PowerPoint Themes

A PowerPoint theme is a set of instructions that determines the following for your presentation:

• The fonts
• The colors
• The effects
• and the background style (you can see the 4 variants here)

PowerPoint themes are usually included as part of your PowerPoint template, and by default, all new PowerPoint presentations start with the ‘Office Theme’.

To learn all about PowerPoint templates and how to properly use them, click here.

Here are the PowerPoint theme fonts that come with PowerPoint 2016:

Here are the PowerPoint theme colors that come with PowerPoint 2016:

Here are the PowerPoint theme effects that come with PowerPoint 2016:

Here are the PowerPoint theme background styles that come with PowerPoint 2016:

To see what your PowerPoint theme is, follow these instructions:

• Go to the Design tab

• In the Themes area, click on the downward facing arrow

• Hover on the theme under “This Presentation”

Notice that your PowerPoint theme is displayed for you in the Normal View and also in the Slide Master View:

These two places function exactly the same way – there is no difference whatsoever – and in both of these areas, you can edit your PowerPoint theme.

To learn how to create a custom PowerPoint theme, see details here.

A PowerPoint theme is different from a template or a slide master.

A theme does not include any content, and it works across PowerPoint, Word and Excel.

To learn more about the differences between a PowerPoint theme and template, see our article here.

There’s no hard and fast rule for what makes good PowerPoint themes, but there are a few guidelines to follow:

1. A color palette that is pleasing and not distracting.

2. Fonts that are easy to read and that match the presentation’s topic and tone.

3. Slide backgrounds that don’t distract from the message or make reading text difficult.

Those are the essential things to keep in mind.

Beyond those key guidelines, if you can choose colors and fonts that match the tone and message of the presentation, that will not only make your presentation seem more modern, but it will help convey the message.there are a few additional things that will make an PowerPoint theme more professional.

The purpose of a PowerPoint theme is to keep the key elements of a presentation consistent, and to make your life easier while creating new slides.

So make sure that you pick your theme wisely, as it will determine the entire look and feel of your presentation, as well as the ease with which you work on it.

Here are some examples of what we think are cool PowerPoint themes.

Kent PowerPoint template from Slides Carnival:

Roderigo PowerPoint template from Slides Carnival:

Olivia PowerPoint template from Slides Carnival:

What makes these PowerPoint themes cool is that they are all modern and minimalist.

Notice that the colors aren’t overwhelming and the fonts are interesting, without being hard to read.

There are actually no place to download free PowerPoint themes - or paid ones for that matter!

Instead, the theme is often included in whatever PowerPoint template that you are using. That means that if you buy a PowerPoint template, you will automatically get a new theme as well.

Once you have it, you can choose to either just use it for the template that it came along with, or apply it to your other presentations.

To see our recommended places to find good quality PowerPoint templates (and hence themes), see our resource page here.