Palettes · Presentations

Presentation colors a slide template, checked as a room shows it

A projector never shows a slide as your screen does: the room’s light lifts every dark color, so contrast falls. This template’s colors were chosen for the room, its text sizes for the back row, and both are in the PowerPoint files you can download.

See the template How it holds up
Decks
2
Smallest text
20 pt
Checked down to
15:1

The template

Four slides, two decks

Switch the deck and the room. The room is the same washout the table below measures, applied to the slides in linear light.

Deck
Shown

The slides are in English, as the files are.

  1. Quarterly review

    Operations team · 15 October 2026

  2. What changed this quarter

    • Orders grew in every region
    • Late deliveries fell by a third
    • Two new stores opened in the south

    Source: internal order data, July to September 2026

  3. Orders by region, thousands

    423127
    Q1
    463529
    Q2
    514430
    Q3
    • North
    • South
    • West

  4. 72%

    of orders now arrive on time

  1. Quarterly review

    Operations team · 15 October 2026

  2. What changed this quarter

    • Orders grew in every region
    • Late deliveries fell by a third
    • Two new stores opened in the south

    Source: internal order data, July to September 2026

  3. Orders by region, thousands

    423127
    Q1
    463529
    Q2
    514430
    Q3
    • North
    • South
    • West

  4. 72%

    of orders now arrive on time

Download the template

Light deck, PowerPoint 91 KBDark deck, PowerPoint 91 KB

Made with pptxgenjs 4.0.1 and read back from the files: Arial throughout, text at 44, 36, 28, 20 points and nothing smaller, the deck’s colors and no others, and the chart’s series in the order shown here.

In the room

How the colors hold up

Every pair on the slides, on a screen and in three rooms. Titles and chart marks need 3:1, body text and sources 4.5:1.

Light deck

Contrast of every pair, by deck and room: Light deck
On the slideOn a screenA 50:1 roomA 15:1 roomA bright 7:1 roomNeeds
Titles and headings17.40:1Passes33.19:1Passes13.10:1Passes6.59:1Passes3:1
Body text17.40:1Passes33.19:1Passes13.10:1Passes6.59:1Passes4.5:1
Sources and labels8.45:1Passes10.78:1Passes7.35:1Passes4.84:1Passes4.5:1
A big number in the accent6.70:1Passes8.02:1Passes6.01:1Passes4.26:1Passes3:1
Chart series 15.18:1Passes5.90:1Passes4.78:1Passes3.65:1Passes3:1
Chart series 23.86:1Passes4.21:1Passes3.65:1Passes3.00:1Passes3:1
Chart series 321.00:1Passes50.00:1Passes15.00:1Passes7.00:1Passes3:1

Dark deck

Contrast of every pair, by deck and room: Dark deck
On the slideOn a screenA 50:1 roomA 15:1 roomA bright 7:1 roomNeeds
Titles and headings16.74:1Passes30.82:1Passes12.73:1Passes6.50:1Passes3:1
Body text16.74:1Passes30.82:1Passes12.73:1Passes6.50:1Passes4.5:1
Sources and labels10.75:1Passes19.48:1Passes8.27:1Passes4.41:1Fails4.5:1
A big number in the accent9.98:1Passes18.00:1Passes7.69:1Passes4.13:1Passes3:1
Chart series 14.33:1Passes7.30:1Passes3.48:1Passes2.16:1Fails3:1
Chart series 216.74:1Passes30.82:1Passes12.73:1Passes6.50:1Passes3:1
Chart series 37.25:1Passes12.85:1Passes5.66:1Passes3.18:1Passes3:1

  • The model. A room with contrast C shows its black at 1/C of its white, so every color is lifted: Y′ = b + (1 − b)·Y, with b = 1/C. The ratio then becomes (Y₁ + f) / (Y₂ + f) with f = 1/(C − 1). WCAG’s own formula is the case C = 21, where f is its 0.05.

  • The rooms. 50:1 and 15:1 are the minimums the ANSI/INFOCOMM 3M-2011 standard sets for analytical and for basic decision making; it puts slide presentations in the second. 7:1 is a scenario, a brighter room, not a value from the standard.

  • A model, not a measurement. It treats the room’s light as even and neutral. A real projector also shifts hues and loses its lightest colors; check the slides on it.

Text size

Large enough for the back row

How far each size can be read, in screen heights, and the smallest size for a given back row. A character should subtend 20 minutes of arc at the eye; Arial’s capitals are 0.716 of its size, read from the font file.

The template's text sizes and how far each can be read
TextSizeReadable to
Slide titles44 pt10.0 screen heights
Headings and big numbers36 pt8.2 screen heights
Body text and bullets28 pt6.4 screen heights
Sources and labels20 pt4.6 screen heights

The smallest size for your room

The smallest text size for a back row this far away
The back row sitsSmallest text
4 screen heights away18 pt
6 screen heights away27 pt
8 screen heights away36 pt
10 screen heights away44 pt

20 to 22 minutes of arc is what DIN EN ISO 9241-303 asks of text on a screen, as an occupational-safety guide gives it; using it for a projected slide is this page’s assumption.

Projectors

What a projector does to color

  • The room lifts the dark colors. In the bright scenario the dark deck’s sources fall below 4.5:1 and its first chart color below 3:1, while the light deck still passes. In a lit room, use the light deck.

  • Light colors disappear. Yellow on white, pale grey and pastel fills fade first; this template keeps every text and chart color dark on the light deck, light on the dark one.

  • Thin lines vanish. Keep chart lines and rules at 2 points or more, and label the bars instead of relying on gridlines.

  • Hues shift from projector to projector. A red can turn orange and a purple blue. Name the series on the chart, as the template does, so a shifted color still reads.

Use them

The palette, to take away

The two decks’ colors as CSS, as JSON, and as palette files that other programs read.

CSS

.deck-light {
  --bg: #FFFFFF;
  --text: #1A1A1A;
  --muted: #4D4D4D;
  --accent: #1D4ED8;
  --series-1: #0072B2; /* Blue */
  --series-2: #D55E00; /* Vermilion */
  --series-3: #000000; /* Black */
}

.deck-dark {
  --bg: #0F1E33;
  --text: #FFFFFF;
  --muted: #C8D0DA;
  --accent: #F2C14E;
  --series-1: #D55E00; /* Vermilion */
  --series-2: #FFFFFF; /* White */
  --series-3: #56B4E9; /* Sky blue */
}

JSON

{
  "light": {
    "background": "#FFFFFF",
    "text": "#1A1A1A",
    "muted": "#4D4D4D",
    "accent": "#1D4ED8",
    "series": [
      "#0072B2",
      "#D55E00",
      "#000000"
    ]
  },
  "dark": {
    "background": "#0F1E33",
    "text": "#FFFFFF",
    "muted": "#C8D0DA",
    "accent": "#F2C14E",
    "series": [
      "#D55E00",
      "#FFFFFF",
      "#56B4E9"
    ]
  }
}

GIMP palette (.gpl): GIMP, Inkscape, KritaLibreOffice color list (.soc): Impress

Criteria

WCAG criteria it helps with

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