Blog post

Dark or light slide background?

September 30, 2011 ยท by Jan Schultink
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A dark or light background for your presentation slides? Dark backgrounds work better for very large stages, where a big bright screen takes away the attention from the speaker. In smaller meeting rooms, a light background work better.

It is very inconvenient to edit and work with 2 masters of the same presentation, it is a lot of work and you always end up with inconsistencies. Presentations with a dark background give less flexibility to work with colors, and are harder to print (there are still audiences that do this, especially when presenting to institutional investors).

So as a result, I recommend sticking to a light background for most business presentations, unless you have a very specific, high-profile event that merits the design of a custom slide deck.

ColorsPowerPointPresentation design

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1 comment

Ravit Yanay2011-09-30 09:31:36
I have on going discussions with people in my company on this. I lean towards the black background. I know it is challenging with colours but it always looks better on screen. Also, black background means that you don't have to worry about the room lighting and windows that you can't darken. So you have more chances of it looking good.