Color has a direct correlation in the brain to how you feel about things, how much you remember and how you react.  People relate anger to “seeing red,” sadness to “feeling blue” and jealousy to “green with envy.”  Color is an incredibly powerful tool for making a statement and for creating an image.  Selecting the right color palette for your presentation can make the difference between what people remember and what they forget. 

1. Keep Your Color Palette Complimentary

You want people to remember your presentation for its content, not for the colors you chose.  Colors should be a backdrop for you great ideas, not the star of the show.  The quickest way to go wrong with color is to create a palette in your presentation that does not go together or is troublesome for the eye.  You do not want your palate to clash like Mrs. Slocum’s hair and dress.  Find a good tool like http://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.htmlto help you test your color combinations.

Choose complimentary colors to your overall document.  Here is a quick place to test your color combination to make sure it works successfully together. http://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html

2. Use Colors That Create Memory Cues

The brain reacts to different colors uniquely.  Each color triggers certain behaviors or emotions.  Choose your colors carefully and soothe the savage beast… or run the risk of contributing to your participant’s next rampage! Check out this website for a quick primer on how colors impact the brain and emotions http://library.thinkquest.org/C0114820/artistic/visual.php3 .

Use red to create impact.  It increases blood pressure, which triggers memory cells.

Use blue to make people feel peaceful and more at ease with topics they may be stressful.  Blue is a great color for presentation backdrops.

3. Choose Colors That Make Your Presentation Easy To Read

Know where you are going to be using your presentation.  For presentations that will be viewed using a projector in a conference or lecture room, you need to use dark colors as your background and light colors for you text.  This combination is the easiest to read when a presentation is projected.

If you are printing your presentation to be given out as a handout or workbook, then you want to use a light color as the background and a dark color for the text.  This combination is easiest to read, when reading printed pages. However, avoid using crisp white as the background, choose a light yellow or beige color copies instead.  Crisp white is disturbing to the eye and the last thing you want your participants to feel is disturbed!

Use dark color backgrounds with light text for presentations that are shown with a projector.

Use light backgrounds with dark text on presentations that are printed.

Avoid crisp white as a background.  It is jarring to eye.

Six Quick Ways to Use Color in Your Presentation.

1. Choose complimentary colors to your overall document.  Here is a quick place to test your color combination to make sure it works successfully together. http://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html

2.Use red to create impact.  It increases blood pressure, which triggers memory cells.

3. Use blue to make people feel peaceful and more at ease with topics they may be stressful. Blue is a great color for presentation backdrops.

4.Use dark color backgrounds with light text for presentation that are shown with a projector.

5.Use light backgrounds with dark text on presentations that are printed.

6.Avoid crisp white as a background.  It is jarring to eye.