3 Free Tools to Create Stunning Images For Presentations
You know you need stunning images for presentations. You know audiences love clean PowerPoint decks with minimal text and great pictures. However, you don't have the cash to hire a graphic designer. How do you look like a pro without blowing a ton of dough?
Here are the 3 free tools that I've fallen in love with that will help you create stunning images for your next presentation.
Table of Contents
Haiku Deck
This one is for you iPad users out there (although there are rumblings that Haiku Deck is going beyond the iPad soon). Haiku Deck gives you 2 lines of text and the ability to easily search creative commons images for just the perfect picture. I've been able to make a stunning PowerPoint deck in as little as 20 minutes.
Do your bristle at the thought of only have 2 lines of text? It does force you to be crystal clear on your point. Every slide calls out to be tied into your KABOOM statement for your presentation.
I even use Haiku Deck to find the perfect image for my blog. Here are some examples:
A compassionate ear helps improve morale
PicMonkey
It's so good that I can't believe PicMonkey is free (although there is a paid version, but the free one has all the features you need). Have a great image but want to crop, resize, add text, turn into B&W photo or make a collage. PicMonkey is the answer. I use PicMonkey all the time to edit photos for presentation or for this blog. It's incredibly easy to use – upload your photo, edit it the way you want and download and insert it into your presentation! There's also an extension for Google Chrome to make picture editing in your browser a snap.
For you social media peeps, you can create Facebook cover photos and Google+ cover photos as well. Here are some photos I edited using the free version of PicMonkey:
ReciteThis
ReciteThis is my new obsession. Have a great quote that you want to turn into a poster-like image? Look no further than ReciteThis. It quickly and easily turns you favorite quotation, saying or mantra into a super cool image. No Design experience required. It does all the work and all you have to do is download the image and insert into PowerPoint. No fuss. Here are several images I created using ReciteThis.
Bonus Tool: Canva
Canva is a simple, drag-and-drop, design software that’s completely online and free to use. They have great looking professional templates that you can adapt to your own brand's look and feel. They also have a great image database for you to find that perfect image to make your point.
Making your next presentation a visual extravaganza is a snap with Haiku Deck, PicMonkey, ReciteThis and Canva.
Have a presentation tool that you love? I'd like to hear about it and how you use it in the comment section!
Michelle –
I’ve been obsessed with Haiku Deck for a while now and it’s one of the few apps that I use literally all the time. However… the other two are new to me and I’m incredibly excited to give them both a spin! Thanks for introducing me to two new tools that look like contenders for my go-to arsenal.
~ Alli
Haiku Deck is awesome – I noticed that you use their slides on your blog as well! They have a big update coming soon. I really do love all of these tools. I hope they make your presentations visually soar.
It’ll be great if Haiku Deck does go to other platforms, because of course many people (e.g. me!) don’t have an iPad.
The free photo app I rave about is Picasa, from Google Inc. It’s available for Windows, and for Intel-based Macs apparently.
Picasa’s got great 1-click correction tools (e.g. for making colours brighter or deeper). It’s got a touchup tool (a bit like iPhoto‘s) which is good for getting rid of lines or other small features in a photo. And it’s great for finding and organising your photos – which you might expect, coming from Google!
Here’s a use case:
I once took a close-up of a tiger at the zoo. Naturally the 2 of us were separated by several inches of toughened glass, which was unfortunately dusty, scratched and at the time backlit. (Picture driving towards the setting sun with a dirty windshield.) Picasa got rid of the dusty glass in 1 click, and took care of the scratches too (with rather more work!) courtesy of the touchup tool. The photo ended up looking like there was nothing between the tiger and the camera. For free and easy-to-use software, Picasa’s amazing!
The other no-extra-cost tool I really like for photo work (because of the speed of not having to take a detour from my core workflow) is PowerPoint (especially the background removal tool and artistic effects in PPT 2010). I’m an instructional designer creating elearning (see http://remotepossibilities.wordpress.com/about/#me ), and we do quite a lot of work with photos. I do have Photoshop, but it’s slow just to open it on my laptop, and I’ve never been taught how to use it, so it gathers virtual dust. (What a costly waste!)
I’m all for free and lightweight tools that can handle 90% of the tasks non-graphics professionals want to do. Thanks for sharing your recommendations, Michelle!
Yikes – you have photoshop and don’t use it. That’s a pretty hefty investment. I’ve not used Picasa much. When I first tried it, Picasa was in its infancy. I thought it was a bit clunky, but not based on your review I might give it a go again.
Haiku Deck is doing a major update soon. I’ve heard that they are planning to expand to other platforms so everyone can benefit from the Haiku goodness.
Hi Michelle!
Thanks for featuring us on your blog! We love seeing all the stories you set free — keep them coming! I hope you had the chance to check out the latest version of our app, Haiku Deck 2.0. It includes the ability to create charts, graphs, lists and much more. Let us know what you think and we’re always here to help if you need it!
We also greatly appreciate the feedback from our users — for all the folks who don’t own an iPad, a web and Android version are in the works so stay tuned!
Cheers!
Lisa from Team Haiku Deck
You are welcome! I am a big Haiku Deck supporter. I’m excited to use the charts and graph features. I also like that you can do simple lists (great for creating an agenda slide. Looking forward to Haiku Deck being accessible to all!
One other great new source: The John Paul Getty Museum. They’ve just made 1000’s of stunning images into Open Access
That’s amazing. Thank you Peter for sharing that tid-bit of information!