To be completely honest, when it comes to choosing a color scheme for your upcoming PowerPoint presentation, there are really only two (broad) considerations: Readability and aesthetics. As you can see from the title, I’ll be covering the readability aspect of color picking.
As it turns out, readability is actually the much easier of the two considerations. However, there are a few things you’ll need to think about that might not strike you as completely obvious. First and foremost, though, you’ll want a color scheme that is high-contrast.
The most obvious and easiest high-contrast color schemes are white-on-black and black-on-white (and when I mention basic color schemes like that, I mean “text-on-background”). That said, these two color schemes are equally contrasting, so the next thing you’ll want to consider is the type of lighting in which you’ll be presenting. If you’ll be presenting with the lights on (which you almost certainly will be if you’re in a courtroom), a dark-on-light color scheme is best. If you’ll be presenting in a darker environment, though, a light-on-dark scheme helps the text pop.
If you wind up choosing a simple scheme such as white-on-black, then your work with respect to readability is done. But if you decide to experiment with something a little more adventurous, you’ll need to consider one more thing: A significant portion of the population is colorblind, and you’ll have to make sure your presentation is readable for them. Doing this, though, usually turns out to be pretty simple: Since 8-10% of men are colorblind, you probably have a colorblind friend and can ask them for their opinion. If you’re not able to test your design, though, it’s probably best to err on the side of safety and avoid red/green combinations.
When considering high readability color schemes, a good place to look for inspiration is your local highway. Highway signs are highly readable because they have to be. Think about the signs you see while driving… The most common combinations are black-on-white, white-on-blue, and white-on-green. And, as it would turn out, according to a study* conducted by Dr. Lauren Scharff and Alyson Hill of Stephen F. Austin State University, these are some of the most readable color combinations (albeit on websites).
Well, with all that said and done, you should have a pretty good idea of how to go about selecting a highly readable color scheme. Keep in mind, though, that not all highly readable schemes are going to be attractive ones and that many other factors such as font and layout influence readability. (All of theses things are topics for another day!)
*The site was down at the time I accessed it; here is a link to the Google cache.
If you liked this post, check these out...
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment