Importance of Theme Colours in PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software, mainly due to the unlimited options of themes and the other features, it provides to its users. A theme of a presentation is helpful in keeping the design consistent and make it even more effective.

A presentation theme is basically a set of design, fonts and colours combined together, to be implemented to a presentation. But for building an impressive theme that is capable of making the audience interested enough, the colour of the theme plays a crucial role.

powerpoint theme colour

Colours have the power to express even the most intense emotions. And, for the presentations too, through the colours, you can give meaning to the elements used in it, and make it an outstanding one.

Choosing the right colours for the theme can help your presentation outshine among its audience, as it reflects the purpose of the presentation and helps in setting up the right environment for the presentation as well as the right mood for the audience.

People tend to think, more they use the colours better the presentation will be, and for an extent, it is true, too. But not in all the cases. There has to be the right proportion in which the colours should be used in the theme, such that it does not make the presentation look tacky or even a dull one.

Every theme or design has a colour proportion divided into dominant, sub-dominant and the accent colour. So to build a proper balance among the colours used in a theme, you first need to know how these three contributes to the effectiveness of the theme:

Dominant or the Primary Colour: The percentage of the dominant colour mostly is 60%, and as the name suggests, it will be the main theme colour. As the background of the templates will be of this colour, the other colours will be in the lighter or darker shade, or in contrast to this very colour. Being the main colour, it has to be chosen on the basis of what the subject of your presentation is.

Sub-dominant or the Secondary Colour: The subdominant colour is the one that is in contrast with the primary colour, or can be darker or lighter than the latter. The percentage of this shade must be around 30% and can vary according to the usage of the primary colour.

Accent Colour: The accent colours are the ones that are used to highlight the details that need the attention of the audience in the presentation. Like the colour of the icons, charts and graphs, all are in the accent colour by default. The percentage of accent colour while designing a theme must be around 10%. There is always a combination of six accent colours, which are the most useful in the PowerPoint colour scheme.

The main categories, along with the Accent Color, that you need to set colours for in order to make a theme are discussed below:

Background/Text Color: There are four Background/Text options in Powerpoint, among which, two will be the background colour for the charts, and the other two will be the text colour for the same. These colours must have the combination of light and dark, e.g. if the background colour is dark, the label colour has to be light for better visibility.

Hyperlink Color: Since hyperlinks are also a part of presentations, you must pick a colour for them as well, that will go with the theme. There will be two colours for the hyperlinks you need to choose, the one for before click hyperlink, and the other one for the hyperlinks that have been clicked.

Though most of the time, the themes used to build a presentation are readymade, there can be a possibility that you like the design of the theme, but the colour of the presentation does not go with the topic of your presentation. So for such cases, PowerPoint comes with a feature, using which, you can easily change the colour of the theme. The same feature is used to set the colour for the theme while creating a custom theme for the presentation.

Here are the steps that you need to follow, in order to change or set the colour of an existing or new theme on PowerPoint:

• Select the theme you want to change the colour of.
• Click the Design tab on the File Menu Bar, and a few variants of colour combination will appear under it.
• You can choose any of the variants for the theme, or go to other options by scrolling down from the right.
• After you scroll down in the menu, select the Color option, and there you will see a submenu with other built-in variants.
• You can also create your own variant, from the Customize Colors in the submenu.
• After clicking on the option, a dialogue box with the title ‘Create New Theme Color’ will appear on the screen, where you need to choose colours for Text/Background, Accent, Hyperlink and Followed Hyperlink.
• Provide a relevant name for the theme colour and click on Save. The new colour theme variant will appear under the Custom title in the Colors submenu in the Design menu, from where you can select it for the theme. Also, you can anytime change the colours for the theme.

Creating your own powerpoint theme and setting up its colour by yourself, will help you create a unique design for that presentation, that at the same time, will better represent your idea behind it. Especially, when you are sharing the presentation online, it is only the theme and the content of the presentation that will win your audience.

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