How to make a gradient background in PowerPoint

Make a gradient in PowerPoint

Microsoft documents its gradient options on shapes. A slide-sized rectangle sent behind your content works as a gradient background, and the same options control the look.

1. Select Insert > Shapes, choose a rectangle and drag it across the whole slide.
2. With the rectangle selected, open the Shape Format tab and select Shape Fill > Gradient > More Gradients.
3. Under Fill, select Gradient fill.
4. Pick a Type (for example linear or radial) and a Direction.
5. Click a stop on the Gradient Stops bar and choose its Color. Drag the stop, or type a Position percentage, to move it.
6. Use Add gradient stops or Remove gradient stops until you have the colours you want. PowerPoint allows at least 2 and at most 10.
7. To hide the border, select Shape Outline > No Outline.
8. Right-click the rectangle and send it to the back, so your text and pictures sit on top.

Want the gradient on the slide itself rather than a shape? Right-click an empty part of the slide and choose Format Background. The pane has a Gradient fill option too, plus a button to apply it to every slide.

Start from a preset

If you'd rather tweak than build, select Shape Fill > Gradient > More Gradients, then Gradient fill > Preset gradient. Microsoft suggests the presets as a starting point for your own gradient fill.

Fade a colour to transparent

To fade one colour out, give every stop the same colour, then raise Transparency on the stops where you want it to fade. Each stop has its own Brightness and Transparency sliders, so set them one stop at a time. This works well for a dark band behind a title on top of a photo.

Use a PNG background instead

PowerPoint's gradient fill covers linear and radial blends well. A PNG is the better choice when:

• you want a mesh of soft blobs, grain, or a pattern such as dots or a grid;
• you need the same background in PowerPoint, Google Slides and Keynote;
• you're handing the deck to someone else and want the background to stay exactly as designed.

The generator below starts on a dark teal gradient at 1920 × 1080, the usual size for a 16:9 slide, with light grain so the fade doesn't band on a projector.

Change the colours, press Download PNG, then add the picture to your slide in PowerPoint, stretch it to fill the slide and send it to the back. Because it's a picture, it won't change if the theme colours do.

Keep text readable

• White text needs a dark background. On the preset above, white text reads clearly from corner to corner.
• Dark text needs light stops. Keep all the stops light, not just one end.
• Keep the blend gentle behind long text. Save high-contrast gradients for title and section slides.

Gradient backgrounds in Google Slides

Google's help page for slide backgrounds offers a colour or an image, not a gradient. So in Google Slides, use a PNG:

1. Open your presentation and choose a slide.
2. At the top, click Slide > Change background.
3. Next to Image, click Choose, pick your PNG and click Select.
4. Click Done for one slide, or Add to theme for the whole presentation.

Google lists .gif, .jpg and .png as accepted formats, under 50 MB. A gradient PNG from the generator is far smaller than that.