Tips and Tricks #16: Color palettes: the pulse of good presentations

Tips and Tricks #16: Color palettes: the pulse of good presentations

Hi Everyone!

As you all probably know, color affects everything we see, perceive, and experience. These subtle visual influences are called the color psychology. The fields of advertising and marketing often use colors to influence our moods positively, emotions, and even memory. 
 
How much of importance do you think the color scheme and effects should be given in presentations? Should color psychology be considered in business at all?
 
In business presentations, colors can be of vital importance to capture the audience's attention. An ideal presentation is one that engages the audience and helps them remember the information presented. Proper use of shades, tones, and color combinations can help your ideas reach the consumers fast and effective. 
 
For example, the combinations of red and yellow—like in the McDonald's logo—can trigger food cravings in you. 
 
You can use complementary colors, simple graphic elements, and contrasting backgrounds for a pleasant look, but sometimes the use of multiple and countless color combinations can be overwhelming. Luckily, we are here to help you pick your requirements from the Show's numerous color choices and customized presentation themes. 
 
Here are a few suggestions for deciding on a color when designing your slides:
 
1. One of the basic steps while designing your slides is to use the right contrasts. For dark backgrounds use light shades or bright accent colors for texts. Moreover, for light or neutral backgrounds use dark shades or bold accent colors for texts. This type of high contrast can help your audience read your text and process your graphics more easily.


Example: Show's "Breezy" theme uses bright contrast text against a neutral background. 
 
2. Adding graphics or patterns as backgrounds to slides works wonders in drawing people's attention—but only as long as they do not dominate the contents in the slide. Graphics should be clean and functional, while the background patterns or textures should be very subtle and light to favor the clear reading of the slide's content. The Show's Evolutionary theme, as seen in the example, uses subtle, complementary background patterns that add attraction but not distraction from the text.


Example: Show's "Evolutionary" theme uses white or pastel text against a dark slide background. 


Example: In Show's "Origami" theme, the simple, bright "folded paper" graphic behind the title text highlights and frames the presentation title to give it more weight and emphasis. 
 
3. For important titles, logos, and graphics, consider using the embossing or drop- shadow effect. This makes the element look more raised or apart from the background. However, use this effect sparingly and only when you need an extra emphasis as it can appear distracting and unprofessional.


Example: The shadow effect that the Show provides for graphics helps you give your slides a visual depth which otherwise would be a simple slide background.
 
4. When it comes to using plain black and white designs, be mindful of the effect, since this can often look too stark and unfinished, or even unappealing and unprofessional. If you decide to use a black and white look, apply subtle gradients or simple graphics to add more life to your slides.


Example: This presentation theme from Show, "Monochrome," uses a black and white color palette and clean, abstract graphics to help emphasize the slide's text.
 
5. Once you have decided on a color scheme, be sure to stick on to that throughout your slide decks. Mixing and matching colors like the rainbow will look chaotic and likely distract your audience.
 
Design choices can greatly influence the moods and emotions of the audience. A good presentation design can engage the audience well and help them carry the ideas with them. So, use colors intelligently and productively. 
  
We hope you found this article interesting and useful. Have questions or feedback to share? Feel free to comment below. We're looking forward to serving you. 
 
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates on the Show. 




      • Sticky Posts

      • Tips and Tricks #08: Lock and unlock objects in Zoho Show

        Hello everyone, Here is a tip about just one of the many interesting tools in Zoho Show.  Let's say the marketing and design teams are working together on a product launch. With multiple people working on this shared presentation, and rushing to get it

      • Tip and Tricks #01: Take your text for a spin

        Hello folks, Zoho Show's all-new, clear, contextual interface was a great update to an already great product, so we thought you might appreciate some help putting it to good use.  Following this release, the Zoho Show Community is happy to launch  Tips

      • Tips and Tricks #06: Animate text at the paragraph level on Zoho Show.

        Hi guys!   We're back with another Show tip! Before we jump into it, let's read through a quick scenario first.    Say you have a slide with a list of bullets and paragraph levels to present to your audience. The second it's on the screen, your audience

      • Tips and Tricks #05: Add pictures as comments within a slide.

        Hello everyone,   We're back with a new Show tip.  In today's post, we'll look at a more interesting way to comment and collaborate on a slide in Zoho Show. ​ No matter where your colleagues are in the world, using comments to share opinions or give feedback is

      • Tips and Tricks #07: Crop a Picture to Fit a Shape

        Hello everyone, Whether you're designing an adventurous photo collage, your company's brochure, or simply a team introduction for new hires, images always play a crucial role in making your presentation look interesting and interactive.    To help spruce

        • Recent Topics

        • Applying Price List to All Customers

          I just created a new price list as we have several items that have volume price breaks. To create my price lists, I followed the instructions in this article: https://www.zoho.com/us/inventory/help/items/price-list.html When it comes to applying my price

        • What's wrong with this deluge code to create a Bill?

          I know that all the data in the map is correct. The line items are pulled directly from a purchase order. // Add the purchase order ID to the bill billPOIds.add(poID); // Retrieve and merge the line items poLineItems = purchaseOrder.get("line_items");

        • 2 Ideas, Clone timesheet entry from monthly view and Notes in Weekly view

          While i love timekeeping I am finding some things slow me down.  Slow to the point of considering writing my own API call to do this. It would be so useful to be able to clone a timesheet entry from the monthly view.  It is somewhat painful to have to

        • Zoho Workdrive API call to find public external Link for a Folder

          Hi all, I can create new external share links for a WD Folder using this API call https://workdrive.zoho.com.au/api/v1/links . This works fine, however if there is already an external link created for a given folder, trying to create a new one fails (which

        • Converting Sales Order to Purchase Order

          Hi All, Firstly, this code works to convert a sales order(SO) to a purchase order (PO) via a button, however I am running into an issue when I convert the SO where the values from the line items are not pulled across from the SO to the PO. The ones in

        • Accessing and Using Formula Field

          Hi There, I created a formula field called 'Day of the Week' in the Leads module that takes the record created time and transforms it into the day of the week. The formula field returns the correct values. However, I am unable to find or use the field

        • 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇲🇽 Ask the Experts: A Live Q&A Session

          Session Closed Thank you to everyone who participated in this Ask the Experts session! Your questions, insights, and engagement made it a valuable discussion for the entire Zoho Recruit community. The comment section is now closed, but feel free to browse

        • Request For Quotation (RFQ) module

          Hello, Do you have any plans to implement a RFQ module in to ZOHO Inventory? I would like to chose items that I require a price for, select a number of different suppliers to e-mail and have them submit there pricing online. I would then like to see a

        • Ability to Append or Prepend specific signer name field to all documents in an envelope

          We use templates regularly and have a need to be able to rename the individual pdf documents contained in an envelope, such that a signer's name is appended or prepended (e.g. Form1 - SignerName). This is critical for us, because of how we process documents

        • Export an email as an HTML file?

          How do we export an email in Zoho Marketing Automation as an HTML file? We have an advertising partner that needs our campaign email as an HTML file. We can't find any way to do this. If this is not possible, please explain why. It doesn't make sense

        • Function #30: Display list of associated PO on SO details screen

          Hello everyone, welcome back to our series! Imagine having the ability to effortlessly access and view details of all purchase orders linked to a sales order directly from the sales order itself. Well, today's script is designed to do just that for you.

        • Custom Print Button in Page/Stateless Form

          [Zoho Creator] Unable to Add Custom Print Button to Page or Stateless Form We need the ability to add a custom print button on a page or stateless form in Zoho Creator to print a templated or formatted output (e.g., appointment confirmation, summary slip).

        • Page Variable Not Passed from Report to Form

          [Zoho Creator] Page Variable (Resource) Not Passed from Report to Form in Appointment Module We are facing a limitation in our Appointment Module related to the handling of page-level variables. We are using a page variable to select a resource, which

        • MS Teams Meeting to Zoho CRM

          Has anyone figured out a good way to push MS Teams meeting info on a trigger of "meeting end" to Zoho CRM? We're looking for a way to take attendees of a meeting and meeting duration and push it into Zoho CRM after the meeting has ended. If I can just

        • Creating Layout Rule With Formula Field

          By The Grace Of G-D. Hi, I see that i cannot use Layout Rules to show/hide Formula Fields. Is that something you plan on adding sometime soon?

        • Combine / merge multiple invoices into master

          Good morning Zoho! Upon looking for a solution for my issue, I found many that had my similar problem...dating 13 years ago! Please, any updates on this? Merging multiple invoices on a Master Invoice would alleviate all the extra work of resending and

        • Free Webinar Alert! Productivity Hacks that you don't want to miss on June 24

          Hello Zoho Community! Want to work smarter and get more done with Zoho Mail? We’re here to help! Join our interactive webinar to explore powerful Zoho Mail features that can boost your productivity. Watch live demos, learn helpful tips, and take part

        • Web Clipper cannot save to collections

          With the recent update that added collections, i am unable to use the web clipper to save to a collection

        • sort by name is always z to a

          I typically keep my notes in alphabetical order. Suddenly they are all backwards - z to a. They stay that way whether I select a to z or z to a. Is there a way to fix this?

        • Project Management Bulletin: June, 2025

          Our project management suite's representatives have been busy socializing with global customers in the USA (Zoholics) and Australia (roadshows). We also had multiple stop overs at our customer’s establishments and were glad to see the efficiency our products

        • Agenda For Zoholics Benelux & Nordics 2025

          Dear Zoho Benelux community, We are pleased to announce the agenda for Zoholics Benelux & Nordics 2025 on September 23-24 at NBC Congrescentrum in Nieuwegein. The topics of the presentations are: Zoho innovations in the region and worldwide The introduction

        • How to query Deal "Stage" "Is Open" in Analytics SQL?

          How do I query this "field" in Analytics? What is going on? It seems like there is another 'mapping' somewhere but that it is inaccessible with raw sql??? If I query "Stage" Like '%Won%' I get a wildly different number than I do when I manually filter

        • Enhanced Candidate Portal: Now Featuring Federated Login, Passwordless Access & MFA

          You can now enhance your Candidate Portal experience with Federated Login, Password less Sign-in and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). These features offer greater flexibility and control—allowing seamless sign-ins through trusted platforms and adding

        • Custom View and Custom Fields

          Hi We have custom fields that we need in the Sales\Customer module and we would like to have the fields available to view in the Bills module so that we can add them to a custom view, is that possible? That way we can look at the Bills screen to see what

        • Can I write a check in Zoho Books with no associated bill?

          This currently does not seem possible, and I have a client that desperately needs this function if I am able to convert them with Quickbooks. Thank you in advance for your reply. 

        • Automation#35 : Auto-Add Comments under the Owner's Name in Tickets via Macros

          Hello Everyone, This week's custom function provides simple steps to configure a Macro for adding comments to tickets with the name of the Comment owner. When managing tickets, you can use the Comment feature to communicate internally with your team and

        • Subfrom Changes are NOT included in Audit Logs and Timeline

          In the Timeline the subform changes are not tracked We have an important custom module for Recording Pricing Information It has a subfrom, now if Changes are made to the subform fields they are not shown in the timeline, ONLY the aggregated fields This

        • Tracking Emails sent through Outlook

          All of our sales team have their Outlook 365 accounts setup with IMAP integration. We're trying to track their email activity that occurs outside the CRM. I can see the email exchanges between the sales people and the clients in the contact module. But

        • Changing Link Color

          When I create a link from a block of text, the text color changes to a color i do not want. After scrolling through the CSS and HTML files I cannot find the setting for the link color. Changing the link color word by word seems inefficient and must be a setting somewhere? Greg Aanes 2109 Queen Street Bellingha WA USA

        • Content Management System

          Is there any plan to develop a CMS application that allows us to manage all of the ZOHO services such as Writer, Sheet, and Planner? Besides that, it would be nice to manage the files and logs of WebNMS using SOA. Otherwise i'll try to make it. Thanks, Takash F

        • How do I pause or halt a running campaign?

          Hi, I set up an A/B campaign - and after testing, scheduled the campaign, I noticed an error in the subject line and had to pause or halt the campaign 'mid-flight' - could not find this, and the only option was to delete the entire campaign to halt the send (it was an emergency). Is there a campaign Pause or Stop function/button? I could not find it - am I missing something? (Thank you for your help  - I searched the resources and could not find an answer)

        • Contact Segments with multiple CRM modules

          Hello, We have a somewhat unique setup in our system involving various components: Contacts, Accounts, Deals, and a couple of custom modules named Properties and Audit Logs. We're looking to implement a notification system via SMS and Email specifically

        • Cannot reorder fields in Page Layout in Expenses and Purchase Requests

          It is very inconvenient that the custom fields in Page Layout cannot be re-ordered. The only way is to remove the fields and re-create them; however, it is impractical. This would affect the reports and dashboards we are having. Not able to re-order the

        • Having issues with creator, flow and calendar

          So I have made a creator app when engineer puts in the date and time for when they are going to out on site , this then passes the calendar data to flow and then should populate the inputed data to the calendar. So If use${system.zf_current_date_time}.

        • Problem when forwarding emails

          When I want to forward an email received through Zoho, the layout changes: Buttons are cut Pictures change size Text changes alignment (left/right/center) Is this a common problem in Zoho? Thank you, Suzannah 

        • View Audit Trail field

          The Audit Trail feature is great, but its data is only available to admin users. It would be really great to have a system field "Audit trail" that we can add to the detailed view of a record. This would allow supervisors, directors and etc. to quickly track what changes have been done by whom for each record. It is a current feature from a client of mine and while it's probably possible to hard code it, since this data is already available in Zoho, I would be surprised to hear how hard it would

        • Recuring bills payments

          I've entered recuring bills that are auto drafted from my account monthly. Can I set up the recuring payment or do I continue to manually do it monthly?

        • Automatically assign Contact Roles to a Deal

          Hi guys, Is there a way to assign multiple Contact Roles to a Deal via a workflow or similar? Thanks

        • on submit of creator form then record is create in Zoho crm purchase module then on automatically task want to create in the crm

          on submit of creator form then record is create in Zoho crm purchase module then on automatically task want to create in the crm

        • Zoho CRM Webinar – Automate everything across Customer Journeys in CommandCenter 2.0

          How efficient is your current CRM automation setup? As customer journeys become more dynamic, it's common for data and actions to get scattered across teams and modules. This leads to broken processes and inconsistent customer experiences—especially across

        • Next Page