Choosing the Right Color Palette for Effective Slide Design

What is a color palette?

A color palette encompasses a range of colors, shades, and tones utilized in designs, interior decorating schemes, or artworks, and is often regarded as a representation of a company’s identity when used for branding purposes.

How do you pick a color palette?

While there is no definitive approach to selecting a color palette, a straightforward method involves choosing one or two primary shades that embody your organization’s values and building upon them using the resources provided in this list.

Creative Color Combinations

Here are several rephrased versions of the sentence:

·         The first color palette exudes a powerful and memorable vibe with its combination of red and grey.

·         Palette number two is vibrant and youthful, incorporating plum, orange, teal, and grey.

·         Retro Rocks is the theme of the third color palette, featuring dark blue, tan, and green shades.

·         The fourth palette, Dominating Duo, combines teal and red for a strong and impactful effect.

·         Color palette number five, Authoritative Punch, combines dark green and tan to create an authoritative impression.

·         Crystal Clear, the sixth palette, showcases a combination of turquoise, teal, and blue.

·         Palette number seven, named Its American-ish, brings together the classic pairing of red and blue.

·         Opposite Attraction, the eighth color palette, employs blue and yellow to create a captivating contrast.

·         The ninth palette, Down to Earth vs. Royal, juxtaposes brown and gold with dark purple for a unique and regal feel.

Background graphics or patterns:

Careful consideration is necessary when incorporating graphics or patterns into presentation slides, particularly in terms of selecting optimal colors. This is crucial as certain areas may have backgrounds that transition from dark to light or vice versa.

When utilizing charts or patterns, it is advisable to maintain subtlety, ensuring a subtle distinction between the lightest and darkest shadows in the background.

One commonly employed effect for graphics and logos is the embossing effect, which imparts a lifted appearance against the backdrop, resulting in a nuanced effect without significantly altering the background color shadows.

The careful choice of suitable background graphics or patterns serves as a method to determine the most appropriate colors for presentation slides.

How to Choose the Best Presentation Color Palette

1.         Consider the Content (and the Audience)

2.         Remember Readability

3.         Don’t Forget: Accessibility Matters

Color Combination to Avoid

There are certain color combinations that should be avoided for various reasons. One such combination is red and green, which clash with each other and can be challenging to read, especially for individuals with color deficiency.

Another combination to steer clear of is orange and blue, as these colors create a jarring effect that can be visually disturbing for readers. Similarly, red and blue should be avoided as they lack sufficient contrast when used together, and this combination tends to lose even more contrast when projected on a screen.

Defining a Color Palette in PowerPoint

Fortunately, selecting colors is often the most challenging aspect of the process. Once you have decided on a color palette, integrating it into PowerPoint is a straightforward task.

Custom palettes are incorporated into the PowerPoint master slide section and are typically a crucial step in creating a PowerPoint Template.

Even if you do not make any other modifications, there are significant advantages to defining the color palette in the slide master section.

To access the Master section, navigate to View > Master > Slide Master from the menu. In the Slide Master section, you will locate the colors button at the top. Click on it and select Colors > Customize Colors.

This allows you to define six regular (or “Accent”) colors and specify the color of hyperlinks and visited hyperlinks. Additionally, you can adjust the Text/Background colors, which provide up to four additional custom colors for your palette, even though they are referred to by different names in PowerPoint’s terminology.

Conclusion:

Optimal colors for presentation slides prioritize high contrast, ensuring easy visibility. Dark backgrounds are best paired with light text and a subtle accent color, while light backgrounds are complemented by dark text and a vibrant accent color. The careful selection of these colors enhances audience engagement and comprehension during presentations.