Textures are the "in" thing even in a world that looks so much at the new flat design concept, and the reason is not difficult to
understand. The right texture can add interest, and make your slide content look crafted. To understand this better, look at
Figure 1, below, the textures used for slide backgrounds on the left have either too much detail or possess very dark and saturated
values color-wise. The textured backgrounds on the right side are just right in comparison, they are simple, uncomplicated, and do not distract from
the rest of your slide content.
Figure 1: Choose a texture wisely for your slide background
If you cannot find the perfect texture, it's best to leave your slide background unaltered.
Are Textures and Pictures the Same?
Texture and Picture fills for slide backgrounds have so much in common. Yes, the same picture can be used for both a texture or a picture fill, but
the results will differ. The main difference is that while a picture background results in your slide using a single picture as a backdrop, using a
texture background can result in the same picture being tiled across the slide background, imagine a wallpaper on your room's wall with repeating
motifs. Also some pictures lend themselves better to being used as textures, especially if they are seamless.
Look at
Figure 2 below, note that while both samples show texture fills tiled up, the sample on the left uses a seamless texture
that tricks the human eye into seeing a single expanse. The texture on the right however does not tile up well and you can see seams every time the
picture tiles up.
Figure 2: Seamless and non-seamless samples
We have explored picture slide backgrounds (one picture filling the entire slide background) in our
Picture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint
2016 tutorial, on this page you will learn how you can add a texture fill for your slide background in
PowerPoint 2016:
- We assume you have a new presentation created, or you have opened any of your existing presentations. We also assume that you have summoned the
Format Background Task Pane, as explained in our
Format Slide Background tutorial. Alternatively,
just right-click within an empty area of your slide and choose the Format Background option in the resultant contextual menu
(highlighted in red
with Figure 3) to bring up the same Task Pane.
Figure 3: Format Background option
- Within the Format Background Task Pane, select the Picture or texture fill radio button, as shown highlighted
in red
within Figure 4.
Figure 4: Picture or texture fill radio button
When you select the Picture or texture fill radio button, you can see a
Live Preview of the change on the background of your active slide, which
changes to a texture fill, your slide background will auto-update with any changes you make in the Format Background Task Pane. The
options within the Format Background Task Pane are explained below, as marked in Figure 4, above:
A. Insert picture from
You can choose from three options:
i. File: Click this button to open the Insert Picture dialog box, as shown in
Figure 5. In this dialog box, navigate to the folder where the texture to be used as slide fill is located, select it, and click the
Insert button (highlighted in red
within Figure 5).
Figure 5: Insert Picture dialog box
ii. Clipboard: This option fills the slide background with the content of the Clipboard. If nothing is copied to
the Clipboard, this button will be grayed out.
iii. Online: This brings up the Insert Pictures dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.
Within this dialog box you'll find the online picture service providers such as Bing Image Search listed, and also your
OneDrive account. Other than these three services you can add pictures from your Facebook and
Flickr accounts, but only after you connect to these accounts from within PowerPoint. Learn more in our
Insert Online Pictures in PowerPoint 2016 tutorial.
Figure 6: Insert Pictures dialog box with online picture services listed
B. Texture
Click the down-arrow located in this area to bring up the Texture drop-down gallery, as shown in
Figure 7. Choose from any of these readymade textures available within PowerPoint to change the slide background of your slide. Note that all the textures you see in this gallery are seamless, this means that they tile up on your slide background repeatedly without exposing any
seams to form a continuous pattern.
Figure 7: Texture drop-down gallery
C. Transparency
This option is used to control the transparency level of the texture you choose as a slide background fill. You can use
either the slider or directly type in the required transparency value.
D. Tile picture as texture
When selected, this check-box ensures that your selected graphic is used as a texture rather than a picture.
This also brings up the Tiling options that let you to further edit the tiling pattern, we explain this next.
E. Tiling options
These options show up in the Format Background Task Pane only when the
Tile picture as texture check-box is selected. These options are explained in the
Tiling Options tutorial, do note though that the linked
tutorial relates to shape fills but those options work in the same way for slide background fills.
- Choose any texture fill for your active slide background and adjust the tiling options as explained in the preceding step. Thereafter, you can
proceed choosing any of the following options:
i. Click the Apply to All button to fill all slides in the presentation with the selected texture.
ii. Click the Reset Background button to abandon all changes you made to the slide background.
More details about the Apply to All and Reset Background buttons can be found in our
Format Slide Background in PowerPoint 2016
tutorial.
- In Figure 8 you can see the slide background of the entire presentation filled with a texture.
Figure 8: Presentation with a texture fill background
- Remember to save your presentation often.
See Also:
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in
PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
