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Create Color Tints and Shades with This PowerPoint Template

DavidAnderson's avatar
11 years ago

Hey gang,

I want to share a neat tip with you for creating custom color tints and shades using PowerPoint.

Typically, a color palette begins with a single base color. Then, you broaden the range of that color with tints and shades to create your color palette. This template will help you quickly create those tints and shades.

For the most part, tints are made by adding white to the base color. The more white you add, the lighter you make your base. Shades, on the other hand, are created by adding black to your base color. The more black you add, the darker your base.

I set up this simple template in PowerPoint to help you create tints and shades from a single base color. Here's a quick overview of how the template works:

Can you take a look at this template, play around with it, and let me know what you think? I'm sure you’ll have some ways to make this even more usable, but I wanted to push this out to you guys and get your feedback.

Thanks!

Published 11 years ago
Version 1.0
  • David, I just wanted you to know I'm REALLY loving how the color toner is helping me in a project I'm on where I need to use assorted tints and shades of a base color.

    I typically don't import slides from PPT to SL (inconsistencies); rather I'll build in PPT, save as image, and import that into SL. This tool is making my workflow much more efficient. Still on PPT 2010, so using Pixie (http://www.nattyware.com/) to get the RGB or HTML numbers from the tints and shades. Thumbs up!
  • That's really awesome to hear, Becky. Thanks for that feedback. I found another way to put this together using a single transparent image created in Photoshop. The cubes are all there and have the same level of transparency, but you can place it over a single shape and get the same color tints. I'll post it today or Monday. Everything works the same, but there's probably some advantage to having a single image to work with rather than multiple shapes.

  • LauraM's avatar
    LauraM
    Community Member
    I just wanted to let you know that I had downloaded this back when it was first posted and never really looked at it. I just came back to it and realized what a genius idea it is! I just set up my three base colors, based on our corporate colors, with the tint and shade slides. I already use Pixie all the time (still in PPT '10), so that will work perfectly. Thank you so much for creating this little tool!
  • MckennaCline's avatar
    MckennaCline
    Community Member
    Rebecca I really appreciate your comment on the color picker built into SL that itself was good news to me!! Thank you!
  • Cool, Mckenna! Gotta thank David for getting the topic started. I see this is your first post, so Welcome to you!
  • MckennaCline's avatar
    MckennaCline
    Community Member
    Thank you. It is true, I've been silenting following these forums for some time. :0)
  • Thanks so much! I've been trying to figure out how to generate these tones with the tools I have for a long time!
  • Hey David, I just discovered your video. It's just so brilliant. Thanks a lot!!!