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Common Assignments: Contrast and Alignment

Contrast

Contrast is an important component of ensuring that the relationship between your ideas is clear. If elements are not the same, use font, color, size, thickness, shape, and space to make them very different. Try consulting our PowerPoint template for basic format, and branching out from there to format your work in the most logical way.

Example of ineffective contrast shows yellow bananas and text against yellow background. Example of effective contrast shows yellow bananas and text on black background.

Ask yourself: Can you see a clear difference between your headings and the other content material?

Alignment

Alignment can help demonstrate the relationship between ideas, as well. All items on a slide should be aligned to demonstrate a clear structure or hierarchy and not simply placed on the slide arbitrarily.

Example of a slide showing good alignment of text on the slide, with a red vertical line showing how the text lines up along the left side of each line.

Proper alignment will highlight a clean design and clear organization.

Example of a slide with poor alignment, with multiple vertical red lines showing where the text starts at different places on each line.

Ask yourself: Does your alignment allow your audience to clearly follow and understand the hierarchy of your ideas?