7 super slide styles to download, copy and adapt

7 Super Slide Styles to download, copy,

build on and adapt

So what’s in this presentation?

It’s basically the same slide, done 7 different ways. 7 ideas for slide style which you can adapt for your own presentations. (If you like them.) Not a bullet point in sight. Then at the end, there’s a breakdown of each slide – how it works, what the font is, where the picture is from etc. Ready? The internet usage stat on which the slides are based is from internetworldstats.

Usage has risen from 11.6% of

the world’s population in 2004, to

40.7% in 2014

Internet use has risen from 11.6% percent of the world’s population in 2004, to 40.7% percent in 2014

In 2004 there were 745 million internet users worldwide. A decade on, there are now

nearly 3 billion.

has increased by

Over the last decade, the number of people online has grown by around 29%. In March 2004 there were 745 million

internet users worldwide. In March 2014

there are nearly 3 billion.

Time to break down those 7

slides

Here’s a slide by slide guide to what you just saw…

Big area for a feature image (find this image)

Increased width to fit the headline on one line – plus it adds texture to the slide by lying across both the main text box and the image

An example of this style

Spincycle OT and Furore fonts

Large block for detailed text. A useful template for statistics, facts and figures. Change the image for each slide, and the colour of the text block for each section of your presentation.

Metropolis Extra and Quicksand Book fonts

An image free template that’s all about the fonts. Useful for making something stylish which doesn’t take too long to create. Handy for training materials as you can fit a decent amount of text in – don’t fill it up completely though! Minimum font size of 24 at all times, people.

You either recolour the background for different sections, or have one colour for the slides introducing each new section, and another colour for the rest.

It’s just a plain green background which has had the brightness and contrast adjusted to make sunburst effect so it’s lighter in the middle.

An example of this style

Elliot Six and Eraser fonts

The idea of this template is to emulate a children’s book. It’s low effort to produce a large amount of slides, as you only need to find one hand-drawn image from IconFinder per slide. Otherwise, the typography is enough to make it eye-catching.

You can get away with softer browns and oranges for the backgrounds of this style of slide

Hand-drawn icon via IconFinder.com (find this image)

TittiliumText22L LT font

This template uses stylish images (sourced via Flickr’s Creative Commons, for example) with gaps in which to insert a text box to get your message across. Works very well for face-to-face presentations as the slides support what you’re saying out loud, rather than duplicate or distract from it.

A nice image which is free to use (find this image)

An example of this style

This design is similar to the last one but a bit easier to do, as you use a semi-transparent text box (this one’s set to 27 per cent) meaning you don’t have to spend time finding slides with suitable gaps for text. As long as you don’t spend endless hours trying to find the perfect image for each background, this can be a quick and aesthetically pleasing way to produce a presentation.

An example of this style

Aaargh font

Another image via Flickr (find this image)

ChunkFiveRoman font (plus Pacifico in the middle)

The idea of this one is to blur the background image so you write directly onto it and still clearly read the text. All the cool kids are doing this these days. It relies on a nice chunky font to work, and change the size so each line is the same width. This style is useful for posters, too.

Another Creative Commons picture (find this image)

An example of this style

Corbel font

This style contrasts a coloured text box against a black and white image. As long as you search Flickr for images you can modify, you can use PowerPoint to recolour your background to B&W. Use a differently coloured text box for each section of your presentation.

A Flickr Creative Commons image which is licensed for modification, allowing me to make it black & white (find this image)

An example of this style

These slides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence – this is the most permissive licence Slideshare offers. It means

you can take this presentation and use it, modify it, incorporate it into what you’re already doing,

extract a section of it – whatever you want as long as you Attribute me as the original creator.

If you can fit a quick ‘based on an idea from @ned_potter’ somewhere (it doesn’t even have

to be on the slides themselves) that would be great, but don’t worry about it too much!

If you see a template idea here you’d like to copy, adapt or expand on, you can download the original PPT file (13MB) from this wiki page. (Slideshare allows you to download the PDF I uploaded, but that isn’t as easy to build on.) Keep in mind you need to download and install the relevant fonts from fontsquirrel FIRST, or PowerPoint will just do the best font-match it can, and it’ll look truly terrible. The easiest thing to do then is delete the slides you don’t want or need, then right-click and duplicate the ones you like. After that, edit the duplicated versions to have different images, colours and text, and build up an effective presentation. Have fun!

So who made this presentation?

My name is Ned Potter: I’m an Academic Librarian and Trainer. I run workshops on presentation skills, emerging technologies, and social media. More info on those here. I have exactly ZERO graphic design skills. But I know where to look for nice fonts and pics we can all legally use, and I know how to make PowerPoint cooperate to create something nice.

So who made this presentation?

My website is at ned-potter.com. My other slides are at slideshare.net/thewikiman. It’s not all about PPT; I use Prezi too: prezi.com/user/thewikiman/prezis. And Twitter: @ned_potter.

Font info!

All of the fonts used in this presentation are free for commercial use and can be downloaded from http://www.fontsquirrel.com/.

Image Credits

(Globe icon) by Aleksandra Wolska - http://www.olawolska.com via iconfinder

(Keyboard and globe) by MarcelaPalma https://www.flickr.com/photos/53114928@N02/12239000755/sizes/l/in/photostream/

(Planet earth) by bark https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkbud/4658966564/sizes/l/in/photostream/

(Man on telly) by Lubs Mary

https://www.flickr.com/photos/meaning_absence/3234862031/sizes/o/in/photostream/

(Internet $5) by erisfree https://www.flickr.com/photos/eris/2468597864/sizes/o/

(Globe in hand) by Bogdan L https://www.flickr.com/photos/bogdanl/4711563274/sizes/l

(TV picture) by Porro: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pesis/4957755736/sizes/o/

Good luck with your slides!