The same goes with mixing reds and greens.įigure 5 – Red and Blue Color Combinations Cause Eye Strainįigure 6 – Red and Green Color Combinations also Cause Eye StrainĪ red and green combination also brings up the issue of color blindness, which apparently affects approximately 7 percent of men and 1 percent of women. Mixing bright blues and reds is a terrible practice to inflict upon audiences, and unfortunately it happens all too often. They have trouble distinguishing interactions between the color wavelengths, resulting in fatigue and discomfort. If you stare at either of these images for very long, your eyes begin screaming. Absolutely NEVER do what is depicted in Figures 5 and 6. Where most PowerPoint designers get into trouble is combining colors across the warm/cool boundary. White, black, and beige are neutral colors and go well with all colors in either group. It’s pretty safe to combine warm colors with each other and shades of brown (Figure 3) or cool colors with each other and shades of gray (Figure 4). Not surprisingly, some optical illusions take advantage of this phenomenon.Ĭonsider the color groups, as well as quantity and contrast, when combining colors on slides. In this case, the brain is more interested in figuring out if shapes communicate some form of meaning or pattern, rather than merely reacting to their color characteristics. For example, if we place small black shapes on a solid white slide background, the black shapes pop out as more noticeable, versus the sea of white around them (Figure 2). The quantity and contrast of one color compared to another also comes into play. Note, however, that above effects are not absolutely fixed. White and very light colors also catch the eye, whereas black and very dark colors generally are less noticeable. They tend to recede into the background and draw less attention, especially darker shades. Greens, blues, and purples are cool colors. They tend to pop out and attract attention-especially a bright red. Reds, oranges, and yellows are referred to as warm colors. One way to approach colors is to classify them into two broad groups: warm and cool colors (Figure 1). What are good, and not so good, ways of using color on slides? Color Groups That’s fantastic! Now the question is … how should we use those tools? Most of us have never been trained as graphic artists and don’t necessarily know the rules for making visually attractive and meaningful content.īecause the discussion of “effective visual communication” might fill an entire book, let’s narrow the focus here to concentrate solely on the use of color in PowerPoint. Newer versions of PowerPoint, especially beginning with PowerPoint 2010, have marvelous tools for helping even the “artistically challenged” among us get beyond bullet points and create effective, graphically appealing, downright professional-looking visual slides. With PowerPoint You have all the Tools but. Why do some color combinations work so well in your presentations, and why do other color combinations make your presentations difficult to watch? PowerPoint expert Robert Lane explains how to combine colors to make effective and professional-looking slides.
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