- Instantly apply a professional look using ready-made themes.
- Build reusable brand themes with your logo, colours, and fonts.
- Fine-tune individual slides when you need something special.
Choose Your Level of Design Customization
AhaSlides offers three levels of design customization, depending on how much control you need:- Quick polish → Pre-made themes. Best when you want a clean, professional look instantly. Apply professionally designed colour schemes and backgrounds in one click.
- Brand consistency → Custom themes. Best for recurring sessions, team alignment, and brand credibility. Create reusable themes with your logo, colours, and fonts.
- Creative flexibility → Individual slide customization. Best when specific slides need unique visuals. Customize backgrounds and styling at the slide level.
What Each Setting Affects
| Setting | Scope | Visible to |
|---|---|---|
| Background colour/image | Per slide | Presenter + Audience |
| Text font | Entire presentation | Presenter + Audience |
| Visualization colours | Entire presentation | Presenter + Audience |
| Logo | Entire presentation | Presenter + Audience |
Plan Requirements
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Pre-made themes | All plans |
| Background colour | All plans |
| Visualization colours | All plans |
| Background images | All paid plans |
| Custom fonts | Pro and Enterprise |
| Team theme sharing | Team plans |
Presentation Theme
1. How to Apply a Pre-Made Theme
Pre-made themes provide a quick and easy way to style your presentation.
Selecting a theme will apply it to all your slides, except those you have already customised.
2. How to Create a Custom Theme
Custom themes are best for consistent branding across multiple presentations. You can create your own theme by selecting the Create button next to My Themes. From there, you can:- Add a theme name.
- Upload your logo.
- Upload a background image or choose a background colour.
- Change the text font.
- Customize the text colour and visualisation colours.
Customizing Your Slide
If you prefer a more personalized design, you can customize each slide using the Customise menu. You can open it by:- Clicking the Design tab > Customise, or
- Right-clicking on your slide and choosing Design.
Change Background Colour
Open the Customize menu
Click the Design tab > Customize (or right-click your slide and choose Design).
Set Background Image
This function is available for all paid plans.
Add an image
Click the Add button next to the Background image section on the Design menu to upload or add an image.
Adjust Background Transparency
Modify the Background Transparency to set the transparency level, with 100% being fully visible.Change Text Font
Changing the font applies across your entire presentation, and it is also visible on your audience’s screens. This feature is only available on Pro and Enterprise plans. For step-by-step guidance, see How to Change and Manage Fonts.Change Visualisation Colours
Changing this setting applies to all charts in quiz, poll, and scale slides, and to audience response displays in word cloud, open-ended, and brainstorm slides. Click the colour bar under Visualisation Colours and select the colour palette you would like to use for your presentation.Best Practices for Great-Looking Slides
- Design for readability: use strong contrast between text and background, especially for projector rooms and large screens.
- Keep colours consistent: using the same visualization colours helps audiences read charts and results faster.
- Avoid visual clutter: clean slides keep attention on interaction, not decoration.
- Reuse your theme: save time and stay consistent across sessions.
- Preview once before presenting: open the audience view on another device to check text size and contrast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my theme not apply to all slides?
Why does my theme not apply to all slides?
When you customize individual slides using the Customize menu, those slides are excluded from automatic theme updates. To reset a slide, go to Design > Customize and click Reset to default.
Can I use my own fonts?
Can I use my own fonts?
Yes, on Pro and Enterprise plans. Go to Design > Customize, click the font dropdown under Text, and select + More fonts to access additional options. See How to Change and Manage Fonts for details.
What do visualization colours affect?
What do visualization colours affect?
Visualization colours control the palette for all charts in quiz, poll, and scale slides, plus audience response displays in word cloud, open-ended, and brainstorm slides. Changing this setting applies to the entire presentation.
What image size works best for a background?
What image size works best for a background?
Use high-resolution images (1920x1080 pixels or higher) that match your presentation aspect ratio. Lower-quality images may appear pixelated when projected. Use the transparency slider to ensure text remains readable over busy images.
Can I apply different themes to different slides?
Can I apply different themes to different slides?
Themes apply presentation-wide, but you can customize individual slides to override theme settings. Use the Customize menu to set unique backgrounds for each slide while maintaining your overall theme.
Will my audience see the same styling I see?
Will my audience see the same styling I see?
Yes. All design elements (backgrounds, fonts, colours, and logos) display on your audience’s devices exactly as you see them in the presenter view.