Use black & white textured background images for infinite flexibility

A nice background is a texture that isn’t too striking. It provides some interest without distracting from your content. Whether you want to find one texture and use it a lot or you want to create a variety of backgrounds, a black & white texture can give you lots of flexibility.

That’s because you can add a semi-transparent rectangle of any color on top of it. Or director “colorize” the image itself.

These textures make your slide look artistic and hand-made and were created by fellow PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj. They’re amazingly inexpensive and cost only $20! They come in both 4:3 (standard) and 16:9 (widescreen) versions.

This type of “grunge” look is very popular these days.

Click here to buy the set.

How to add a semi-transparent rectangle on top of the image

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Choose a textured background and insert it on your slide master — or even on an individual slide if you want. Just choose Insert> Picture(s). One nice thing about these images is that if they don’t fit exactly, you can resize them; they’re so abstract that no one will know!
2. Right-click the image and choose Send to Back.
3. Draw a rectangle, dragging it to cover the entire slide and image.
4. Click the Format tab and choose Shape Outline, then No Outline. an outline will ruin the effect!
5. Right-click the rectangle and choose Format Shape.
6. In the Fill category, drag the Transparency slider until you get the result that you want.
7. Right-click the rectangle and choose Send to Back, Send Backward until it’s in front of the texture image but behind any text placeholders.
8. Be sure to change the color of the text, if necessary, so that it’s legible.

Here the result using the default blue color in PowerPoint 2013 and a 64% transparency setting. I love how the dark gray blends with the blue to create a sophisticated blue-gray color! And all I have to do to change the color is select the rectangle and change its fill color! In fact, if you change the theme colors, the color will automatically adjust, as long as you choose one of the theme colors when you create the rectangle.

You can make the colored rectangle less transparent to show less of the texture and more of the color. It’s up to you. This one is 36% transparent, but it’s the same color as the previous example.

Colorize the textured image

1. Choose a textured background and insert it on your slide master — or even on an individual slide if you want. Just choose Insert> Picture(s). One nice thing about these images is that if they don’t fit exactly, you can resize them; they’re so abstract that no one will know!
2. Right-click the image and choose Send to Back.
3. With the image selected, click the Format tab.
4. Click the Color drop-down list in the Adjust group and choose one of the colors in the Recolor section.
5. You can additionally change the brightness and contrast. To do so, click the Corrections drop-down and choose one of the options.

Here you see the textured image colorize with a gold color and brightened 40%.

I LOVE this look, don’t you?

You can purchase the full-slide textures here. (Note: this is an affiliate link.)