PowerPoint: Recolor image but not background

Question

I have an image I want to recolor but I want to recolor just the figure inside the image, not the whole image.

PPT makes this possible: “Picture Format / Color / Recolor” brings up a number of options. The bottom row offers just what I want but only seven options. Normally, MS products offer many ways to personalize a function but in this case there doesn’t seem to be any alternative to using the seven recolor options.

Please keep in mind that I’m not talking about any of the “Recolor” rows above the bottom one; for those, it’s easy to choose “More variations.” But that colors the entire image, including the background, and I want to only change the color of the figure inside the image, not the entire image.

Answer 1

PowerPoint’s built‑in Recolor feature always applies to the entire picture object. It cannot selectively recolor only part of a bitmap image (for example, the foreground figure but not its background) beyond the limited presets shown in the bottom Recolor row.

What is possible directly in PowerPoint is:

1. Recolor the whole image using:
   • Select the picture
   • Picture Format tab → Color → choose from Color Saturation, Color Tone, or Recolor, or use Picture Color Options for fine‑tuning. This always affects the entire bitmap.
2. Match and apply colors to shapes or slide background using Eyedropper, but this works on shapes, fills, outlines, and backgrounds, not on parts of a single bitmap photo.

To recolor only the figure inside the image (and not the background), the supported approach is to edit the image in an external image editor (where the figure can be isolated/selected) and then reinsert it into PowerPoint. PowerPoint does not provide a way to expand the seven bottom‑row partial recolor options or define custom partial‑recolor mappings for bitmap content.

For vector clip art (Windows Metafile/WMF or similar) inserted from older Clip Organizer content, individual elements and fills can be recolored, but that does not apply to standard bitmap formats such as .jpg, .gif, .png.

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References:

• Change the color of a picture
• Adjust the color of a picture in Office
• Use Eyedropper to match colors on your slide
• Recolor a picture from the Clip Organizer