Bright white tires the eyes: how to create pleasant backgrounds in your presentations

A white slide background can strain the eyes during presentations. Use PowerPoint's "Format Background" feature to apply a softer colour, like pastel shades or light grey, to all slides. This enhances readability and keeps your audience engaged. Avoid overly bright colours and ensure your content remains legible.

3 Min. reading time

16 February 2026

Bright white tires the eyes: how to create pleasant backgrounds in your presentations

Heinz N. asks:
I have created my first PowerPoint presentation. The background of all the slides is white. I find this too bright during the presentation. Can I assign a different background color to my slides?

Hiroshi Nakanishi answers:
Dear Mr. N., you can change the background colors for all slides in your presentation file in just a few steps. A well-chosen background color not only makes your presentation more visually appealing, but also ensures that your audience stays attentive ...