Theme Fonts in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

In PowerPoint, any Theme brings to the table several unique facts such as Theme Fonts, Theme Colors, and Theme Effects -- and also Slide Layouts, Backgrounds, etc. When you apply another Theme to your PowerPoint presentation, the changes reflect in all slides in the presentation. Yet, the change is complete, and thus the resulting slides all look consistent.

Figure 1 below shows examples of the same slide. These are not four different slides in the same presentation, but the same slide with four different Themes applied. Note that all the slides differ. You will see distinct colors, fonts, and effects applied in each of them. Yet, the text content (outline) is still the same.

Figure 1: Variations of the same slide with different Themes applied

In this tutorial, our focus is primarily on Theme Fonts -- we'll explore how Theme Fonts work in your presentation. Let's begin with discussing what Theme Fonts are? Theme Fonts are pre-decided pairs of fonts: one of these fonts is used for titles (known as the Headings font), and other font is used for everything else (known as the Body font).

When you select any text in your PowerPoint presentation, and then access the Fonts list in the Home tab of the Ribbon, you'll notice the Headings and Body fonts that are part of the active Theme, right at the top of the Fonts drop-down gallery, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Heading and Body fonts being displayed within the Fonts drop-down list

Note that you are not limited to use the default Theme Fonts for your presentation -- you can always scroll down the Fonts drop-down list and select another font for any individual text object -- but doing so will override the active Theme Fonts of your presentation. For that matter, you are not even limited to the default Theme Fonts associated with the active Theme applied to the presentation -- there are many ready-to-use Theme Font sets available within PowerPoint 2016 that you can switch to. Follow these steps to learn more:

1. Create a new presentation and apply a Theme to it, or open an existing presentation. For this tutorial we have created a new presentation and applied the Theme named Frame, as shown in Figure 3 below.
2. 
   Figure 3: Presentation with a Theme applied
2. Navigate to Design tab of the Ribbon, within the Variants group, click More button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4.
3. 
   Figure 4: More button
3. This brings up the Variants drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 5. Within the Variants drop-down gallery choose Fonts option to open a sub-gallery, refer to Figure 5 again. Within the Fonts sub-gallery click the Customize Fonts option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.
4. 
   Figure 5: Fonts sub-gallery
Tip: If you use Theme Colors and Theme Fonts options often, consider customizing your Ribbon to add them in a more accessible location -- or you could even add them to your Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).
4. This brings up the Create New Theme Fonts dialog box, as shown in Figure 6. Here you can see the Heading (highlighted in red within Figure 6) and Body (highlighted in blue within Figure 6) fonts used for active theme. For now, press the Cancel button; we will revisit this dialog box soon.
5. 
   Figure 6: Create New Theme Fonts dialog box
5. To change the theme font just hover your cursor over any of the Theme Fonts within the Fonts sub-gallery. You can see a Live Preview of fonts changing on the active slide, as shown in Figure 7. When you have decided which Theme Fonts set you prefer, click (as opposed to hovering over it) to apply it to your presentation.
6. 
   Figure 7: Different Theme Fonts set being selected
6. This will change the Theme Font for your presentation slides, as shown in Figure 8 (compare with Figure 3, shown earlier on this page). Note that the overall Theme is not changed -- the slide still sports the same layout, colors, effects, etc. It's just the fonts that have changed.
7. 
   Figure 8: Theme Font changed
7. Summon the Create New Theme Fonts dialog box again to see the changed fonts, as shown in Figure 9 (compare with Figure 6).
8. 
   Figure 9: Changed Theme Fonts
8. Also select some text and access the Fonts drop-down gallery in the Home tab of the Ribbon. You'll notice the Headings and Body fonts that are allocated for the active Theme right at the top of the Fonts drop-down gallery are now changed, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 10, below. Compare it with Figure 2, shown earlier on this page.
9. 
   Figure 10: Changed Heading and Body fonts being displayed within the Fonts drop-down gallery
9. In our next tutorial, we will learn how you can create your own Theme Fonts set. Save your presentation often.