426 Chapter 15 Format Slides
Using Different Color and Font Schemes
Every presentation you create with PowerPoint 2010, even a blank one, has a set of
colors, called a color scheme, associated with its theme. A color scheme consists of 12
complemen tary colors designed to be used for the following elements of a slide:
● Text/Background Use these four colors for dark text on a light background or
light text on a dark background.
● Accent 1 through Accent 6 Use these six colors for objects other than text.
● Hyperlink Use this color to draw attention to hyperlinks.
● Followed Hyperlink Use this color to indicate visited hyperlinks.
When you click color buttons such as the Font Color button in the Font group on the
Home tab, the color palette displays 10 of the 12 colors with light to dark gradients.
(The two background colors are not represented in these palettes.)
Understanding color schemes can help you create professional-looking presentations that
use an appealing balance of color. You’re not limited to using the colors in a presentation’s
color scheme, but because they have been selected by professional designers and are based
on good design principles, using them ensures that your slides will be pleasing to the eye.
See Also For information about how scheme colors are allocated, refer to Microsoft
PowerPoint 2010 Step by Step, by Joyce Cox and Joan Lambert (Microsoft Press, 2010).
For information about using non-scheme colors, see the sidebar “Non–Color Scheme
Colors” later in this chapter.
To view the color schemes you can apply to a presentation, you display the Colors gallery,
which has Live Preview capabilities. When you find a color scheme you like, you simply
click it to change the color scheme of all the slides in the presentation.
Tip To apply a color scheme only to a selected slide, right-click the scheme and then click
Apply To Selected Slides
In addition to changing the color scheme, you can change the font scheme, which pro-
vides two complementary fonts for each theme. The Fonts gallery lists the combinations
in alphabetical order by theme. In each combination, the top font (called the heading
font) is used for slides titles, and the bottom font (called the body font) is used for other
slide text.
If none of the color schemes is exactly what you’re looking for, you can create your own
by clicking Create New Theme Colors at the bottom of the Colors gallery and assembling
colors in the Create New Theme Colors dialog box. You can also create a custom font
scheme by clicking Create New Theme Fonts at the bottom of the Fonts gallery and then
specifying the font combination you want in the Create New Theme Fonts dialog box.