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Best Colors for Presentation Slides That Will Dominate Today’s Trends

Nurma Febriana
Nurma Febriana
best colors for presentation slides

Table of Contents

Choosing the best colors for presentation slides is the most critical part. The purpose of selecting the best colors for presentation slides is to read the text and see the graphics or shapes on each slide.

Today, most organizations are dictating a template with corporate colors for all presentations outside the organization as part of a branding initiative. So, in the end, they have no choice in color.

Besides, we can choose the color of the slides in many internal presentations and many other organizations. Then, some attractive colors can communicate the message more effectively and evoke many different feelings or emotions in your audience.

How do you choose the best colors for presentation slides?

Here are some tips when we are going to choose the best colors for presentation slides.

Contrast

One of the most common mistakes we often make in choosing the best colors for presentation slides is not having enough contrast between the colors we choose for the background and the text or graphics.

When presenting the slides, we want the audience to see text or images on the screen, so the presentation slides should have colors with good contrast. The tips choose one of two color schemes – a dark background with light text and graphics.

We can use a light with dark text and graphics. The best colors for presentation slides are that the further apart the colors are, the more contrast the colors will have.

Then, the easier it will be for the audience to see the text or graphics you’re using. Just a suggestion, to make sure that the color you choose has enough contrast, then use the online Color Contrast Calculator. This testing color calculator uses two international standard tests for color contrast.

Using the company’s template

When we work in a company or business, perhaps we have to use company template rules. These rules, of course, relate to brands, fonts, and colors. Besides, we need to know how to choose colors when creating charts, graphs, or other visuals.

We can ensure that the chart you create in Excel follows the same colors that your organization has set in the presentation template. Even so, we need to know about the best colors for presentation slides. Then, we must also select a color to see the explanatory text above the shape or part of the graphic.

Color emotional meaning

The best colors for presentation slides can evoke different general feelings in many people by choosing different colors.

Some common definitions that color has in humans:

  • Red means a arouse passion and strength. The color red is usually for beverage brands, games, and the automotive industry.
  • Blue means to convey a sense of security, confidence, responsibility, and serenity. The color blue is most representative of the health and finance industry.
  • Yellow means the color of light. Yellow color that stimulates and conveys energy awakens awareness and inspires creativity. Yellow is usually for the food industry.
  • Green means the color of nature, life, and peace. The green conveys a sense of growth, balance, and stability. This color is popular among large companies, especially in the energy and technology industries.
  • White can mean purity and innocence to evoke simplicity, optimism, and integrity. White is popular in the healthcare industry and the fashion industry.
  • Black means seriousness, elegance, and courage. This color is for fashion brands and luxury products.
  • Orange means optimism, happiness, and energy. 
  • Purple means luxury, royalty, and creativity.
  • Brown means enduring, dependable, and natural. 
  • Beige means conservatism, piety, and dullness.

Selecting the best colors for presentation slides can avoid colors that will hurt your message.

When we study color, we will get acquainted with the term psychology of color. Color Psychology finds out how the audience views color related to the conversation.

Warm colors symbolize energy and optimism-like giving a warm welcome to your audience. There are two groups of colors based on temperature:

  • Warm colors range from red and orange to yellow.
  • Cool colors range from green and blue to purple. On the other hand, cool colors symbolize serenity and self-confidence.

Besides knowing the two-color groups above, we will know neutral colors:

  • Neutral colors like white, black, and all shades of gray, cream, beige, and brown. These colors do not affect others but can combine with almost any color. It means elegance and service.

After learning about color groupings and their types, the following color schemes we can use as a guide in choosing the best colors for presentation slides.

  • Dark background with light text and graphics:
    • Background – dark blue (navy shade) or dark purple with text and graphics colors, white or yellow. Accent Colors, such as red, lime green, camel orange, and light blue.
    • Dark blue or dark purple background – dominant color on screen and yellow and white text and graphics. We can use an accent color to highlight a word or part of a picture.
  • Light background with dark text and graphics:
    • Background – warm beige
    • Text and graphics – dark blue, black, dark purple
    • Accent color – dark green, burgundy

In general, dark text and graphics colors provide enough contrast to make items stand out on the screen, while accent colors are for emphasis only and should not be overused.

Combine colors for your presentation

You have to consider the color wheel and hue, saturation, and brightness concepts to achieve excellent color harmony. Here is the basis for learning about the best colors for presentation slides:

  • Hue is what sets a color apart from the rest. For example, you can visually distinguish red from blue.
  • Brightness determines light or dark color and measures its capacity to reflect white light.
  • Saturation refers to the purity of a color. Saturated colors appear more vibrant, while desaturated colors look duller.
  • Color wheel to illustrate the relationship between different colors. Primary colors, such as red, blue, and yellow. They are the basis of all other colors. Secondary colors are two primary colors: purple, orange, and green. Finally, tertiary colors combine primary colors with secondary colors, such as red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green, and yellow-orange.

We can create several different combinations with the color wheel: 

  • The monochromatic color scheme contains different shades of one color.
  • The complementary color scheme consists of opposite colors on the color wheel.
  • An analogous color scheme includes colors close to each other on the color wheel.
  • The triadic color scheme uses three colors equally spaced on the color wheel.

Plus, we have to consider the colors we use in the slides and adjust the contrast according to your intended message or brand.

Background graphics or patterns

We must be careful when creating slides with graphics or patterns to choose the best colors for presentation slides because it has areas with a background color that change color from dark to light or from light tonight.

When we use a chart or pattern, it should be subtle. So there is still a slight difference between the lightest shadow and the darkest shadow in the background. One of the effects that we often use for graphics or logos is the embossing effect.

The embossing effect causes it to lift against a backdrop, and the result is very subtle and doesn’t cause any significant changes to the shadows of the background color. Choosing suitable background graphics or patterns is one way to select the best colors for presentation slides.

See also: Make Green Your Favorite Color with Our Best Environment PowerPoint Templates

Get the best picture with a projector

Once we’ve chosen the best colors for presentation slides, the next step is to notice that the slides look good if we connect them to a projector or screen. We need a port on the laptop to connect to the projector. 

Here are the most common devices we need, such as:

The laptop has a full-size HDMI port

If your laptop has a regular HDMI port, you can plug in an HDMI cable to connect to the projector. We can use this HDMI to VGA adapter if the projector does not have an HDMI cable but a VGA cable.

If the HDMI cable to the projector cannot reach the laptop, we can use an HDMI extension cable and an HDMI F-to-F adapter to connect the extension cable to the projector cable.

The laptop has a mini-DisplayPort

We need an adapter to connect the projector cable to the laptop. In addition, we can also use an HDMI cable. We also need some outputs like HDMI, VGA, and DVI.

The laptop has a USB-C port

If our laptop or computer has a USB-C port, then. We need an adapter that offers a video output and a charging port. If our laptop/ computer only charges, it only needs a USB-C port.

See also: 20+ Color Tools for Designers to Help You Creating PowerPoint Color Schemes

Keep simple

The best colors for presentation slides are that we keep it simple and don’t use too many colors. We use only three to four colors for a presentation.

Rule 60-30-10

The way to create a balanced presentation is to follow the 60-30-10 rule. It will produce the best colors for presentation slides. Suppose we’ve chosen three colors, as recommended above. In that case, you should use 60 percent of the space for the primary colors, 30 percent for the secondary colors, and 10 percent for the accent colors on the presentation slides.

Share Content

In addition to choosing the best colors for presentation slides, we also need to share content with the audience. It’s a good idea to break down content into smaller chunks throughout your presentation so it’s easy to digest.

We should make a presentation with 10 or 15 slides. Because the fewer the number of slides, the more information you can fit into each slide presentation. An eye-catching display to view in less than 3 minutes consists of 50 to 60 slide presentations. 

Conclusion

Simply put, we might understand that. The best colors for presentation slides have high contrast, so they’re easy to see. Dark backgrounds should have the light text and a muted accent color, and light backgrounds should have the dark text and bold accent color. By choosing the best colors for presentation slides, we can increase the audience’s engagement and understanding.

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