The bottom half of the Colors panel is all about backgrounds — the surfaces your slides sit on. Each control below builds on the last, and every one of them will show up as a one-click option for your team when they change a slide background. Work through them in order:
Background Colors
Click each swatch (Light, Dark, Accent) to set the three default background colors your team can apply to any slide. Something to note: Beautiful.ai expects these to stay close to actual light and dark values, because the Design AI uses them to pick contrasting text and shape colors. Setting an "Accent" color that's wildly off from light or dark can lead the AI to make odd choices on slides.
Background Gradients
- Click 'ADD' to open the Custom Gradient Background editor. This is a full gradient builder with:
- TYPE — choose Linear or other gradient types.
- ANGLE — slider to set the direction (0 to 360 degrees).
- STOPS — the colors that make up the gradient, each with a hex code and a position from 0% to 100%. Click any stop to edit its color, or click the gradient bar to add a new stop.
- NOISE — slider to add subtle visual texture to the gradient (useful for avoiding the "too clean" look that gradients sometimes have).
2. Click 'SAVE' to add the gradient to your brand kit. You can add as many gradients as you want, and each one becomes a one-click background option for your team.
Background Images
Click ADD to upload an image to use as a background.
After uploading, set the TREAT AS dropdown (Light, Dark, or Color) so the Design AI knows how to pick text and shape colors that read properly against the image.
To note: avoid overly detailed or busy photos for backgrounds, since they can make Smart Slide templates look odd or unreadable. Save abstract textures and clean photos for this slot, and let your team add busy imagery as inline slide content instead.
Default Background
Click into the 'Default Background' box.
A selection of your added backgrounds will populate.
Pick which of your available background colors, gradients, or images should be the default for every new slide. This is what shows up automatically when someone adds a new slide to a deck, so set it to whatever background your team should be using 80% of the time.
Background Effect
Apply a global visual treatment to all slides in any presentation built on this brand kit. Options:
- NONE — clean, no effect.
- VIGNETTE — subtle darkening around the edges of each slide.
- GRADIENT — softens the background into a gradient.
- REVERSE — inverts background tones.
- BORDER — adds a subtle border around each slide.
Most teams leave this on NONE, but it's a quick way to give every deck a consistent visual signature if your brand calls for it.
Comments
Article is closed for comments.