Google Slides Themes Ultimate Guide (Create, Import & More)

Google Slides has become a top-rated presentation program that lets professionals use their creativity to design eye-catching projects for commercial use. Google Slides is an essential part of Google Workspace, just like Google Docs and Google Sheets. There are thousands of free and pre-made Google Slides themes for business people and hobbyists, and you will find several that are suitable for you regardless of industry. It also enhances teamwork, especially when creating Google Slides digital signage presentations using digital signage software, as several people can work on the same presentations in real-time. Let’s look at what Google Slides themes are:

What are themes in Google Slides?

Google Slides Themes are pre-designed slide layouts for use in presentations. The benefit of using the pre-made themes is that you can professionally Google presentation themes in minutes. However, if you want a more unique and personalized result, you can modify an existing Google Slides theme. You can edit the color, graphics, images, and fonts to make a customized theme for business presentations.

Difference between Google Slides themes & templates

The free Google Slides templates provide a framework for different kinds of presentations. The templates have no content but feature design elements that encourage users to insert information in specific places. For example, a template will include tags like ‘click here to insert title’ to guide the writer.

Pre-made templates include image placeholders, text holders with-predetermined sizes and fonts, and chart placeholders. A modern presentation template can be manipulated to create a unique design and deliver consistency across the organization. On the other hand, Google Slides Themes does not contain content, but only the layout and formatting information for a presentation.

Can you have multiple themes in Google Slides?

While you can have multiple themes in Google slides, unfortunately you can only use one theme per slide deck.

Generally, you can adjust the theme, background, and layout for Google slides.

How to add themes in Google Slides

1. You can access free Google Slides Themes by navigating to your Google Drive homepage and clicking +New, followed by Google Slides. You will see an array of themes when your presentation opens.
2. If you are working on an existing presentation, you can easily change the theme you are using by going to the Slides tab. Click Change Theme to see the Google Slides’ default themes. There is an ‘In this presentation’ option on the drop-down arrow that you can use to see the themes that your document is using.
3. When you apply a new theme, it will be applied to all the slides. You cannot apply a theme to specific slides as in PowerPoint. However, you can use multiple themes in one presentation by simply adding another slide master with a different theme.

How to import themes for Google Slides

You can easily import themes for Google Slides from another presentation and apply it to your project.

1. Under the Choose a theme menu, select Import Theme and explore the presentations saved on your Google Drive.
2. Once you select an existing presentation, click Import Theme, and it will be applied to your current presentation. You can click the Layout drop-down arrow to view the layout of the new theme.
3. You can also import a theme as a PowerPoint file from other websites. It can be overwhelming to sift through all the themes on Google Slides, and you can use sites like slidesgo and slidescarnival to find categorized themes.
4. Once you find a suitable theme from third parties, download and extract the zip file, navigate to Import Slides, and select Upload. You can select the downloaded file on your system or drag it to the Upload section.

This image is an example of a free Google Slides Theme downloaded from Slides Carnival. It’s so easy it took less than 2 minutes!

How to create a theme in Google Slides

If you have been using Google Slides default themes for corporate presentations, you will be happy to know that you can design a custom theme to help with branding. To create a custom theme, you will have to:

1. Design a master file with the fonts, logo, color, and other branding elements that you want to include.
2. To create a master file, navigate to View on your Google Slides, and select Master. Choose a theme and rename it with a custom title that differentiates it from the base theme. You can edit the theme by applying different colors, fonts, and header choices. There are also features to add a business name, logo, phone number, and image background.
3. Ensure that the master theme looks good on all individual layouts. You can quickly make changes to the master slide or edit an individual layout to fix any problems. Google Slides also lets you design brand-new layouts for more unique slides.
4. Once you save your custom theme, you can access it by navigating to Import Theme. Navigate to the Presentations section and type the theme’s title on the search bar or scroll through the file list. You can go ahead and add content to build a beautiful presentation.

You can edit free Google Slides Themes like this Finances Theme Grid from Slidesgo.

Using Google Slides design to achieve brand consistency

Gone are the days of using a clutter of fonts, colors, and infographics in an advertisement. The modern audience prefers professional designs with a clear message, and you can use Google Slides design styles to design projects that communicate your brand.

This is another free Google Slides Theme from Slides Carnival called Clean Business. The key to designing attractive displays is to create a Master slide with custom elements. You can add the theme colors, fonts, watermarks, and your company’s logo to provide a professional look in all your presentations. You can also lock specific elements and cut down on the time you use to design creative slides. By defining your brand’s style, you will ensure your content is instantly recognizable by customers.