There are many presentation tool options to choose from these days. Whether you are using Powerpoint, Keynote, Google Presentation or Prezi, there are some universal design considerations to be made, and one of those is color. A good color scheme can add life and impact to your presentation, while a poor color scheme can make your presentation unreadable and confusing. When selecting colors, keep readability in mind. Dark colors may look good while creating your presentation when you are inches away from the screen, but these colors may not translate well when projected in the classroom. Beware of the emotional impact of your color choice: black evokes heavy, mournful, technical and formal feelings; blue conveys feelings of peacefulness, tranquility, trust and security; red evokes passion, excitement, love, intensity and aggression.
Use contrast to make your text pop; light backgrounds and dark text are a good combination. Keep your color scheme simple: no more than two to four colors: two colors for your base (background and text), and the third and fourth for emphasis. However, it’s important to choose your color combinations carefully. An estimated eight percent of the male population has some degree of color vision deficiency or color blindness. Using a red/blue color combination will make your slide unreadable for these people. It is OK to have both these colors on the same slide, just not in close proximity. Also, beware if you are trying to use red and blue to contrast results on a graph or chart. Check out your color combination here.
For more information, check out the Thinking Outside the Slide website.