience when it comes to colour – and knowing which colours are paired up with which emotions and responses in their lives – you can design something that sings. For instance, did you know that while, in Western and Japanese culture, the concept of love is associated with the colour red, it’s symbolised by the colour blue in African culture and yellow in Native American?

You can also your colour choice to the theme of your presentation. More on that later.

Know your audience. Get to know what inspires them, and let that influence your palette. It could make all the difference.

Colour symbolism

So, now you know to look into contrasting colours and your audience’s association with them. But we’re missing one major factor: you. What colours reflect you the best?

There are two ways that you can approach figuring this out. The first is straightforward: looking at your brand’s existing design. If you have a strong image already – of which colours will doubtlessly play a role, used on your website, logo and elsewhere – this is where you should start when designing your presentation. After all, these colours are already associated with you, so using them will create a strong link between your PowerPoint and the rest of your materials. Further, use colours so your audience can recognise you more quickly, and your presentation should look more professional. There are a lot of pros.

Option two requires a bit of decision-making. Suppose your brand doesn’t have any firm affiliations to colour already. In that case, you should consider which colours are associated with what in the context of your presentation and overarching brand ethos. Similarly to the colour psychology we’ve discussed, these hues will help you communicate your message clearly (and colourful). Some colour combinations are considered classic. They go together

Some popular colour associations include:

• Green – nature, the environment
• Blue – the ocean, sadness (referred to as “the blues”!)
• Orange – warmth, autumn
• Red – anger, love, energy

So: what are you talking about? Are there any clear colour associations to that topic already? Drill down to the heart of your presentation’s message, and choose the colours that reflect that the most.

One final thing. Once you’ve discovered your “essential” colour – whether that’s the colour that’s most strongly associated with the topic of your presentation or the colour that you’re hoping will have the biggest influence on your audience – make sure to make it the strongest colour on your palette (for instance, the background of your slides). This should ensure it delivers the impact you’re hoping for… levelling up your talk. Perfection.

Over to Hue

We know that we’ve given you a lot to think about, but if you’re ever feeling confused over colour, remember that it all boils down to the following factors:

Your brand + your audience’s colour associations + visual effect = the best palette

Once you’ve nailed this equation, the rest should come quickly. Good luck!

Choosing the right colours is one thing – putting together a presentation your audience will never forget. That’s another. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help your slides shine.

Illiya Vjestica

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The 10 Best PowerPoint Color Palettes You Should Use [+1 Template]

Presentations have evolved over the years, and have now reached a stage where every element that is used can help make an impact or completely disassociate from the audience. To ensure that your presentations are on the former half of the spectrum, make sure that you are using the right PowerPoint color palette in their appropriate scenarios. 

Colors are often some of the most overlooked factors of a presentation, with most presenters looking to go with “something that looks nice.” However, colors play a more important role than you may have imagined and deeply impact how your audience will react to your presentation. 

The 10 Best PowerPoint Color Palettes

Every presentation needs you to use colors according to the type of presentation it will be. For example, if you are going to pitch a project to investors, you need your colors to be full of energy. Still, in retrospect, if you are presenting in front of a room full of professionals on a topic they know about, you need colors that ooze professionalism and are cool colors!

To help you find a color palette that fits your energy needs, we have created a list of the ten best PowerPoint color palettes with their hex codes!

1. Energizing Presentation Color Palette   

Color Code: #4D74FF · #FF5128 · #050007 · #EFFFF

One presentation color palette that you should keep handy when creating any slideshow that requires you to portray energy is the orange, blue, black, and white combo! The orange color helps promote energy and create an upbeat feel to the presentation, while the blue helps keep your audience engaged during a long presentation. 

The ice-white and pitch-black color combo also helps keep your text readable and crisp. This scheme is best for when you want to have a pitch meeting.

2. Reliable Color Palette For Presentations

Color Code: #343752 · #90ACC7 · #FAD12B

Blue is one of the most commonly used colors in businesses as it screams out ‘trustworthy and calming, yet it’s so monotone. But, when combined with yellow and a companion darker blue color, you end up creating a reliable PowerPoint color palette that you will keep on going back to when you need a color scheme to fall back on. This color scheme can be used for purposes like branding and marketing.

3. Confident PowerPoint Color Palette

Color Code: #F8275B · #FF574A · #FF737D · #3D2F68

To boost confidence within your audience while presenting, you must use this color scheme that contains the color red! 

When using red in presentations, one thing to keep in mind is that red is a very aggressive color when alone; that’s why you should pair it with softer colors, like a softer tone of orange, pink, and Fuschia.

4. Fun Corporate Presentation Color Scheme

Color Code: #3B4D54 · #B9BAB5 · #FE8D3F

All of us can agree that corporate presentations can be a bore, especially when with all the boring gray and dark colors. To create a corporate slideshow that is also fun at the same time, you should add bright colors, like orange, to your gray-tone colored presentation. 

The bright color helps add a pop to your presentation and keep it serious, enabling you to keep your audience engaged and attentive!

5. High-End Color Palette For Presentations

Color Code: #5D1D2E · #951233 · #C15937 · #997929

One of the best themes to use for your presentation has to be the vintage color schemes! This 1930s color scheme uses colors such as dark brick red, copper, olive green, and wine red to give your presentation an elegant mood that makes your slideshow look expensive. This color scheme is best suited for luxury goods presentations!

6. Modern Palette For Presentations

Color Code: #5EA8A7 · #277884 · #FE4447

When talking about good color palettes for presentations, the modern color palette is among the first to come to mind. The palette uses bright colors like red over muted colors like dark and light cyan. 

The bright color adds a pop to your slides, which helps keep the audience refreshed throughout the presentation. This color scheme is best used to create a presentation that balances business and energy with modernity.

7. Calming Presentation Color Scheme

Color Code: #C5DE82 · #7C3A5F · #FD8C6E · #98ACB5

When creating a calming presentation, one thing to keep in mind is to use colors that help soothe your audience. You can use colors that are found in nature, like spring green, blue-gray, terracotta, and mulberry purple, to help create that soothing effect, as shown below! 

This color scheme is best suited for health and mental well-being presentations; it can be used by hospitals and companies present in the health sector.

8. Professional Presentations Color Palette

Color Code: #6B90B2 · #1B558E · #CCD64D

Make your presentation look professional while keeping it refreshing and fresh using this professional color scheme. This palette combines dark and desaturated blue with a lemon-like yellow.

The yellow adds a fresh look to your slides, while the blue colors help keep your presentation looking professional. These colors suit slides requiring you to break important news or build trust with your audience.

While talking about professional slides, if you find it difficult to create visually appealing slides, check out our professional PowerPoint templates that are 100% customizable, enabling you to edit the template according to your requirements.

9. Creative PowerPoint Color Schemes

Color Code: #02AA9D · #3187DE · #FE951C · #FF88AC

Add a bit of creativity to your presentations with the help of bright colors that help catch your attention and invoke the feeling of experimentation. It creates a fun and creative color palette when combined with tropical colors. 

Bright colors, like orange and pink, help bring a warm tone to your presentation, while tropical colors, like viridian green and blue, help keep your presentation creative! This color scheme is best suited for brainstorming sessions.

10. Warm Presentation Color Palette

Color Code: #A49393 · #EED6D3 · #E8B4B8

Last but not least, we have the warm color scheme on our list of the best presentation color schemes! Best suited for cosmetics and fashion sector presentations, this palette uses warm neutral colors, like different light and dark tones of red. Using neutral colors allows your slides to be versatile and can be paired up with almost anything, and warm neutral colors help keep your presentation looking sophisticated and warm.

These were some of the best color schemes that you should use for your next presentation. It’s finally time to say goodbye to plain slideshows and wow your audience with the perfect color palette. If you are trying to experiment with the color palettes, check our blog on the one color never to use in presentations to ensure you are doing everything correctly when creating your own scheme. 

Take a loot at our presentation design services if you need help designing your presentation. Our team of design experts helps create and tailor slides according to your needs, enabling you to focus on things that matter, like the content and speech delivery. Here are some more examples of well-designed PowerPoint slides.

SlideUpLift’s Collection Of Professional PowerPoint Templates

What is the best color scheme for PowerPoint?

The best color scheme for PowerPoints ensures readability, maintains a professional look, and complements the content of your presentation. A balanced color scheme combines neutral backgrounds (like white or light gray) with contrasting text and accent colors. Blue and green tones are often favored for their professional and calming effects, while red can be used sparingly for emphasis. 

What is the 60-30-10 color rule in PowerPoint?

The 60-30-10 color rule is a classic design principle that helps create visually appealing and well-balanced presentations. It dictates that you should use:

1. 60% of a dominant color : This is usually the background color and sets the overall tone of the presentation.

2. 30% of a secondary color contrasts with the dominant color and is often used for elements like charts, graphs, or images.

3. 10% of an accent color : This is used sparingly to highlight important points or call-to-action elements. The accent color should stand out against the other two colors to draw attention where needed.

What is the best color for accessibility in PowerPoint?

The best colors for accessibility in PowerPoint ensure high contrast between text and background, making content readable for everyone, including those with visual impairments.

It’s crucial to use dark text or light text on dark backgrounds to achieve this. Additionally, avoid color combinations that are difficult for colorblind individuals to distinguish, such as red-green or blue-yellow.

How do I decide on my color palette?

Deciding on a color palette for your PowerPoint involves understanding your audience and purpose, choosing a base color that aligns with your brand or desired mood, and selecting complementary colors using the color wheel. It’s important to ensure contrast and readability by testing colors on different screens and considering color psychology to evoke the right emotions. For instance, blue can convey trust and professionalism, while red signals urgency. Online tools like Adobe Color, Coolors, or Canva’s Color Palette Generator can also help create harmonious color schemes. By following these steps, you can develop a color palette that enhances your presentations’ effectiveness and visual appeal.

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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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How to Choose Background and Text Colors for PowerPoint Presentation

Colors play an important role in enhancing the visual appeal of your slides and conveying information. However, with countless color options available, it can be overwhelming to make the right choices.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the art of selecting the perfect background and text colors for your PowerPoint presentations. It will ensure they leave a lasting impact on your audience. 

Learn practical tips and insights to make your presentations visually appealing. We’ll also cover color psychology and how to match backgrounds with text. It’s a step-by-step guide to improving your presentation skills.

Get ready to make your slides stand out with our expert advice!

Importance Of Color Choices 

Colors significantly impact how we perceive and understand information in presentations. The psychological effects of colors play a crucial role in influencing our emotions. Knowing the significance of color choices can make presentations more effective and interesting. 

Certain colors evoke specific emotions and feelings. For example, warm colors such as red and orange energize and grab attention, making them ideal for highlighting important points. At the same time, cool colors like green have a calming effect and can be useful for conveying a sense of trust and stability.

Color contrast is also essential for improving comprehension. High contrast between background and text colors enhances readability, ensuring the information is easily absorbed. 

However, some color combinations can hinder comprehension. Using low-contrast colors, like light gray text on a white background, can strain the eyes and make the content difficult to read. It’s important to strike the right balance to ensure that your audience can effortlessly grasp the message you want to convey.

The importance of color choices in presentations cannot be overstated. When you understand the psychological effects of colors and use high-contrast combinations, you can create visually appealing slides that effectively convey your message to your audience.

Effective Background Colors

• Blue : Known for cultivating a sense of trust, calmness, and professionalism. Blue is widely used in business and educational presentations. Its versatility makes it suitable for various contexts, from corporate meetings to academic settings.
• Purple : Purple is usually associated with creativity and imagination. Also, it can add sophistication to your slides. It is a great choice for presentations related to art, design, and innovative concepts. It also represents royalty, wisdom, spirituality, and mystery.
• Green : Green symbolizes growth, harmony, and nature. It is perfect for presentations about sustainability, health, and environmental topics. It helps create a positive and refreshing atmosphere, making it suitable for inspiring and motivating your audience.
• White : A classic and timeless option, white backgrounds provide a clean and minimalist look, drawing attention to the content. It is excellent for professional settings, formal presentations, and showcasing visuals.
• Gray : Often used as a neutral backdrop, gray complements other colors and prevents distractions. It can add a touch of formality to your presentation, making it suitable for business reports and data-heavy slides.

Remember, it’s important to consider your presentation’s context and content. Make sure there is enough contrast between the background and text colors. Only then can people read it easily.

Also, consider how different colors might make your audience feel. Choose colors that match the mood and goal of your presentation.

Text Colors For Maximum Impact 

Contrast is key when selecting text colors. One of the most common mistakes in color selection for presentation slides is a need for more contrast between the background and text colors. If you want the audience to see the text on the screen, it must be a high-contrast color with the background. As a result, the text appears to float above the background rather than blend in with it.

Using lighter text colors like white, light gray, or pastel shades for a dark background creates a striking contrast that makes the text pop. This high contrast ensures clear visibility of the content and prevents eye strain. It’s particularly useful when presenting in dimly lit rooms or on large screens.

Conversely, darker text colors like black, dark blue, or deep brown for a light background create a sharp contrast that enhances readability. The dark text stands out vividly against the bright background, making it easy for the audience to follow the presentation, even from a distance.

Remember, the goal is to ensure that the text is readable without causing any discomfort to the audience. Maintaining a strong contrast between text and background can effectively convey your message and keep your audience engaged throughout the presentation.

Common Mistakes In Color Choice 

Red and Green- Using red and green together can be tough for color-blind people. Many people need help telling these colors apart, leading to confusion and misunderstandings.

Another mistake is using too many bright and clashing colors. It can make the presentation look messy and unprofessional. Also, using text and background colors that need more contrast can make it hard for everyone to read the content. 

To avoid these pitfalls:

• Consider using color combinations easily distinguishable by individuals with color blindness.
• Opt for high-contrast colors for text and background to enhance readability.
• Use a color palette with limited colors that complements the presentation’s theme and maintains consistency.

Test your color choices on different devices and screens to ensure they appear as intended. By being mindful of color choices and their potential impact, you can create visually appealing presentations that effectively communicate your message to all viewers.

Color Schemes For Professional Presentations

• Grey and Yellow : Grey represents neutrality and sophistication, while yellow symbolizes energy and optimism. They create a balanced and modern look suitable for business and corporate presentations.
• Blue and White : Blue is widely associated with trust, reliability, and professionalism, making it a popular choice for business settings. White complements blue, providing a clean and minimalist backdrop that enhances readability. This combination exudes a sense of clarity and authority, making it suitable for formal presentations and reports.

Using professional color combinations makes the presentation look nice and put together. It shows that the presenter is skilled and trustworthy, which helps build a good impression with the audience. Also, these colors are easy on the eyes so that the audience can focus on the content without problems.

The Role Of Color Psychology in Presentations 

Understanding the fundamental concepts of color psychology allows you to strategically use colors to deliver your message and impact your audience.

Warm colors grab the audience’s attention and emphasize essential points in the presentation. For example, highlighting key statistics or impactful quotes in red can draw the eye and make the information stand out.

Conversely, cool colors like blue, green, and purple are often used in professional settings to convey a sense of reliability and credibility. 

Neutral colors, like gray and white, can be used as background colors to enhance readability. Combining neutral colors with bolder accents can create an elegant and professional look.

Colors have a strong effect on how people feel and think. Companies pick colors that match their personality for logos and ads. Using these colors in presentations can help people recognize the brand. People remember the message better. By knowing how colors make us feel, presenters can use them wisely to get the audience’s attention. 

Customizing Your Presentation’s Color Scheme 

Step 1: Launch PowerPoint and open the presentation you want to customize.

Step 2: Tap on the “Design” tab at the top of the screen. It will display various design options.

Step 3: Select “Customize Colors…” from the drop-down menu to open the ‘Create New Theme Colors’ box.

Step 4: Choose the colors you want for your slide by clicking the color button next to the item. Select a new color from the pull-down menu if you want to change it.

Step 5: The Colors dialog box’s Standard tab displays a total of 127 colors, as well as white, black, and various shades of gray. Tap the Custom tab to use a color that doesn’t appear in the dialog box.

Step 6: Click Reset to start again using the colors you used when you first started.

Step 7: To save your customized color palette, enter a name in the Name area below and tap Save. The palette you saved gets added to the pull-down menu’s Colors gallery.

By following the above steps, you can customize the color scheme of your PowerPoint presentation.

Start Working On Your PowerPoint Background And Text Colors

We must consider the importance of background and text colors in PowerPoint presentations. Selecting the right color schemes can impact the audience’s perception and engagement. 

Aim for high contrast between text and background to ensure readability. And avoid potential pitfalls that may hinder comprehension. Professional color schemes, like gray and yellow, can elevate the presentation’s impact. It creates a polished and cohesive visual experience.

By making thoughtful color choices, presenters can craft attractive PowerPoint presentations. These well-designed visuals communicate their message, fostering better understanding.  The strategic use of colors makes the presentation impactful, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.

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How Colors Affect PowerPoint Presentations

Last updated on October 20th, 2023

Color is not just a visual element; it significantly influences the perception of your audience. In a PowerPoint presentation, the appropriate use and combination of colors can determine the effectiveness of your message. From aiding retention to ensuring visual appeal, colors hold immense power in shaping the audience’s experience.

Impact of Colors on the Audience

The interplay of colors affects not only the aesthetics of your presentation but also the message it conveys. A well-chosen palette can make your presentation memorable, while a mismatched one can divert or even confuse your audience. Thus, it’s imperative to choose colors for presentations that not only look good but also align with your intended message.

Color Combination Tips for PowerPoint Presentations – Selecting the Right Colors for Your Slides

Deciding on a good color palette for your presentation slides is a pivotal step at the outset of your slide creation process. In today’s corporate landscape, many organizations have standardized templates equipped with brand-specific colors, especially for external presentations, to maintain brand consistency. In such scenarios, you may be restricted in your color choices. However, for internal presentations or in more flexible settings, you have the liberty to select your preferred colors. When curating a good color palette for your presentation, consider the following tips to enhance its visual appeal and effectiveness.

• Avoid Clashing Colors : Some color pairs, like red and blue, orange and blue, and red and green, can cause visual discomfort and should be avoided. These combinations can appear to vibrate when placed next to each other, detracting from the content.
• Background Patterns & Graphics : While patterns or graphics can add visual interest, ensure they remain subtle. A loud or busy background can overshadow the content, making it challenging for the audience to focus.
• Blue signifies confidence
• Brown symbolizes simplicity
• Purple represents wisdom
• Yellow evokes happiness
• Green is associated with the environment
• White denotes purity
• Ensure Adequate Contrast : A common pitfall is not providing enough contrast between text or graphics and the background. To ensure legibility, your content should distinctly stand out against its backdrop.

In our website, you can download presentation templates featuring different combinations of colors. For example, you may want to download blue and gray backgrounds, just blue PowerPoint templates , white templates for PowerPoint , or templates with green background color .

Best Colors for Presentations

When deciding on a color scheme, it’s essential to understand the setting and the audience. For professional or corporate presentations, neutral colors like blues, grays, and whites are often preferred as they exude professionalism.

However, for creative or educational presentations, brighter colors like yellows or greens can be more engaging. Always prioritize readability and avoid overly bright or neon colors that can strain the eyes.

Here are some extra considerations when choosing the best colors for your presentations.

• For a variety of reasons, there are some colors  should not be used together. They are; red and blue, orange and blue, red and green. These color combinations may cause a disturbing effect for the viewer and vibrate against one another.
• If you want to use a pattern or graphic in the background of your presentation slide then make sure it is subtle. Many presenters want to make their slides visually appealing by having a pattern or graphic, however it is equally important to use them with caution.
• According to the recent studies, it is found that different colors show different general feelings in various people. There are some interpretations for colors such as; Blue denotes confidence, brown-simplicity, purple-wisdom, yellow-happiness, green-environment and white-purity.
• The biggest mistake presenters make while making a presentation is not having enough contrast between the colors chosen for the text or graphics and the background. Therefore, if you really want the audience to see the graphic or text on the screen clearly, then make sure they must be in line with the background color.

Optimizing Color Contrast for Readability

For maximum readability, it’s crucial to select slide colors with high contrast. When employing dark backgrounds, complement them with light-colored text and vibrant accent colors. Conversely, light backgrounds benefit from dark text and prominent accent colors, ensuring that audience members can effortlessly read the content and discern any graphs or shapes.

Tools for Choosing Presentation Colors

The digital age offers a plethora of free online tools to assist in selecting the perfect color scheme for presentations. Some notable options include:

• Color.hail.pixel.com
• ColourLovers
• Flat UI Colors
• Brand Colors

Nowadays, if you will browse the Web you will come across a wide range of tools that will help you in deciding the best color scheme for your presentation. They are: hexu.al, color.hail.pixel.com, ColourLovers, Flat UI Colors, Brand Colors , and many more.

Hence, by keeping in mind the above mentioned useful points, you can increase the impact of your message on your audience. So, next time when you prepare a presentation, use a color combination that leaves a great impression on your audience.

Final thoughts

Armed with the knowledge of color psychology and the tools available, curating an impactful presentation becomes an easier task. Remember, the ultimate goal is to enhance your message’s clarity and impact. So, during your next presentation, employ a color combination that resonates with your audience and elevates your content.

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15 Clever Color Combinations that Make Your Presentation Professional

Cool colors, warm colors, other sources used.

Presentations have been used wherever people convey ideas, present projects, and propose innovations. They have existed since Microsoft’s creation in 1987. PowerPoint presentations have changed the game in which business is conducted. It has also become a more powerful tool for teachers, professors, instructors, and even young kids attempting to convince their parents to get them a pet dog. No matter which PowerPoint templates you may be using, it's essential that you use them correctly.

Hey, you! I’ve got great news for you! Do you want to find out how to save your money and get more templates, graphics, whatever on TemplateMonster? Our new ONE Subscription is definitely for you! ONE by TemplateMonster is an opportunity to get many items from ONE package only for $19 a month! You just purchase $19 for one month and get access to any product from the pack! Check out Presentation Templates to see which ones are available in the pack. If you are a blog reader, then you can get a 5% discount with the promo code BecomeThe1 .

PLOS ONE released an essay of a study they completed that tested the Goldilocks Principle , which is quite simply the idea that a “psychological well-being” can be reached when an equilibrium of complexity and simplicity is met. This can go together with the attractiveness of a person’s outer appearance or for example, a presentation. PLOS ONE tested this theory with colors in fashion, attempting to display that people did, in fact, shied away from clothing that matched almost identically and also, clothes that clashed with one another completely. The same idea can be applied when making a presentation that will ‘wow!’ an audience: find the “ Golden Equilibrium .”

Also, keep in mind what tone you want to set for your viewers. Ask yourself such questions as: Am I presenting a new idea and need to win over my superiors? Or am I merely wanting to up my game when displaying notes for my students? Think about content: am I talking about biology, economics, or Roman history? Colors have a fantastic way of conveying a setting. To break it down into an easier fashion, there are two types of categories in which all colors are separated into warm and cool, except the neutrals (white, black, and gray). With that, here are fifteen warm and five cool, clever color combinations you might want to try for your next presentation.

You can also browse for more options and play around with our free PowerPoint presentations and PowerPoint templates . They are a good way to learn how to edit and work with such designs, change the color schemes, and convey your thoughts to the viewer with visual content.

Cool colors range anywhere from solid greens to fuschia pinks and give off a calm and relaxed impression. Blue and green dominate this group but don’t be fooled. Blue represents intelligence, strength, and importance, while green aids with signs of health, the environment, and harmony. Purple ends the spectrum of calm colors, signifies royalty, and can make a bold statement if used correctly.

Must-Have Powerpoint Color Themes

Surprise your audience with creative and professional infographic templates, designed by a young team from Bangladesh called PixWork . With more than 2000+ unique compatible files for PowerPoint, Keynote, and Illustrator, it suits to various areas like:

• Business Presentations;
• Commercial Branding;
• Online Advertising;
• Business Plan;
• Social media;
• Real Estate and Construction;
• Portfolio and Photography;
• Educational;
• Health Industry;
• Sports Purposes;
• The hospitality industry, etc.

Main Features of PowerPoint color themes cover:

• ILLUSTRATOR, POWERPOINT, and KEYNOTE functionality;
• infographics presented in Pptx, Key, Eps, and Ai;
• Bonus slides + icons are in Pptx and Key format as well;
• Dark and bright version is available;
• It is fully resizable and editable, including text, numbers, icons, colors, gradients and effects, photos, logo, etc.;
• 16x9 Aspect Ratio for PPTX and Key available;
• The template includes Font Icons and Vector Icons;
• It has a master slide layout and drag & drop photo menu.

For PowerPoint and Keynote, this Bundle contains Supper Set, PowerInfo, Amazing Set, Business Set, SpecificMaster, MultiUse Set, and Bonus Slides & Icons. For Illustrator, utilize our well-structured AmazingSet, BusinessSet, TheHugeSet, and 3ConecptPack. 

SAVE 98% and get it only for $19! In comparison, if you purchase each infographic separately, you will have to pay $800+.

Read our PixWork Graphic Designer interview for some great pieces of advice on how to become a professional web developer.

2021 Pitch Deck

It’s another stylish option for your perfect presentation. It is ideal for art projects, exhibition announcements, and online gallery planning, as here you have an opportunity to place your masterpieces in the pre-made placeholders. 

Be Presentation

Are you looking for a gentle, minimalistic design to emphasize your modern art view? Congratulations! You have found the template that will make your project sparkle. Here you can see a soft color palette that looks stylish, eye-catching, and will grab your client’s attention at first sight. 

This template is an amazing option for beauty & fashion industry companies. It has pastel shades, modern image placeholders, fancy accurate fonts. In a word, everything that depicts the contemporary approach to the business and art. You can replace the demo data with yours in a few clicks due to a user-friendly interface and drag & drop feature.

The coffee color scheme of the Mezzanine makes this template look warm and cozy. It has a clear layout, elegant image blocks, fancy fonts, and an overall look and feel. It is suitable for interior and exterior designers, furniture suppliers, and home decor providers. You can share the details about your offers, show team members and the latest statistics with the handy in-built tools.

Roemah - Furniture & Home Decoration

This layout is a top solution for a resume or portfolio creation. It has a calm and stylish cold color scheme, which attracts the viewers. Due to the various slide designs and their excellent structure, you can organize your speech’s flow, prepare the necessary data, represent all the aspects of your business in a trendy manner. 

This variant is a great solution for art and photo studios. You can paste your works in stylish geometric frames and emphasize the most valuable information with harmoniously arranged blocks. It breathes with creativity so that there is no doubt your customers will love it at first glance. 

Melissa is a calm and elegant PowerPoint template with a soft green color palette. It’s easy to show your brand, team, roadmap and attract new clients with well-structured slide layouts. It will be a great choice for fashion studios, stylists, and beauty specialists. 

First Goal - PowerPoint

For $18, this slick but bold blue template could be the turning point for your presentation. It utilizes different shades of blue to hit off a cool but important look. It agrees with Goldilocks’ Principle by making sure the colors complement each other. This template also gives you the ability to efficiently break down your topics of choice while also still looking visually pleasing and organized.

Mockingbird Pitch Desk Pro - PowerPoint Presentations

This theme is an excellent example of using a wave of cool colors to express different tones. It uses a cool yellow, with a hint of green in it, and a solid green and blue to ground the visual look. Because of its wide range of color, any topic can be used on these types of slides. It will be sure to carry over a sophisticated look of significance and importance.

Minimalis - PowerPoint Presentations

This is a beautiful cool color scheme template. It incorporates coordinating blue, green, and cyan shades to each slide in a minimalistic but professional format. It can be best used for business, statistics, or a collection of facts of any sort. Perfect for a first-day lecture as well.

Multi Profit Financial Company PowerPoint Presentations

This is the best look for any presentation you might encounter. This Business Plan template offers a simple but refreshing PowerPoint look with a monochromatic scheme. Don’t gloss it over though. Blue is a beautiful color that aids each slide in presenting your notes and information to the best of its ability.

21 Easy Tips To Create A Powerful Presentation For Your Business [Free Ebook]

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Warm colors include anything from red-violet to a primary, bold yellow. Red is a wildly identifiable color that represents love, passion, heat, joy, importance, and power. Yellows and pinks aid the scheme with playful, romantic, cheerful, and delicate shades for a more intimate and positive transformation to a PowerPoint. Orange can also be used to give an energizing or a warm tone to a slideshow possibly about health.

Infographic Pack

This option has a light and dark warm shades. Their combination looks harmoniously, makes it unusual and easy to perceive simultaneously. You can place all the necessary info regarding your company or startup, including statistics, team members, roadmap, and charts.

Danz Creative

Neon style is in great demand among artists, as it is one of the leading trends nowadays. It is catchy, bright, and vivid. It is a perfect match for music producers, designers, and photographers, as this option has everything you need to represent your services at their best.

Another pretty design for the corporate solutions. It has a greyish monotonous color scheme with bright accents. That is why it is easy to highlight the most important information, concentrate the viewer’s attention on these details. You can use it to present your new company project, make reports and collect statistics. 

Provision Creative PowerPoint Presentations

This is a great, bold presentation template that can be best used when presenting new ideas to a group of people. It uses red as a ground color base for the entire slideshow and utilizes black, white, and gray neutrals as aids.

Food Vintage PowerPoint Presentations

This beautiful orange template is great for people needing to showcase a portfolio containing a lot of pictures. The warm monochromatic color scheme gives off a beautiful, comfortable, and inviting tone to the presentation that showcases its contents off in the best way.

Layer Infographic PowerPoint Presentations

This colorful template gives you easy and simplistic access to displaying quick facts and information. Although it contains blues, greens, and some dark colors, its professional layout gives off a more warm and bold visual rather than something more relaxed, which cool colors are known for.

Miracle PowerPoint Template

This is a drop-dead gorgeous template that incorporates sunset colors of pink, orange, and red over neutral, black and white backdrops for a stunning display. Its formatting and typefaces are minimalistic to give your presentation that extra dash of elegance.

Creative Business - PowerPoint Presentations

This darker shade of fuschia, combined with other glorious shades of pink, complete this utopian PowerPoint presentation template. No sharp edges or intense graphics come with this specific choice found in TemplateMonster. It is all one slick, continuous PowerPoint that can be used with any topic of discussion and brings another level of professionalism to the table.

Gray, Kurt, et al. “ The Science of Style: In Fashion, Colors Should Match Only Moderately .” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science.

Bear, Jacci Howard. “ A Designer's Guide to Understanding Colors .” ThoughtCo, 8 Aug. 2017.

TOP PowerPoint Templates 2020

Free and Premium PowerPoint Templates FAQ

A PowerPoint presentation is a presentation created using Microsoft PowerPoint software. The presentation is a collection of individual slides that contain information on a topic. PowerPoint presentations are commonly used in business meetings and for training and educational purposes.

A template is a design scheme (colors, fonts, and so on) plus some content for a specific purpose—such as a sales presentation, a business plan, or a classroom lesson. You can choose from a number of PowerPoint templates made in WARM COLORS and COOL COLORS .

There is lots of website on the web for cool and free PowerPoint Template. One of them is TemplateMonster and a growing selection of templates made in different styles and for different purposes.

You can bring a more remarkable design to your project using Food Vintage PowerPoint Template , Miracle PowerPoint Template or other kinds of creative ready-made presentation templates. PowerPoint lets you enhance your presentation with animations, cool transition effects, and beautiful custom-made illustrations.

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50 Gorgeous Color Schemes From Award-Winning Websites

Written by: Nayomi Chibana

Color is such a fundamental part of the way we perceive the world that we often take it for granted. Think about it: From the youthful and vivid orange on someone's attire to the gray and gloomy sky above us, colors have the power to mold our perceptions of others and even the circumstances we find ourselves in.

This is why one of the most powerful tools in a designer's arsenal is color. It can either make or break a design; it can be the determining factor in engaging viewers or sending them promptly on their way.

Unless you're a seasoned designer, it takes time and effort to find a color combination that works within your website's design principles , which is why the design team at Visme decided to provide our users with a handy list of beautiful color schemes from websites that have been recognized by  Awwwards , the most prestigious award for Web designers and developers.

After receiving plenty of positive feedback on our first color combination guide , we knew that our audience would appreciate another round of gorgeous palettes to choose from. For those looking to enhance their design skills even further, consider using color grading software to fine-tune the hues and tones of your images and videos.

You can easily apply these to any of your Visme projects by using the hex codes provided to the right of each image, as seen in the GIF above.

1 Metallic Chic

This website color palette is full of metallic touches over a blue-toned gradient creating a chic 3D setup for Shopify’s product updates. These colors evoke a calm setting that inspires curiosity in the viewer.

2 Deep Vintage Mood

The vintage color palette on the Prometheus website includes an earthy terracotta with a deep blue gradient and the sleek black of the car. The metallic touches add an air of futurism to the scene.

3 Cool and Collected

Deep teals and bright metallics create an innovative color palette that transitions from dark to light in an animated video. This screengrab captures the website’s color palette in all its glory. Visit the site for the full experience.

4 Earthy and Serene

Earthy sandy tones add a sense of stability and warmth to this site’s color scheme. The slate gray for the text creates contrast with the clay background and the touches of sky blue and fern green give pops of color.

5 Texture and Contrast

Brewdistrict 24

This website doesn’t have just one color scheme; it has four, and the visitor can pick between them with a button. Each color scheme showcases a type of beer and consists of a textured muted background and a bright color accent: raspberry and green, teal and pink, blue-gray and orange, and olive green and light orange.

6 Mechanical and Floaty

The almost black text over a light gray background gives this site a mellow tone that contrasts with the bright blue accents in the intro video and squiggles as you scroll. The shapes floating in the header are the same color as the text and background, creating visual balance.

7 Pixel Intensity

The first scene of this website’s video-based hero section starts with a powerful red and black figure over a bright red background. Over her eyes are pixels in tones between black and red, plus a few blue lights that give contrast. The text has a blue tone that matches the flickering blue lights at the top. Click on the site’s link to watch the full video effect.

8 Gradient Pop

C2 Montreal

This website’s color scheme is based on a series of gradient circles interlaced with each other. The overlay creates many colors, but the main hues are sky blue, salmon-pink and bright orange. There are two accent colors, black and neon green, that draw attention to important information like dates and calls to action.

9 Cosmic Artistry

Jeff Koons Moon Phases

The chosen color scheme makes a lot of sense for a website about a sculpture of moon phases. The combination of gray-washed white, space blue, slate gray and soft gradients in the text creates a true cosmic mood.

10 Vibrant but Calm

Loket Design

In this website, we see the brave choice of making all text muted red. Usually, red isn’t a very easy-to-read color, but in this case, it’s well-balanced with a creamy-gray background. The pink object in the center adds another layer of depth to the color palette

11 Lively and Inviting

Anton & Irene

This beautiful combination of candy pink, green-yellow, lavender gray and pastel brown is ideal for designs looking to project a vibrant and inviting image.

12  Striking and Simple

It's hard to look away when faced with a minimalist yet striking design such as this. The dark smoky black background coupled with a striking electric blue make this a winning color scheme, useful for a variety of projects.

13 Red and Lively

BrightMedia

Using the red Polish flag as a basis for its color scheme, this attractive website combines a dark scarlet red with dark pink over a light gray background. Its lively and creative and, at the same time, refined in its use of a minimalist color scheme with different shades of the same hue.

14 Artsy and Creative

Julie Flogeac

This colorful combination of goldenrod, vermillion, dark blue and Dutch white brings to life this artsy and creative design for an online archive of musical works.

15 Elegant Yet Approachable

This unique blend of skin tones and more elegant colors such as dark imperial blue and ruby makes this the ideal color scheme for designs with nuanced messages. Reserved yet approachable; sophisticated yet fun: These are the kinds of gray-area messages that are effectively sent with this eye-pleasing combination.

16 Sleek and Futuristic

This eye-catching blend of blue sapphire, gunmetal gray and platinum on the one hand and peach-orange and tan on the other make for a modern and sleek color scheme. Used here to project a futuristic image, the cool, metallic colors are effectively tempered by more human, earthy tones.

17 Innovative and Audacious

eDesign Interactive

This in-your-face combination of Portland Orange, vivid yellow and jade on a dark gray, almost black background screams for your attention. Daring and full of energy, this color combination is perfect if you're going for a contemporary and audacious look.

18  Texturized and Dynamic

Dark sienna, charcoal and a burst of pale red violet make this color scheme a must-have for those looking for an elegant, futuristic yet dynamic look and feel. This color combination is versatile enough it can be used in projects ranging from modern-looking corporate reports to magazines and editorial content in general.

19 Minimal Yet Warm

Eggshell white, dark vanilla and taupe gray with jelly bean red highlights come together in this minimalist yet warm and inviting site. The burst of energetic color throughout the design makes this site elegant and inviting at the same time.

20 Vivid and Sharp

Dark cerise, royal purple and dark slate blue are blended in this beautiful and engaging site. The deep cerise acts as an accent color over the dark purple background, leading the viewers' eyes to the navigation menu as soon as they arrive on the site.

21  Clean and Energetic

Change Digital

The shades of blue and violet in this site are especially pleasing to the eye and evoke both energy and peace at the same time. Blueberry and sky blue are artfully combined with amethyst to give life to a refreshing and eye-pleasing color combination suitable for any design which aims to incite positive emotions.

22 Corporate and Traditional

If you're looking for a more muted and corporate look, this color scheme brings together shades of green, blue and brown that convey both professionalism and reliability. Phthalo Green, dark slate gray and pewter blue are just some of the colors used here.

23 Blue and Refreshing

A range of blues, from a bright lapis lazuli blue to aqua blue, make this a reserved yet beautiful color scheme. It can be used in a variety of different visuals, from muted corporate projects to design-related ones, as in this case.

24 Clean and Modern

A beautiful myrtle green and keppel come together here with azureish white and plain white in a simple but effective combination.

25 Vibrant and Elegant

This bright and elegant color scheme brings together a very saturated light cold blue with other shades, such as dark slate blue and pale cornflower blue. This combination is elegantly complemented by a bright and vivid shade of pink.

26 Youthful and Fun

Five Hundred

This playful and colorful scheme combines several vibrant hues: bright turquoise, tangerine yellow, and dark orchid. One thing to note is that whether you design your website yourself or use website redesign services , having color palettes decided can help make the design process easier.

27 Gorgeous Contrast

Immersive Garden

This sleek and ultra-modern site boasts an elegant and eye-catching combination with effective contrast. The bright yellow-green combines well with the black and gray in the background.

28  Effective Accent Colors

This is another example of a site that effectively uses a bright accent color to delineate a path for the viewers' eyes. In this case, the bright yellow draws the eye first to the title, then the path up the mountain and finally to the call-to-action buttons at the bottom of the page.

29  Modernity in Full Bloom

Nurture Digital

This combination of ocean green, aquamarine and sea green perfectly communicates the concept of modernity and at the same time, life and fertility, which is totally in sync with some of the words in the site's central message: digital, nurture and bloom.

30 Close to Nature

This earthy combination of green with a range of blues, from pale cerulean to teal blue, is perfect for conservative designs intended to project an image of stability, reliability and abundance.

Incorporate your favorite colors into your designs

• Easily input hex codes into Visme’s color picker
• Change color themes with the click of a button
• Brighten up your visual content

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31 Bright Pink and Pastels

Stinkdigital

This lively site brings together a bright raspberry pink with softer colors such as pastel blue and light pastel purple. The result is a wonderfully fresh and lighthearted color scheme.

32 Unique Combination

This unlikely blend of a range of dark pinks with a blues makes this a unique and engaging combination that can be used for a range of projects in different fields.

33 Striking Citrus Colors

Superhero Cheesecake

This fresh and citrusy blend of light greenish-yellows, lime green and black is a favorite among brands related to high-adrenaline sports and energy drinks.

34 Vivid Blues and Orange

The bright turquoise background and orange call-to-action button on this site may be a bit loud for some visitors, but the combination definitely conveys high-energy emotions, which go along with the image in the background.

35 Rose Red and Blueberry

Google Brand Studio

This range of pinks and reds with a bright blue call-to-action button creates plenty of visual interest and draws attention to itself immediately.

36 Audacious and Unique

This bold and unique combination of royal blue and gold, with vivid cyan highlights, captures the eye. Its unexpected and somewhat out-of-the-box thinking help make this website a winner.

37  Cheerful and Energetic

The cyan, blues and oranges on this page make this a particularly inviting and energetic design that can be applied to projects with an optimistic and uplifting message.

38 Snowy Yet Warm

Leavingstone

This wintery red and blue combination evokes both coolness and warmth at the same time, similar to images related to the winter holidays.

39 Rich and Colorful

This bright and rich color combination brings together a vivid yellow, blue and pink in this beautiful minimalist design, which can be used in lively yet professional projects.

40 Modern and Minimalist

This site pulls off an attractive design with just a few elements and a well-chosen color scheme. Turkish rose, middle green and yellow geometric shapes over a black and gray background are enough to catch the viewer's eye.

41 Intrepid and Fearless

Great Works Copenhagen

This effective color combination uses shades of blue and red to create a sense of boldness and ardent professionalism, ideal for designs looking to convey power and competence.

42 Flat Design Colors

Even if you're not familiar with the term flat design, you've probably seen it before: Websites with no drop shadows, no gradients, no bevels; in short, no three-dimensional elements.

While the site above adds a bit of a shadow effect to the boy on the right, it would technically qualify as flat design 2.0, which is nothing more than the addition of a few very subtle three-dimensional effects.

As seen here, flat design colors tend to be very bright and super saturated.

43 Eclectic and Peaceful

This unique combination of a coffee tone with sky blue and different shades of brown makes this a soothing and comforting color scheme: Something reminiscent of your favorite coffee house or lounge.

44 Classy and Traditional

This combination of cameo pink, UCLA blue and and granite gray brings to mind the kind of attire used by well-to-do, preppy college students. Although this makes sense considering the site's target audience, this scheme can also be used in any design looking for both seriousness and a bit of liveliness.

45 Accent Colors That Pop

stinkdigital

This Spotify site makes perfect use of a grape-colored accent against a very dark desaturated violet. This color scheme can be used for any design where you have a few elements or a central message you really want to pop.

Want to use these color schemes in your own visuals?

• Simply copy and paste the hex codes
• Use these colors in your presentations, printables, social graphics or any other visual content
• Apply professionally selected color schemes with one click

46 Corporate and Serious

Oxford blue with a few bright blue and red highlights make this a very traditional and corporate site. Blue and green, which convey professionalism and stability, are commonly used colors for corporate reports.

47 Glamorous and Fashion-Forward

This blend of gold, purple and black bring to mind words such as wealth and extravagance. Accordingly, this combination can be applied to designs related to fashion, luxury and high-end products.

48 Eye-Catching and Sleek

This beautiful combination of viridian green and telemagenta over a dark background creates heightened visual interest and draws the viewer in at first glance. Bold yet professional, this color combination, when used correctly, can even be applied to corporate designs.

49 Loud and In-Your-Face

Whereas the previous color scheme was eye-catching--but not too bright--this combination is purposely loud, to the point that it might repel some viewers. When looking to make a bold statement, though, this combination may work well when done right, as in this case.

50  Lively Yet Soothing

This relaxing yet cheerful combination of lemon, yellow, mint and dark cyan make this an ideal color scheme for any message looking to convey energy, optimism and, at the same time, harmony and growth.

FAQ on Website Color Schemes

Do you still have questions about website color schemes? These FAQs will help clear any doubts.

Q. What Color Scheme Should I Use for a Website?

The color scheme you choose for a website depends on various factors like brand identity, target audience and the emotions you want to evoke . However, a popular choice is to use a combination of three colors; two complementary and one accent.

The chosen colors must reflect brand personality while ensuring readability and visual appeal. It helps to start with a primary color from the brand palette and then select complementary or analogous colors to create a cohesive palette.

Get inspiration from guides like this one to choose your ideal website color combination.

Q. What Is the 3 Color Rule Website Design?

The three-color rule for website design states that the best color combination for websites consists of one main color, one complementary color and one accent color.

Typically, the primary color is a strong hue used in titles, big text and visual elements, the complementary color is the background, supporting visual elements or subtitles. Finally, the accent color stands out from the other two and is used for elements like buttons, links and captions.

Q. What Are the Best Colors for Technology Websites?

The best color combinations for websites in the technology industry include a mix of modern, sleek tones like blue, white, gray, black and silver. These colors convey professionalism, innovation and sense of trustworthiness. Additionally, incorporating pops of vibrant colors like red and orange sparingly can add visual interest and highlight key elements.

Q. How Many Colours Should a Website Have?

There’s no strict rule on the number of colors a website should have, but generally, it’s recommended to use a cohesive color palette consisting of around 3 to 5 colors.

A color palette with few tonalities ensures visual harmony and consistency throughout the website while allowing for variation and emphasis when needed.

Q. What Are the Calming Colors for Websites?

The best color combinations for websites that are calming include soft blues, greens and neutrals like light grays and beige.

These colors evoke feelings of tranquility, relaxation and balance, making them ideal for creating a calming browsing experience.

The best background color for websites that seek a calming effect are soft creamy grays and eggshell whites.

What is a Trustworthy Color Palette?

A trustworthy color palette often includes shades of blue, as it’s commonly associated with stability, reliability and professionalism.

Pairing blue with neutral tones like white, gray and beige can further enhance the sense of trustworthiness.

Additionally, incorporating accents of green or teal can evoke feelings of growth and harmony, reinforcing trust in the website and brand.

Q. What Is the Easiest Color to Read on a Website?

The most legible color on a website is black text on a white background. This high contrast combination ensures good readability for most people.

However, other combinations of dark text on a light background can also work well as long as there is sufficient contrast between the text and the background.

Create Beautifully Branded Content with Visme

Websites are the welcome mat to a brand’s existence on the web; they represent the brand identity and transmit its values and goals. But how can color be so important in that pursuit? It’s all about perception and color psychology . Colors transmit feelings, ideas and moods.

That said, the art and effort involved in choosing website color schemes isn’t lost on us; we know it’s tough. Hopefully, this collection of 50 website color palettes has inspired you to create a unique and perfect combination for your website and brand.

Once your website (and its color palette) is ready, use the Visme Brand Wizard to extract the colors, fonts and logos and get a full-set of beautifully branded templates. In less than a minute, you’ll have a complete collection of ready-to-use designs for both internal and external communications.

Get started with Visme today and take full advantage of how color can help grow your business through emotion and visual storytelling.

Design beautiful graphics you can be proud of with Visme.

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Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Nayomi Chibana is a journalist and writer for Visme’s Visual Learning Center. Besides researching trends in visual communication and next-generation storytelling, she’s passionate about data-driven content.

Home Blog Design Creating Custom Themes for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Creating Custom Themes for PowerPoint and Google Slides

In any visual communication medium, first impressions are crucial. In the presentation niche, the aesthetics of a slide deck often sets the tone before a single word is spoken, making it essential to work with a polished and professional appearance. On this behalf, PowerPoint templates and Google Slides templates are excellent tools to help designers convey their message in designer-approved slide layouts. Yet, one problem arises from this: having too many similar slide decks. 

Rather than panicking or outsourcing graphic design services to create unique results, we invite you to discover how to create custom themes for any PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation. From basics to advanced techniques, this guide will help you master the tools at your disposal and create unique slide decks. 

Table of Contents

What Is a Presentation Theme?

Benefits of custom themes for business presentations, the role of fonts, colors, and layouts, differences between powerpoint and google slides themes, accessing the slide master, customizing colors, setting up fonts, designing layouts, saving and applying custom slides in powerpoint, accessing the master slide, customizing theme colors, choosing and setting fonts, creating and modifying layouts, saving and reusing custom slides in google slides, incorporating logos and branding elements, using graphics and backgrounds, animation and transition customizations, ensuring accessibility in themes.

When discussing presentation software, we refer to a theme as a collection of design elements defining your presentation slides’ overall look and feel. Themes typically include a coordinated set of colors, fonts, slide layouts, background styles, and effects. These elements work together to ensure design consistency throughout the slide deck, helping the audience understand the presentation much faster.

Consistency and Professionalism

One of the primary benefits of working with custom themes in business presentations is maintaining brand consistency. A well-designed custom theme ensures that every slide adheres to your company’s brand guidelines, including colors, fonts, logos, and overall design aesthetic. This implies that your brand identity is consistently represented, which is especially important for targeting potential customers or investors, helping build brand awareness.

Communication and Flexibility

Not all pre-made templates offer the complete set of tools we need for a specific presentation type. Sometimes, we have to mix and match slides from templates to create that much-needed slide deck. If, on the other hand, we take the time to tailor a theme to include all the tools we require with the same aesthetic, the end result will look natural.

As a result of the previous point, custom slides give us the adaptability to accommodate a slide deck for multiple purposes depending on the topic and the audience, all this while ensuring that it aligns with your company’s core values.

Consistency Across Teams

A common mistake large organizations make is lacking common ground for visual communication standards. In-team meetings are done with any kind of template, so if we intend to repurpose the content for an external meeting, the slides must be created practically from scratch, as the content from one team doesn’t match others.

By implementing a custom theme, you standardize the presentation process across your organization. This ensures that every presentation, whether created by financials, HR, marketing, or operations, adheres to the same visual guidelines.

The choice of fonts, colors, and layout schemes in presentation themes is not accidental. Each element plays a vital role in shaping the presentation’s identity.

Fonts contribute to readability and mood. When we think about a business or formal presentation, a combination of serif and sans-serif typefaces immediately comes to mind. Sans serif fonts give a clean and modern aesthetic, while serif fonts speak of traditionalism. 

Consistent use of fonts is fundamental in any slide deck. To avoid amateurish results, stick to a maximum of 3 fonts (or variations of the same). You can learn more in our guide on fonts for presentations .

Colors evoke emotions. An incorrect color palette can distract your audience from the content you intend to share, whereas a well-chosen color palette helps to convey the message more effectively. 

We created a very detailed guide on color theory for presentations . In it, you can learn about the emotions that colors can transmit, how to pair colors and plenty of other useful content to customize the color in your presentation themes. 

Think of layouts as the skeleton of your slides. They ensure the content is structured, making it easier for the audience to process the information. 

Multiple design rules guide presentation layouts, such as the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, the grid system, working with negative space, and the Z-pattern and F-pattern layouts.

Although both presentation design tools are excellent for creating custom themes, there are some differences in the management and creation of themes for each platform:

• Flexibility : PowerPoint offers extensive customization options compared to Google Slides, especially in shapes, transitions, animation effects, and shadows. Custom gradients, advanced typography settings, and other interesting tools are unavailable to Google Slides users.
• User Interface : Although Google Slides lacks the full range of tools of PowerPoint’s Slide Master function, it is more user-friendly for customizing slides. PowerPoint’s Slide Master allows advanced users granular control over every aspect of the theme, but it can be challenging for newcomers.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility : Compatibility issues are well-known when migrating presentation slides from PowerPoint to Google Slides or Keynote. This is present when the slides contain complex shadow effects, animation effects that are only PowerPoint available, or if the illustrations contain curved texts. Although they can be “fixed,” the results are nowhere near as neat as PowerPoint can offer.

Therefore, presenters must consider these aspects when picking their preferred design tool and invest time and effort into creating custom presentation themes.

Creating Custom Themes in PowerPoint

Locating Slide Master is the first element you must learn to create a custom theme in PowerPoint. This tool controls the slide layout elements for different kinds of pre-established slides, which means you can add footers, branding elements, page numbers, graphic effects, etc.

Follow our guide on how to work with Slide Master for PowerPoint for more detailed information.

Now that we know where some of the elements of a PPT template are located, it’s time to discuss customizing the colors for our slides. This can be done in two ways: customizing color element by element or changing the color theme.

Select any element you want to recolorize and go to the Shape Format tab. You can use Shape Styles , or work your way with Shape Fill and Shape Outline . 

On the other hand, if you want to alter the entire color theme, which is a much faster procedure as it affects all slides alike, check our guide on how to use theme colors in PowerPoint .

As with the colors, you have two methods for editing the fonts in your PowerPoint theme. The first method is done inside Slide Master; you need to access Fonts and click on Customize Fonts .

This will open up a font customization dialog to select the preferred fonts for headings and body text.

The second way is to manually edit the fonts by selecting each text element and changing the font. It’s more time-consuming, but it may be the method that works best when we only need to alter certain text elements in the slide deck.

Keep in mind the compatibility issues if you work with non-common fonts. Since fonts are only displayed if installed on the streamer PC, keep a copy of your font families used or stick to pre-installed fonts.

Presenters can alter the existing layouts by entering Slide Master and repositioning placeholders, changing their sizes, or adding new placeholder elements (text, image, chart, etc.). The changes will be reflected on all slides that use this same layout.

Alternatively, we can create new layouts by selecting Insert Layout in Slide Master. This newly generated layout works as a blank canvas to which you can add whichever elements you prefer.

Say you created a PowerPoint custom template with all the elements that adapt to your presentation style and requirements. Now, it’s time to save it for backup purposes or to share it with your organization. First of all, inside Slide Master, select Close Master View to exit the Slide Master mode.

Next, switch to the Design tab and click on More in the Themes group. Select the option Save Current Theme . Give your created theme a name and save it to the default location (important!) to make it easy to access it for future presentations. 

A quick tip to export a copy of your created theme is to repeat the steps to save the theme after Save Current Theme but instead of overwriting the file, right-click on it and select Copy .

Now go to your desired backup folder location, right-click inside it, and select Paste . A copy of the original PowerPoint theme will be stored.

Creating Custom Themes in Google Slides

Google Slides’ version of PowerPoint Slide Master is quite simplified in terms of tools and user interface; it is known as Master Slide, and it can be easily accessed from Slide > Edit Theme . 

Check our article on how to edit master slide in Google Slides for further information.

Theme colors in Google Slides are managed at the theme level and can be edited from the Master view. Click on Color in the toolbar available in the Master view, and this will open the Theme Colors panel, where we can customize the colors used for text, background, accents, and links.

Google Slides allows us to modify the colors by clicking on the color box next to each element. This can be done by using color picking, selecting a color from the provided color palette, or adding a HEX code. Since the Master slide contains all the information for the slide deck, changes will be made globally once saved. If you need to edit an individual element, you can select it from the slide containing it and change the colors.

Font customization in Google Slides is pretty much similar to PowerPoint as it’s managed from the Master view. The main advantage here is Google Slides’ integration with Google Fonts. This means that you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues in your presentation. 

The font compatibility issues do not apply if you work with third-party extensions. In that case, you have to double-check if the recipient’s computer has that extension linked to the account to be used; otherwise, they won’t display.

Learn more about how to add fonts to Google Slide with our article.

You can create or modify existing layouts in the same fashion as you did with PowerPoint. Access the Master view, select any layout slide, and edit its content. 

If you need to create a brand new layout, click on the layout above the one you need to create and use the CTRL+M shortcut.

Since Google Slides doesn’t include a “Save Theme” option, the customized theme becomes part of a specific presentation. This means you have to make a copy of the presentation to reuse it or go to the Import Theme option to select a theme from a previous presentation or a slide deck you uploaded.

Learn our article on how to import Google Slides themes to master this procedure.

Advanced Customization Techniques

We have already explored the basics of creating a custom theme in PowerPoint and Google Slides. However, some advanced techniques can give you an extra edge, making your slides look more professional and boosting your brand identity.

A must-have for any professional presentation is to count on branding elements, such as logo and branding colors. Follow the steps mentioned above to apply your brand’s color palette to your custom presentation theme – and, as a tip, it’s best to stick with HEX values for assigning colors so you won’t have mismatches. 

Check out these articles for further reference on how to work with branding elements.

• How to create a logo presentation
• How to make a branded presentation
• How to present your brand identity

You can add custom backgrounds, like patterns created in Adobe Illustrator, by right-clicking on the slide in Slide Master and select Format Background . PowerPoint allows you to use solid colors, gradients, textures, and images as backgrounds. 

In case you work with Google Slides, the procedure is almost the same: selecting the Background option in the toolbar shown in Master view, or access it for a single slide as shown below. The possibilities are limited compared to PowerPoint, especially regarding complex gradients and shadow effects, so keep it simple.

Remember to work with images or textures that won’t pixelate on your slide. As a reference, always opt for 1920×1080 px when in doubt, but use optimized files to avoid making heavy-sized presentation files.

The two presentation software options we managed in this article offer significantly different animation and transition options. The first is PowerPoint, which has a more extensive offering and complex effects. Access the Transitions tab to add transitions to your slides or the Animations tab to add animated effects to make an entrance, add emphasis, or an exit animation for your slides.

Google Slides offers a limited selection of effects available via Insert>Animation or Slide>Transition .

Check the following articles for in-detail information about both animations and transitions:

• How to Animate on Google Slides
• How to Create PowerPoint Animations
• How to Remove Animations from PowerPoint and Google Slides
• How to Add Transitions in PowerPoint

Accessibility in presentations is a key element we must consider when designing custom themes. We can identify three main points that presenters ought to check:

• Color Contrast : There must be sufficient contrast between the text and background color, as otherwise, it compromises readability (especially for individuals with visual impairments). 
• Font Size : Choose a font large enough to be read easily from a distance. Typically, we use a minimum of 16 pt for body text. As we mentioned above, avoid using script or overly-decorated fonts. 
• Alt Text for Images : Alt text is not limited to SEO purposes. In presentations, using alt text can help people with visual impairments understand your slides as screen readers go through alt text.

Let’s take, for example, a well-known case in mass media content: Netflix. If we think about Netflix, we immediately associate its branding identity with the sans-serif caps logo and a red-and-black contrasting color scheme. The rest of its user interface works with the same sans-serif font in two weight options (bold and regular), using different sizes to distinguish between headings and body copy.

From an accessibility point of view, the Netflix website’s contrast ratio is 4.8:1, and according to WebAIM , text and text images ought to have at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio. Regarding text, they use a 48px sans serif bold font for the headings and a 24px sans serif regular font for the body text: a 2:1 ratio.

Applying these rules to a presentation slide, here’s a fine example of what an accessible slide looks like.

Creating custom PowerPoint and Google Slides themes is a powerful way to ensure your presentations are visually consistent, professional, and aligned with your brand identity. By understanding the key elements of a theme—such as colors, fonts, and layouts—and how to customize them in each platform, you can create polished presentations that effectively communicate your message.

Remember that consistency is the key to a successful presentation theme. By adhering to best practices in design and accessibility, testing your themes across different platforms and devices, and keeping your design elements simple yet impactful, you can create presentations that resonate with your audience and elevate your brand.

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Category 9 minutes read

10 creative ideas for presentations

December 8, 2022

Ready to step up your presentation game? Let’s talk about creative ideas for presentations so you can deliver killer presentations every time. Whether you’re preparing a pitch deck for potential investors or onboarding new hires, you’ll need an engaging presentation to keep your audience interested. That’s right: even if you’re already a pro at public speaking, creative Powerpoint presentations can instantly upgrade your next meeting.

So, what’s the secret to creative presentations? You don’t have to spend hours on every slide, but you should design your slides to impact your audience. Well designed slides can add more power to your words, and they can make you feel more confident during presentations.

Why should you make presentations?

Creative ideas for presentations might not be easy to come by, but they’re important. Why? Presentations are all about storytelling. From business ideas to online classes, presentations offer a unique opportunity to inspire, educate, and persuade your audience.

At the same time, they’re an incredibly flexible (and cost-effective!) communication tool. Even if you’re using presentation design templates , you’ll have the flexibility to tweak the design based on your needs. This way, you can create presentations for different audiences—all while easily adding and removing information to pique your listeners’ interest.

Types of presentation slides

There are all kinds of creative ideas for presentations, but they ultimately serve a few similar purposes. Before diving into presentation design, you’ll need to choose the right slides. Remember: you need well designed slides to leave a lasting impact on your audience. Not only that, but your slides should be visually impactful, easy to understand, and convey key information in just a few words.

So, how can you choose the best slides for your next presentation? Here are some of the most common slides to inspire your presentation design.

Informative presentations

Informative presentations are educational, concise, and straight to the point. While other presentations might entertain or inspire their audience, informative presentations share information to educate their audience.

For example, you might create informative slides during an onboarding program. During new hire onboarding, HR needs to explain what benefits employees will receive, how to file complaints, where employees can find information, and other important hiring details.

Educational presentations

While informative presentations are typically used in the business world, educational presentations are usually used in academics. They’re a great communication tool for sharing ideas, detailing study results, or presenting a hypothesis.

In both in-person and online classrooms, teachers give educational presentations daily. Using beautiful presentation slides, eye-catching visuals, and fun design elements can help keep students interested while conveying key information.

Progress reports

Your business builds a new marketing strategy to achieve its long-term goals. After the newest marketing campaign starts driving results, it’s time to report on the campaign’s progress. Progress report presentations share updates, progress toward deadlines, collected data, and potential areas of improvement.

Inspirational presentations

One of the biggest examples of inspirational presentations? TEDTalks. During TEDTalks, motivational speakers inspire people to rethink their approach or change their behavior.

Most inspirational presentations aren’t as life-changing as TEDTalks, but they keep their audience engaged. For example, a company overview presentation might present information about a company, from its origins to values. Most importantly, it tells the company’s story to show listeners what the company stands for.

Infographic presentations

Whether you’re reporting marketing stats or presenting study results, infographics can be your MVP.

Simply put, an infographic is a multimedia graphic that helps you share information through beautiful designs. It’s an amazing tool for highlighting key statistics, visualizing data, and flexing your creative muscles to spark your audience’s curiosity.

Top 10 unique presentation ideas

Right, so let’s get to our creative ideas for presentations section. Most people tune out of presentations within the first 10 minutes . You need an engaging presentation that keeps your audience hooked, but finding creative ideas for presentations isn’t always easy.

The good news? Whether you’re presenting your master thesis or marketing analytics, it’s possible to create exciting presentations that don’t put your audience to sleep. Here are the best creative Powerpoint ideas to upgrade your next presentation.

1. Channel your inner minimalist

When it comes to unique presentation ideas, minimalism is one of the best ways to make an impact. The key to minimalist design is including just enough information and visual detail to keep your audience engaged. When done right, minimalist presentation slides can make your audience feel relaxed and focused.

2. Use a monochrome color palette

A monochrome color palette uses a single hue with different strengths. For example, you might create a presentation with different shades of orange. For the best results, change the background color to the palest shade, and use the strongest shade for the title. You can even make your photos match by adding an orange-tinted filter.

3. Tell an amazing story

If you want to leave a lasting impact on your audience, storytelling is the tool you need to create a memorable presentation. Sharing personal stories, whether they’re funny or inspirational, can help you connect with your audience and make your presentation more meaningful.

4. Make an impact with bold fonts

Want to draw your audience’s attention to the slide title? Use a bold, chunky font to make your title stand out (bonus points if your title is short, sweet, and straight to the point). The best presentation fonts are easy to read with minimal visual decorations and sharp corners.

5. Experiment with different textures

Mix up your presentation design with different textures, like scrunched paper or textile backgrounds. Here, you might experiment with different types of backgrounds to match your topic. For example, if you’re creating a back-to-school presentation , use notebook paper to match your student’s note-taking style.

6. Use a geometric background

A geometric background can add a pop of color to your presentation without distracting your audience. If you’re feeling bold, use dynamic titled polygons to create movement. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a softer vibe, use circular backgrounds to infuse your slides with creativity.

7. Explain complex concepts with mind maps

Presenting study results? Reporting marketing stats? Instead of playing it safe with snore-worthy slides, keep your presentation fresh with mind maps. By creating mind maps, you’ll be able to showcase complicated information in a visually impactful way.

8. Engage your audience with questions

Make your presentation more interactive by asking questions to your audience. For example, to keep your slides minimal, try displaying only the question on the slide. Once the audience has pitched in their opinions and answers, you can click to the next slide to reveal the actual answer.

9. Stay on brand

Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention, you need a consistent design to keep everyone on the same page. When designing your slides, use your brand’s style guidelines to choose the right color scheme, font styles, and design elements.

10. Replace bullet points with fun design elements

Let’s face it: bullet points can get boring, especially if you’re using them on every slide. Instead of using the same design over and over, create fun slides by replacing boring bullet points with fun designs, like icons, stickers, and pictograms.

Apply creative ideas for presentations through Picsart

Now that we’ve learned all about creative ideas for presentations, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice. An amazing presentation can bring your story to life, helping you keep your audience engaged with pro-grade slides.

Even if you’re not a seasoned designer, you can add fun design elements, bold color palettes, and attention-grabbing visuals with Picsart. Here’s how to bring your creative vision to life with a professional slideshow.

On the web:

1. Open the Picsart Slideshow Maker and start a new project.

2. Choose the desired size for your slideshow. Then, click Upload to upload your own photo or video.

Or, you can explore photos and videos from the Picsart library.

3. After you’ve picked your favorite design, click Text on the left panel sidebar to add text to your slide.

4. To add music, click Audio to explore our library of #FreeToUse music.

5. Click the + button on the right panel sidebar to add a new slide.

6. When you’re finished, click Export , choose the image quality and file type, and download your slideshow.

1. Open the Picsart app and tap on the plus sign (+) to start a new project. 2. Scroll down to Video and choose Slideshow . Then, choose the pictures you’d like to include in your slideshow. Or, you can tap Search to explore the Picsart photo library. 3. After you’ve picked your photos, tap Next .

4. Choose your desired slideshow size and add transition effects to your slides. 5. Upgrade your slideshow with fun effects, music, text, and stickers to engage your audience.

Create at the Speed of Culture

Picsart is a photo and video editing platform and creative community. A top 20 most downloaded app worldwide with over 150 million monthly active users, its AI-powered tools enable creators of all levels to design, edit, draw, and share content anywhere. The platform has amassed one of the largest open-source content collections in the world, including photos, stickers, backgrounds, templates, and more. Used by consumers, marketers, content creators and businesses , Picsart tools fulfill both personal and professional design needs. Picsart has collaborated with major artists and brands like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app or start editing on web today, and upgrade to Gold for premium perks!

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• Presentation Ideas for Students: Easy and Unique Topics

Presentations at school are not just an everyday task: they are your chance to show you are a bright student and demonstrate your vision. Adding some creativity and your personal touch to your presentations will provide an extra level of interest and help your presentation remain in people’s memories.

You don’t need to be a techie, either. Software packages such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Canva are easy to use and provide many colorful devices to make your ideas visually striking.

To create this article, we invited experienced presentation designers and effective presenters to share tips and original ideas for presentations that will help students succeed. So, choose an interesting topic from our list and create a presentation using the tips from our experts!

List of Topic Ideas for Different Categories

As you already know, the right topic needs to appeal to you, fit the occasion, and hold the interest of your audience. Here's a more detailed checklist of the characteristics of the best presentation topics:

• Engaging: Captures and holds the audience’s interest throughout the presentation.
• Relevant: Relates to trends and topics in your field of study or work.
• Researchable: Information and resources are available to support your claims and arguments.
• Brief and Concise: Easily understood by the target audience with no convoluted ideas or overused terminology.
• Original: Offers a fresh perspective or approach, distinguishing it from common topics.
• Appropriately Scoped: Well-suited for the allotted presentation time; not too broad or too narrow.

Thus, when selecting presentation topics for students, consider these factors to create an excellent presentation. You can also explore what a good essay topic looks like to get more inspiration and ideas for your presentation.

So, check out our list of 100 PowerPoint presentation topics for students, which has been thoroughly structured to make it easier for a school or university student to choose a topic!

10-Minute Presentation Ideas

You must pick your subject carefully if you have 10 minutes to make an impression. It has to be brief and compelling. Here are ten short and memorable ideas for presentation topics:

• The Future of Renewable Energy Sources
• The Psychology Behind First Impressions
• The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life
• Minimalism: More Than Just Decluttering
• The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health
• Brief History of the Internet
• How to Start a Small Business
• The Basics of Personal Financial Management
• The Importance of Voting in Democratic Societies
• The Benefits of Daily Physical Activity

If you need help creating a great topic, consider consulting expert writers. The PowerPoint presentation writing service can provide engaging presentation examples for students. Moreover, experienced authors will help you with any part of your presentation if required.

Good Higher School Presentation Ideas

School presentations for high school students can be a perfect way to introduce exciting topics and help them broaden their educational horizons. Here are ten PowerPoint presentation topics for higher school students:

• The Effects of Global Warming on Our Planet
• The Evolution of Pop Music
• Understanding the Stock Market
• The Science of Habit Formation
• Exploring Career Options in Technology
• The Role of the United Nations in World Peace
• The Influence of Advertising on Consumer Behavior
• Teenage Mental Health: Understanding and Support
• The History and Impact of Comic Books
• Cybersecurity: Protecting Yourself Online

Business Topics for Presentation at University

Business presentations must be informative, explaining industry trends, strategies, and innovations. Here are the ten most impressive business slideshow ideas for students:

• The Impact of E-commerce on Traditional Retail
• The Role of Social Media in Modern Marketing Strategies
• Startup Culture: Evolution and Impact
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Examples and Outcomes
• The Future of Work: Remote vs. In-Office
• Blockchain Technology in Business
• Global Economic Trends and Their Impact on Local Businesses
• Customer Relationship Management: Best Practices
• Business Ethics in the Age of Technology
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Strategy and Outcomes

>> Find more business research paper topics  for presentation  at StateOfWriting!

Medical and Nursing Topics for Presentation

Medical and nursing presentations usually focus on today's issues, innovations, and new or best practices. This list covers ten interesting topics for presentation for healthcare professionals and students:

• The Role of Telemedicine in Modern Healthcare
• Advances in Robotic Surgery
• The Impact of Mental Health on Physical Well-being
• Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice
• The Importance of Patient Education in Chronic Disease Management
• Breakthroughs in Alzheimer's Disease Research
• Handling Medical Emergencies in Remote Areas
• The Evolution of Nursing Roles in Healthcare
• Strategies to Combat Antibiotic Resistance
• Patient Safety and Quality Improvement in Hospitals

Unique Management Topics for Presentation

Good management is at the heart of a successful enterprise. The following ten creative presentation ideas explore leadership, strategy, and operational effectiveness:

• Leadership Styles and Organizational Impact
• Change Management: Strategies for Successful Implementation
• The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
• Project Management Techniques for Efficient Workflow
• Cross-Cultural Management and Its Challenges
• Corporate Governance and Accountability
• Managing Remote Teams: Tools and Tips
• Innovation Management in Companies
• Crisis Management: Case Studies and Lessons Learned
• Performance Management and Employee Development

Interesting Psychology Topics for Presentation

Psychology is a human science that seeks to understand the mechanics of our minds and behaviour. Here are ten topics to do a presentation on psychology that are sure to captivate and educate any audience:

• The Psychology of Motivation and its Impact on Success
• Cognitive Biases and Decision-Making
• The Effects of Stress on Mental and Physical Health
• Child Development: The Role of Nature vs. Nurture
• The Influence of Personality on Lifestyle Choices
• Psychological Techniques in Pain Management
• The Impact of Social Media on Teen Self-Esteem
• Memory Formation and the Mechanisms of Forgetting
• The Role of Therapy in Treating Anxiety Disorders
• The Psychological Effects of Color on Mood and Behavior

Best Biology Topics for Presentation

Life comes in many forms, and biology is the science that explores them all. Here are ten easy topics for presentation on biology:

• The Genetic Basis of Inherited Diseases
• The Role of Microbiomes in Human Health
• Conservation Strategies for Endangered Species
• The Process and Implications of CRISPR and Gene Editing
• Plant-Animal Interactions and Their Ecological Impact
• Marine Biology: Deep Sea Ecosystems and Their Mysteries
• The Biology of Aging and Longevity
• Biotechnology in Agriculture: Innovations and Ethics
• Behavioral Ecology and Animal Communication

Good Physics Topics for Presentation

Physics helps people understand the general laws of the Universe. Here are ten unique topics for presentation in college:

• The Theory of Relativity and Its Applications
• Quantum Mechanics: Principles and Paradoxes
• The Physics of Black Holes and Neutron Stars
• Advances in Particle Physics and the Large Hadron Collider
• The Role of Physics in Renewable Energy Technologies
• Nuclear Fusion: The Future of Energy?
• The Science of Thermodynamics and Its Modern Applications
• Astrophysics: Exploring the Composition of the Universe
• The Physics of Sound and Music
• Fluid Dynamics in Nature and Technology

Chemistry-Related Topics for Presentation

Chemistry is central to many innovations around us and our daily experiences. Let’s explore ten presentation topic ideas explaining chemistry from practical applications and theoretical research:

• The Chemistry of Everyday Life: Soaps and Detergents
• Organic Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Development
• Nanotechnology in Chemistry: Materials and Applications
• The Role of Chemistry in Environmental Conservation
• Catalysis and Its Importance in Industrial Processes
• The Future of Materials Science with Polymers and Composites
• Biochemistry: Proteins and Enzymes at Work
• The Chemistry of Food and Flavor
• Electrochemistry and Its Applications in Energy Storage
• Chemical Safety and Toxicology in the Modern World

Tips for Creating Powerful Presentations

Shaping the perfect presentation is vital to persuade the audience to listen. Mastering the art of presentation can impact your success. Our experts have kindly provided basic advices for a successful presentation:

• Know your Audience: Match the content to your audience's interests, level of knowledge, and expectations.
• Lead with a Hook: The story or compelling start that helps you capture attention and achieve the tone you want for your presentation.
• Use Visuals Wisely: Relevant visuals can support and enhance your message – but must never overshadow it.
• Practise Makes Perfect: Rehearse your speech beforehand many times to deliver it more fluently and confidently.
• Make Your Presentation Interactive: Add questions, interactions, and active engagement with your audience to keep them interested.

To be effective with presentations, you must know your audience, have a killer beginning, use stage-appropriate visuals, practice, and use a strong engagement hook.

Elevate Your Presentation to Leave a Lasting Impression

To sum up, picking interesting presentation ideas for students and adding a touch of creativity to them can turn school assignments into memorable experiences. You can also use visual aids or UK writing service to make your presentation eye-catching and showcase your unique perspectives and insights. Your efforts will impress and inspire those who listen.

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Combining colors in PowerPoint – Mistakes to avoid

By Robert Lane

Why do some color combinations work so well in your presentations, and why do other color combinations make your presentations difficult to watch? PowerPoint expert Robert Lane explains how to combine colors to make effective and professional-looking slides.

With PowerPoint You have all the Tools but ...

Newer versions of PowerPoint have marvelous tools for helping even the “artistically challenged” among us get beyond bullet points and create effective, graphically appealing, downright professional-looking visual slides. That’s fantastic! Now the question is … how should we use those tools? Most of us have never been trained as graphic artists and don’t necessarily know the rules for making visually attractive and meaningful content.

Because the discussion of “effective visual communication” might fill an entire book, let’s narrow the focus here to concentrate solely on the use of color in PowerPoint. What are good, and not so good, ways of using color on slides?

Color Groups

One way to approach colors is to classify them into two broad groups: warm and cool colors (Figure 1). Reds, oranges, and yellows are referred to as warm colors. They tend to pop out and attract attention—especially a bright red. Greens, blues, and purples are cool colors. They tend to recede into the background and draw less attention, especially darker shades. White and very light colors also catch the eye, whereas black and very dark colors generally are less noticeable.

Figure 1 – Color Groups

Note, however, that above effects are not absolutely fixed. They can flip. The quantity and contrast of one color compared to another also comes into play. For example, if we place small black shapes on a solid white slide background, the black shapes pop out as more noticeable, versus the sea of white around them (Figure 2). In this case, the brain is more interested in figuring out if shapes communicate some form of meaning or pattern, rather than merely reacting to their color characteristics. Not surprisingly, some optical illusions take advantage of this phenomenon.

Figure 2 – Color Quantity and Contrast

Consider the color groups, as well as quantity and contrast, when combining colors on slides. It’s pretty safe to combine warm colors with each other and shades of brown (Figure 3) or cool colors with each other and shades of gray (Figure 4). White, black, and beige are neutral colors and go well with all colors in either group.

Figure 3 – Warm Colors Group

Figure 4 – Cool Colors Group

Where most PowerPoint designers get into trouble is combining colors across the warm/cool boundary. Absolutely NEVER do what is depicted in Figures 5 and 6. If you stare at either of these images for very long, your eyes begin screaming. They have trouble distinguishing interactions between the color wavelengths, resulting in fatigue and discomfort. Mixing bright blues and reds is a terrible practice to inflict upon audiences, and unfortunately it happens all too often. The same goes with mixing reds and greens.

Figure 5 – Red and Blue Color Combinations Cause Eye Strain

Figure 6 – Red and Green Color Combinations also Cause Eye Strain

A red and green combination also brings up the issue of color blindness, which apparently affects approximately 7 percent of men and 1 percent of women. Inability to notice the difference between red and green colors is the most common form of color blindness. For example, let’s say you place green text on a red background, as in Figure 6. If the text color’s shading (amount of darkness) has little contrast with the background color’s shading, some viewers will not be able to read that text at all! Avoid such problems by never mixing these two colors, especially in a text versus background combination.

Julie Terberg, a graphic designer and PowerPoint MVP, also points out that using the themes in PowerPoint can make your color combination choices easier (Figure 7). Theme colors have been chosen to look good together (although, still use caution) and to work well in both light and dark presentation environments.

Figure 7 – Using Theme Colors Make Your Choices Easier

The Forgiving Nature of Color Gradients

Interestingly enough, the process of combining colors is much more forgiving when using gradients—colors that fade into each other.  PowerPoint offers a greatly improved, user-friendly interface for making gradients, by the way (Figure 8).

Figure 8 – Adding a Gradient to a Shape

Because nature regularly blends colors this way (think of a sunset), we are used to seeing colors gradually transition from one hue to the next, meaning that you can get away with combining just about any color set and still end up with a reasonably attractive and professional look. Just make sure the transitions are gradual.

Try blending colors to make a custom-designed slide background, a decorative shape—perhaps for a sectional background (Figure 9) or navigation button (Figure 10)—or even jazzy, 3-D text (Figure 11).

Figure 9 – Purple, Gold and Gray Gradient inside a Shape

Figure 10 – Gradient-filled Shape used as a Navigation Button

Figure 11 – Gradient-filled PowerPoint Text

Color and Text Considerations

Going back to the issues of color quantity and contrast (black dots on the white background), those considerations are especially important when slides contain text. Unless such text exists in a navigation button or is purely decorative, generally the goal is for audience members to be able to read it, right? Therefore, opting for a simple background that contrasts sharply with the text color helps the message pop out and attract attention (Figure 12).

Figure 12 – Text Color should Contrast Sharply with a Background

Placing text on top of pictures is popular but can be tricky because controlling the contrast then becomes more difficult. The solution, again, is to make sure the text color contrasts as much as possible with a majority of the picture’s colors and then add a distinct shadow or glow to the text (Figure 13).

Figure 13 – Shadow on Text Helps it Appear more Distinct on top of a Picture

General Color Issues

Here are a few additional PowerPoint-related color tips we’ve discovered over the years:

Using red text is almost never a good idea. That particular color, of all colors, tends to washout when projected on a screen if any kind of unwanted ambient light also hits the screen—perhaps from sunlight streaking through a window or glare from a poorly aimed stage light.

Unless there is a particularly good reason for using brightly colored text … don’t. Stick with white or light beige on a dark background or black (or otherwise very dark color) on a light background. Your slides will have a more professional appearance as a result.

Stay away from gradients in text unless the words are large and intended to be primarily decorative in nature.

When using gradients, simplicity is your friend. Limit the number of colors, and, whenever possible, try using combinations that are readily found in nature for maximum appeal.

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What Are Color Gamuts and Color Spaces in TVs and Monitors, and Do They Matter?

Back in the 1950s, when color TV was invented, everything was simple. TVs were either color or black-and-white, and you could tell at a glance which was which. Today, you can find TVs and monitors that somehow promise more colors, but what does that mean? And why do manufacturers use confusing jargon like color spaces and color gamuts to explain it? Let’s break it down.

Most likely, you've seen the terms “color space” or “color gamut” while shopping for a high-dynamic-range TV , but you’ll also see them pop up around certain computer monitors , especially ones designed for gaming. Sometimes a manufacturer will say that a display covers some percentage of a particular color space, like DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020.

If none of these words mean anything to you, then it’s probably fine if you ignore them. All most people really need to know is whether their display supports HDR—a significant upgrade to color displays that can produce over a billion colors in bright, vivid detail . But if you do a lot of media editing, or you care about getting the most accurate color reproduction you can, here’s how to interpret all the jargon.

What Is a Color Gamut?

As you might recall from middle school science class, color is simply how our squishy human eyes perceive different wavelengths of light. The spectrum of wavelengths that we can see is only a small subset of the entire electromagnetic spectrum . So, a color display will show all the colors that a human eye can see. Right?

Well, not exactly. In fact, every display you’ve ever seen only shows a small portion of the colors that your eyes are capable of perceiving. That portion is what’s referred to as a “color gamut.” A color gamut refers to the range of colors within the visible light spectrum that the display is capable of reproducing.

It might not seem like there are colors missing from your display, because you see approximations of most colors, but there are certain colors that simply can’t be shown . For a simple comparison, SDR (standard dynamic range) TVs are capable of displaying over 16.7 million colors—more specifically, there are 16.7 million unique combinations of the 256 different levels of red, green, and blue that the display can produce.

An HDR TV, on the other hand, is capable of at least 1,024 different levels of red, green, and blue each, for over 1.07 billion unique color combinations. This dramatically expands how much of the visible spectrum that displays can reproduce. But it also means that all the content that you see on your display—every show, movie, or video game—has to be created with those new color options in mind.

What Is a Color Space?

The term “color space” refers to not only a range of colors, but a specific way of organizing colors in a way that device manufacturers can refer to and support. For example, the sRGB color space is used to specify the 16.7 million colors that most SDR monitors and TVs have been producing for years.

Most of these color spaces are defined in part by their relation to the CIE 1931 color space , which quantifies all of the colors that are visible to the human eye. The plethora of other color spaces out there define a subset of these colors, with some used to define colors for purposes like printing. When shopping for a monitor or TV, there are a few key ones worth keeping your eye out for:

• sRGB/Rec. 709: sRGB is the color space you’re probably most familiar with. Based on the Rec. 709 standard , sRGB has been the default for most web content for years. It’s also relatively small, and only covers about 35.9 percent of visible colors (as defined by the CIE 1931 standard).
• DCI-P3: This is the second color space you’re most likely to encounter. It was first developed for movie theater projection systems, but it has quickly become an upgraded standard over sRGB. DCI-P3 covers more colors than sRGB, with much finer variation of the shades of colors within it. It covers around 53.6 percent of the CIE 1931 space.
• Rec. 2020: The Rec. 2020 spec is an upgrade over Rec. 709, and like its predecessor, it includes its own corresponding color space, though you’ll more often see “Rec. 2020” used as a shorthand for the color space itself. It covers 75.8 percent of CIE 1931, making it one of the most robust color spaces you’re likely to encounter. It’s also overkill for most needs. High-end TVs sometimes cover most or all of the Rec. 2020 color space, but unless you need to do professional color grading or design work, you probably don’t need to seek this out for your monitor needs.

These color spaces are used as a reference point by everyone from display manufacturers to filmmakers and content creators designing their content to be seen on them.

What Does a Percentage of a Color Space Mean?

So, if a color gamut refers to the range of colors that a display can reproduce, and a color space is a standard that defines exactly how those colors are reproduced … why do so many monitors and TVs say they cover things like “97 percent of DCI-P3” or “125 percent of sRGB”? This is because the colors a display is capable of reproducing isn’t as strict as color space definitions.

You can think of it a bit like a Venn diagram . The color gamut that an individual display is capable of reproducing is one circle ( or triangle , in this case), and the color space definition is the other. Intuitively, you would think that the percentage number listed on display specifications would refer to how much the two overlap—so, “ 99 percent of DCI-P3 ” would mean that a display is capable of showing 99 percent of the colors that DCI-P3 defines.

Most of the time that is the case, but sometimes—especially when you see a percentage over 100—manufacturers will instead use this number to refer to how much bigger the display’s color gamut is compared to a color space, not how much it overlaps with it. So, for example, if a display advertises “125 percent sRGB,” that usually means the color gamut has an area that’s 25 percent larger than sRGB, but it might not perfectly encompass every color within sRGB.

In the above image, for example, you can see the results of a measurement I took (using a Spyder X2 Ultra ) of the monitor I used while writing this piece. The AdobeRGB color space has a lot more color coverage in the greens and blues, while this display can cover more reds, oranges, and yellows.

This tool (correctly) defines the amount of overlap as 88 percent. However, the overall size of this monitor’s color gamut is about the same, if not a little bigger, than AdobeRGB. It wouldn’t exactly be dishonest to say this display’s color gamut is some percent larger than AdobeRGB, but it can give the misleading impression that it covers every color within AdobeRGB and then some.

For most people, this won’t really be a concern, but it is something to pay attention to if you do professional media work. If this is something that concerns you, then keep an eye out for the phrase “color coverage .” This term refers specifically to how much of a color space a display’s gamut covers, and avoids any ambiguity. If all else fails, watch for specifications that stop at 100 percent.

If you’re not doing professional work and just want a nice display, then you probably don’t need to care about most of this. In general, anything that gets within 95 percent of DCI-P3 is going to be great—or at least sufficient that you can pick a monitor based on other factors. We also put all the monitors we test through plenty of testing ourselves, so if you don’t want to try to decipher all of this and would rather get straight to finding a great display, check out our Best Computer Monitors guide.

What Else Affects How Colors Look?

Color gamuts and color spaces are a highly technical aspect of how your TV, monitor, or any other display shows images. If you're a media professional, you probably need to learn about all this. But what if you just want a nice-looking TV in your living room? If that's the case, there are other specs you can look to that will be more relevant for your needs. For example:

• Peak brightness: How bright your display gets will affect how much it can compete with the ambient light in your room. (Notably, color gamut tests have to be done in a dark room for just this reason!) For TVs, you'll generally want something that can reach at least 800 nits for HDR content, while monitors can get by with closer to 500-600—though some high-end monitors are getting even brighter than that.
• High Dynamic Range (or HDR): Most displays for years used SDR, which was capable of producing around 16.7 million colors, but HDR can pull off over a billion. It leads to richer, more vivid images, plus more striking contrasts between light and dark areas of an image. The most common types of HDR are HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, with the latter being the best of these.
• Contrast ratio: The difference between how bright and how dark a display can get is referred to as the contrast ratio, and it's a big deal when it comes to picture quality. A dark, starry night scene doesn't look as vivid if the “black” parts of the display are actually a light gray. Some panel types —like OLED displays—are better at getting darker blacks, which can make all the difference in the world to your viewing experience.

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