Slide Themes
A theme sets how an AI Slides deck looks: its fonts, colours, background art, title slide, and the way each slide is laid out. It never changes what the deck says. The same source and settings produce the same content in any theme.
Themes are available on every plan, including Free.
Choosing a Theme
The Slides settings open with Theme at the top. You see three kinds of choice:
- Designer themes: the large cards. Each card is the theme's real title slide, and pointing at a card shows a second slide in the same theme, so you can see how content looks before you create.
- Auto: the default. Scholarly picks one of the colour looks for each deck, so two decks in a row usually look different. Auto never picks a designer theme; choose one yourself if you want it.
- Colour looks: the small swatches after Auto. Each one recolours the standard design with a different paper and accent colour.
The line under the gallery describes the theme you are pointing at, or the one you picked, including its two typefaces.
Light and Dark
The Light and Dark switch beside the Theme heading changes which themes you see. Light shows six designer themes and fourteen colour looks. Dark shows four designer themes and five colour looks.
If you switch after picking a theme from the other side, the pick goes back to Auto so the deck is never half light and half dark.
On a Phone
On a phone, Theme is a row in Settings. Tap it to open a sheet with Auto and every designer theme, each with a preview and a short description. Picking Noir, Neon, Blueprint, or Velvet makes a dark deck. Auto keeps whichever mode you used last.
The colour looks and the Light and Dark switch are desktop only. A colour look you picked on a computer still shows in the phone's list, so you can see what is selected.
The Designer Themes
| Theme | Light or dark | Best for | Typefaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atelier | Light | Luxury fashion editorial | Bodoni Moda and Jost |
| Swiss Grid | Light | International style, bold and gridded | Archivo and Inter |
| Launch | Light | Product launch and marketing | Bricolage Grotesque and Plus Jakarta Sans |
| Studio | Light | Creative agency, graphic and loud | Syne and Manrope |
| Botanica | Light | Calm, organic and refined | Cormorant Garamond and Figtree |
| Riso | Light | Risograph zine, playful print | Space Grotesk and DM Sans |
| Noir | Dark | Black-tie luxury | Playfair Display and DM Sans |
| Neon | Dark | Startup keynote, high voltage | Sora and Inter |
| Blueprint | Dark | Engineering and technical | Space Grotesk and IBM Plex Sans |
| Velvet | Dark | Warm, cinematic and bold | Fraunces and Outfit |
A few starting points:
- Training or onboarding deck for a team: Swiss Grid or Launch read clearly on a shared screen.
- Technical material, such as a system design or an engineering course: Blueprint.
- A pitch, keynote, or demo day: Neon or Launch.
- Humanities, art, or design topics: Atelier, Botanica, or Velvet.
- A study deck you read on your own: Botanica or Swiss Grid, or a quiet colour look such as Classic.
What a Designer Theme Changes
A designer theme is a complete design, not a recolour:
- Fonts and colours: a display face for titles, a body face for text, and the theme's own palette. Labels on bright accents switch to dark text so they stay readable.
- Background art and the title slide: each theme has its own title layout and decoration.
- Layouts that fill the frame: lists become cards or ruled rows, steps run along a drawn rail, timelines are dated, pictures take up half the slide, bar charts are labelled bar by bar, and tables, comparisons, diagrams, equations, and mind maps grow to use the space. Key ideas, definitions, theorems, and callouts are set at poster size.
- Type that fits: each layout starts large and steps down only as far as the text needs, so a short slide fills the frame and a long one still fits.
Two slide types work in every theme and every colour look: a numbered section divider, and key figures, which shows two to four numbers side by side.
Your Theme Is Remembered
After you create a deck, AI Slides remembers your theme along with your deck style, expert style, slide count, and dark mode. The next time you open AI Slides, the settings start from them and show Using your last settings. Choose Reset to go back to the defaults.
A theme applies to the deck you are creating. Decks you already made keep their look.
Other Creators
Designer themes are for AI Slides. Standard video lectures offer the Classic and Sage colour looks and dark mode under Advanced options. The podcast visual companion follows dark mode only.
Exports
PowerPoint and Google Slides exports keep each slide's finished design, including the theme's fonts, because every slide is exported as a picture. Word and Google Docs exports keep the text only. See Exporting Your Work.
Related
- AI Slides: every setting on the Slides step.
- Customisation Profiles: reusable instructions that shape a deck on top of its theme.
- Exporting Your Work: PowerPoint, Word, and Google Slides exports in full.