Image Transparency in Google Slides

Google Slides is an online presentation tool that allows you to create, edit and share sleek and polished decks. But any presentation is about communicating your ideas in the best way possible, so you need to know how to balance out text and imagery in a way that your message stands out.   

One of the easiest ways to achieve that is by playing around with the transparency slider in the Format options. So, for the purposes of this short article we’re going to see how to increase image transparency in Google Slides and what are the benefits for your presentation. 

How to increase image transparency in Google Slides? 

Step #1. Open your Google Slides presentation and select the image you want to increase the transparency of. 

Step #2. Right-click on the image and then select the Format options which will open a new pane on the right side. 

Step #3. Click the Adjustments arrow and from there move the Transparency slider until you reach the desired picture opacity. 

Increase image transparency

As you see, you can easily make your text pop out by increasing the background image transparency. 

Why use image transparency in Google Slides? 

Essentially, image transparency is a tool for emphasising certain elements in a picture. In presentations one would often insert an image as the background for a slide and make it more transparent to create a faded background effect and be able to insert a text box that would read more easily. So here are the three main benefits of adjusting image transparency in Google Slides: 

1. Emphasis. Making a picture transparent highlights the text on your slides and allows you to direct the audience’s attention to your key message. 

2. Look. Image transparency matters for the overall mood and appeal of your presentation, because regardless of how see-through the image is, it’s still more powerful than just plain text when it comes to audience engagement. 

3. Creativity. It allows you to be more inventive, create overlays and combine objects. 

We hope that next time you open a Google Slides presentation, you’ll be confident enough to experiment with image transparency and create nice visual effects. By the way, we almost forgot to mention that we have another piece exploring the depths of image opacity in Google Slides. Do follow our blog if presentations are a big part of your job, we promise we cover any topic imaginable. Got questions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.