Theme Color HEX & RGB Codes - Unwanted Shifting by 1pt

Question

Theme Color HEX & RGB Codes - Unwanted Shifting by 1pt

Tessa Portuese 0

I have attempted to add a color palette as Theme Colors, but one of the colors (#94D2FF / R:148 G:210 B:255) keeps shifting to #93D2FF / R:147 G:210 B:255. If I fix the hex code, the RGB code looks fixed as well (and vice versa), but when I hit Save and open the Theme Colors again, it has switched back to #93D2FF. I know this is practically the same color and likely a result of Mac's color management, but it's important to my client that the codes are absolutely correct.

I tried switching my MacBook's display preset to Internet & Web (sRGB) and this didn't help.

I am running PowerPoint 16.114.4 on macOS Tahoe 26.6.2.

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3 answers

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Answer 1

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 438.6K

I'm not contradicting anyone who has responded but I cannot reproduce what you have reported. I'm running the same release of Word on Sequoia 15.8.2 on an M1 Macbook Pro. This is using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Profile.

Have you tested documents in other programs such as Apple's Pages or other text application? I have a feeling that this may be related to Tahoe due to its many other display issues since the Color Picker is a global feature of the OS.

John Korchok 237K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-11-11T01:19:28.9866667+00:00

That's the color profile I recommend in my article. There are a few colors that may be off by 1 in R, G or B, but I don't find that this is noticeable.

Answer 2

John Korchok 237K Volunteer Moderator

This is a peculiarity of PowerPoint for Mac, which is color-managed in Edit (Normal) mode, but not color-managed in presentation mode. Another goofy Microsoft decision.

Here's my article on this with a suggestion for settings that minimize, but do not completely eliminate the problem: Mac PowerPoint: Setting Colors Accurately in 2025 - Best Practices

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Answer 3

Dear Tessa,

From my research, changing only the MacBook display preset is not enough because the macOS color picker has its own color profile, which can convert entered RGB values before PowerPoint saves them. Similar one-channel shifts have been reported with custom PowerPoint themes on macOS. Try the color-picker profile

In PowerPoint, open Design > Variants > Colors > Customize Colors.
Select the affected theme color.
In the macOS Colors window, choose Color Sliders > RGB Sliders.
Select the profile control beside the sliders, sometimes shown as a three-dot or settings menu.
Choose sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
Enter 94D2FF (R 148, G 210, B 255) and press Return.
Close the macOS Colors window before saving the custom color theme.

Both the display profile and the color picker profile should be set to sRGB. Even with both configured correctly, testing has still found occasional one-value shifts on Mac, although the same presentation can show the intended values when opened in PowerPoint for Windows.

The picker may display 93D2FF even if the presentation contains the correct value. To check:

Save a copy of the presentation as .pptx.
Duplicate the file so the original remains untouched.
Rename the duplicate from .pptx to .zip.
Open the archive and locate: ppt/theme/theme1.xml
Search for: <a:srgbClr val="94D2FF"/>

If you find 94D2FF, the correct color is saved and only the Mac picker shows it differently. If you find 93D2FF, you can change it to 94D2FF in the XML file, save it, zip the contents again and rename the file back to .pptx. Please keep the original file as a backup before you edit anything.

I would also recommend you report this through PowerPoint > Help > Feedback > Report a Problem, including PowerPoint 16.114.4, macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, and the exact conversion from 94D2FF to 93D2FF.

I hope this helps. Looking forward to your reply.

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