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Creating Custom Colors in PowerPoint (via Theme XML)

Themes in PowerPoint are limited to 12 theme colors, learn how you can expand this limited selection through theme XML-files.

In the theme colors of PowerPoint, you can choose 12 different colors. By doing a few
maneuvers you can add a whole new row of custom colors that exist outside of these 12 custom ones.


A .pptx file is a zip archive of XML files. Its color theme (12 coordinated colors) lives in ppt/theme/theme1.xml. Rather than overwriting that default scheme, you can add a new one so both are available as selectable options in PowerPoint.

 

 

Note: This color picker does not show up in Grunt elements. To replicate the custom colors in the Grunt color picker, reach out to your Customer Success Manager at Grunt

 

Step 1: Open the XML

  1. Copy your .pptx file and rename the copy's extension to .zip.
  2. Extract it and open ppt/theme/theme1.xml in a text editor.

Step 2: Add an extra color scheme

Inside theme1.xml, find the closing tag </a:clrScheme> — this ends the default color definitions. Insert the following formula at the end of the document, after the command: <a: extraClrSchemeLst>

<a:custClrLst><a:custClr name="name of colour"><a:srgbClr val="RGB in Hex"/></a:custClr></a:custClrLst>

Each <a:srgbClr val="HEX"/> is one color slot (no # prefix on the hex code). <a:sysClr> links to a system default instead of a fixed value.

Step 3: Repackage and check

  1. Save the file, then re-zip the contents of the extracted folder (not the folder itself).
  2. Rename back to .pptx and open it in PowerPoint.
  3. Go to Design → Variants → Colors — your new scheme now appears alongside the original as a selectable option.

Troubleshooting

  • File won't open → check for a zip/repackaging mistake or invalid XML (unclosed tag, stray character).
  • New scheme doesn't appear → confirm extraClrSchemeLst sits inside <a:themeElements>, right after </a:clrScheme>.