SlideMagic Blog

Often, the colors of images do not fit the color scheme of a presentation. One solution to this is to “take out the colors” of the image and replace it with a monochrome overlay with the most important color of your color scheme. As an example I have added some nice blue to my title page picture. How to do it (PowerPoint 2007):

• Select the image
• Click the “format” menu in the top menu bar
• In the “adjust” ribbon, pick the “recolor” drop down
• Pick one of the suggested colors (“light variations” work best), or hard-key a RGB color code from you color schema in the more variations/more colors box

This technique works particularly well with noisy images full of colors, or pages that contain a lot of logos with irregular colors. Not as elaborate as Adobe Photoshop, but sufficient for most situations.

Many PowerPoint templates waste a huge amount of screen real estate with big logos and/or graphics. I prefer the opposite approach. Through the consistent use of the template colors on the slide, the audience will immediately recognize the corporate identity of the presenter. As an example, a slide that I use in my own introduction presentation:

Nothing determines the look and feel of a presentation more than its colors. Not all colors go well together. A matter of personal taste, but there is also hard science. How to find a color scheme that suits your situation?

• From an image. Good images have a natural harmony of colors. There are great online tools that allow you to upload an image and extract colors from it (kuler, colr, etc.). This image could then feature prominently on the title page of your presentation.
• From a corporate logo. Many companies have not installed PowerPoint templates with the proper corporate colors. Take a hi-res image of your company’s logo and subject it to a similar process as you would do with an image.
• From a color you like. Pick one color you like/is appropriate and let a tool generate matching colors automatically. For example, move the slider in the color wheel in kuler.

Once you extracted the desired colors, write down their “RGB” codes and enter them as a color template in PowerPoint. For example, for my own web site I was inspired by the fresh colors of an apple and generous amounts of water.

The resulting color scheme can be viewed here.