How to edit images in google slides
By Rachel Davis
Sometimes when you are placing a picture into a slideshow, that picture is completely ready for the presentation. It’s already been edited in a different image-editing program, or the picture was created expressly for the presentation, and therefore requires no edits.
But we aren’t always that lucky, and it’s quite common that a picture you want to use on one of your slides needs some sort of adjustment before it looks the way that you want it to look. Google Slides has some image-editing tools for the pictures that you add to your slides, and one of those tools lets you increase the transparency of the image. You can continue reading below to see how you can make a picture transparent in your presentation.
How to Make a Picture Transparent in Google Slides
The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of Google Chrome. This guide assumes that you already have a picture in your presentation, and that you want to make it transparent. This will allow you to see the presentation elements on the layers below the picture. For example, if you have a theme with a background, you will be able to see the background through the picture.
Step 1: Sign into your Google Drive and open the Slides file that contains the picture you want to make transparent.
Step 2: Right-click the picture, then choose the Format options button.
format picture options in google slides
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Step 3: Click the arrow to the left of Adjustments.
increase picture transparency in google slides
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Step 4: Drag the slider under Transparency to the right to increase transparency in the image, or drag it to the left to reduce transparency.
how to make a picture transparent in google slides
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Does your Google Slides presentation have a slide that you don’t need anymore? Find out how to delete an entire slide in Google Slides so that it’s no longer a part of the slideshow.
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office and many other popular applications and devices.
Image editing is one of things that can seem a little daunting. However, Google Docs and Google Slides both include some basic image editing tools that are very easy for anyone to use! In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use each of the tools available to put your own flair on images.
Step 1 – Insert an image
The first step is to insert the image into your Google Doc or Slide. If you’re looking for an image to get started with, check out Lara Kirk’s post on five smart ways you can find images to use in your documents and presentations.
Step 2 – Access the image editing tools
To access the image editing tools, simply click once on the image you have inserted into your document or presentation.
In Google Docs, this will display buttons for Crop, Image options and Replace image, as shown below.
In Google Slides, this will display buttons for Crop, Mask, Reset Image, Replace Image and Format options, as shown below.
Step 3 – Start editing
Crop image
The crop image tool is available in both Docs and Slides. It allows you to ‘trim’ the sides of your image to make it smaller and more focussed on the important parts. To crop your image, click the Crop button then use the black lines on the corners and sides to trim the image. Press Enter when you are finished.
Mask image
The mask image tool is only available in Google Slides. It allows you to change the shape of your image. To mask your image, click the little arrow next to the crop button. Choose the shape you want for your image.
Re-colour image
The re-colour tool is available in both Docs and Slides. It allows you to change the colour shade of your image, including making it black and white. To re-colour your image, click the Image options (Docs) or Format options (Slides) button. Click the re-colour drop-down box and choose the shade.
Adjust transparency, brightness & contrast
Both Google Docs and Slides have tools to adjust an images transparency, brightness and contrast. This is great for creating backgrounds (in Slides) and correcting low-quality images. To use these tools, click the Image options (Docs) or Format options (Slides) button. Open the Adjustments section and use the sliders to adjust each element.
Add a drop shadow
The drop shadow tool is only available in Google Slides. It allows you to add a shadow to your image. To use the drop shadow tool, click the Format options button and tick the Drop shadow option. Expand the drop shadow section to customise your shadow further. You can choose the colour, transparency, angle, distance and blur radius of the shadow.
Add a reflection
The reflection tool is only available in Google Slides. It allows you to reflect your image onto the slide. To use the reflection tool, click the Format options button and tick the Reflection option. Expand the reflection section to customise your reflection further. You can choose the transparency, distance and size of the reflection.
Reset image
In both Google Docs and Google Slides you can use the reset image tool to remove some of the edits you have made to the image, including cropping and masking. However, changes such as re-colour, drop shadow and reflection need to be removed by de-selecting the options.
Note: In Google Docs, the reset image tool is located within Image options.
Replace image
The replace image tool is available in both Google Docs and Google Slides. It lets you choose a new image without losing the size, edits and formatting you have applied to the existing image. For example, if you have applied a mask or a drop shadow to your existing image, the new image will also have these edits.
With these simple tools you no longer need to be daunted by the idea of image editing! If you want to learn more about the power of Google Docs and Slides, join our online professional learning community.
Google have announced that users can now edit images in Drawings and Slides, here’s how to do it in a Google Doc.
The Google Blog announced this week that images can be edited in Google Slides and Drawings. Using the edit features in Drawing means you can also edit images in Documents too ! Just follow these steps:
- From your Google Doc, select the Insert menu and choose Drawing
- In the drawing click on the Insert Image icon and upload your image or choose one from other options
- Once the image uploads, click on it to select it and you can now crop and edit the image
- When you Save and Close to return to your doc, you have the cropped image
- If you later edit the drawing, the image’s cropping can be adjusted.
(Google Apps Release Track: Rapid)
Try this tip out and let us know what you think in the comments below.
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I love to use collaborative Google Slides. I am frequently asked about how to keep students from editing my slides in the template. While you can not restrict editing on Slides like you can a Google Sheets spreadsheet, there is a trick that will help keep the slide from being edited.
First, create the slide with the images and text that you wish.
With the slide selected, go to the File menu and choose “Download as” and choose “PNG image.” This will download the image of that slide to the computer.
Delete the slide. The current slide has the ability to move the text and images around.
From the layout options, insert a blank slide.
From the toolbar, choose the “Background” button.
Choose the Image and upload the image of the slide you downloaded. This will set the slide content as the background image, which can not be easily manipulated by students.
Mehvish
23 Jun 2020
Apps like Microsoft Word, Google Slides, etc., let you overlap images or text over another image without any fuss. But when users try to achieve the same in Google Docs, they are left disappointed. The capability to put an image or text in front of another image is missing in Google Docs. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to achieve layering of text over pictures. You can do it with the methods mentioned in this post.
Layering in Docs can add words to a picture, add a logo or watermarks to an image, or merge two images. There are two ways to layer images in Google Docs. Firstly, with the help of Google Drawings and secondly, using the wrap text feature.
Let’s check both the methods to layer images or text on another picture in Google Docs.
Method 1: Overlap Images in Google Docs With Google Drawings
In this method, you need to add your image as a drawing first. Then you can add images and text over the same image. Here are the steps in detail.
Step 1: Open your Google Docs document.
Step 2: Click on Insert at the top and Choose Drawing > New.
Step 3: You will be taken to the built-in Google Drawing module. Click on the Image icon to add your background image.
Step 4: When the image has been inserted in the Drawing panel, you can now add text or another image on top of it. To add text, click on the text icon. Then start typing on the image. Customize the font color, style, etc., from the options at the top. Click on Save and Close at the top to insert this picture into your document.
Similarly, to add another image, click on the same Image icon that you used in step 3. Open the image that you want to add on top.
It will appear above your background image. Using the mouse, drag it to the required position, or change its size from its corners. Click on Save and Close to add the modified image with your logo or layered image in the document.
Here’s the final result.
If you want to edit any element of this image later, just double-click on the image in Google Docs. You will be taken to the Drawing panel from where you can edit existing elements or add more of them.
Google Slides is a cloud-based document processing platform by Google that enables one to create slides online directly from their web browser. It is one of the best alternatives to the Microsoft PowerPoint that comes with all the features that Microsoft PowerPoint has.
However, one of the biggest benefits of using Google Slides over Microsoft PowerPoint is all the documents and slides are saved online on the cloud which is accessible from any computer. Also sharing the slides with other people is as simple as pasting a link. With a lot more features, Google Slides also let you insert and edit images in your slides with some built-in editing tools.
In most of the cases, people who are new to Google Sheets face some sorts of difficulty finding these built-in editing tools to insert and edit images in the Google Slides.
The most common trouble people face while working with an image in the Google Slides is sending an image to back in Google Slides. Any image that you insert in the Slides is set at the front by default. This image covers the texts in Slides making it difficult to read. To make the text visible, the image that you have inserted needs to be sending back to the texts.
In case, if you are also having trouble while working with an image in Google Slides, we are here to help you. Read a step-by-step guide to help you send an image to back in Google Slides.
Inserting an Image in Google Slides
Before you edit any image, it is needed to be inserted in Slides. This part is only for those who are a newbie to the Google Slides and didn’t have any idea inserting an image in the Slides. If you already know this process, you can skip this part.
- Open the Slides on the web browser on which you are working.
- Click on Insert > Image and then select the image to be inserted from your computer.
- Hit on Insert or Open button to insert the selected image to the Slides.
Note: You can follow the same procedure to insert an audio or video in the slides. You just have to follow Insert > Audio/Video to insert.
In this way, you can insert any image in the Google Slides. Now you are ready to edit the image you have inserted. As mentioned above, images that you insert in the Slides are placed in front by default. You need to send them back to make the text visible. Let’s see how can we do this.
How to Send an Image to the Back in Google Slides
As soon as you select an image, the drawing bar comes at the front that comprises different tools and options to edit the images. However, the drawing bar doesn’t comprise an option to send an image to back to the text. But, you can follow this step given below to send an image to the back in Google Slides.
- Select the image to which you want to send back.
- Right-click on the image then select Order.
- From the drop-down menu, select Send to Back.
Alternatively, you can simply select the image and follow this command (CTRL + Shift + ↓) to send an image to back to the texts.
In this way, you can easily send an image to the back in the Google Slides.
Image cropping used to be something that you needed to perform in an outside program that was specifically designed for editing images. But as the prevalence of digital photographs has dramatically increased the amount of pictures being used in all kinds of documents, it has become much more important for any application that lets you use pictures to provide some basic editing tools.
Google Slides allows you to edit your pictures in a few ways, one of which is a cropping utility. Our tutorial below will show you how to crop a picture in Google Slides so that you can remove the parts of an image that you don’t want in your presentation.
Picture Cropping in Google Slides
The steps in this article were performed in Google Chrome, but will work in other desktop and laptop Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. This guide assumes that you already have a picture in one of your slides that you would like to crop.
Step 1: Go to your Google Drive at and open the Slides file containing the picture that you would like to crop.
Step 2: Click on the picture to crop.
Step 3: Click on the Crop button in the gray toolbar above the slide.
Step 4: Drag the black handles on the outside of the picture until the desired part of the image is surrounded. You can then click on another spot in the slide to deselect the picture and view the cropped version of it.
You can apply some effects to the pictures in your slideshow as well. For example, find out how to add a drop shadow to a picture in Google Slides so that you can achieve that look without using a third party image-editing program like Photoshop.
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Do you want your presentation to be more dynamic? If you need to engage your audience by giving a professional presentation, you can add music to your slide deck. We’re going to teach you how to add and configure audio or music for your presentations.
Adding Audio from the Insert Tab
- Before you add any audio, please note that Google Slides only works with audio files stored in your Google Drive account, so you need to upload them beforehand. The supported formats are .mp3 and .wav.
- Open your presentation in Google Slides and select the slide where you want to add audio or music. If you want the audio to be played in all the slides, you’ll need to add it to the first slide.
- Click Insert → Audio. A new window will open. Please note that this option might not be available in some countries where the update that includes it hasn’t been applied yet.
Inserting audio
- The audio files stored in your Google Drive will be displayed here. Choose the one you want to add to your presentation and click Select. An icon will appear in the slide. Click it to access the playback functions.
Selecting and audio
Editing Audio
- Click the audio icon.
- Go to the toolbar and click Format options. As an alternative, you can right-click the loudspeaker icon → Format options. You can also click Format → Format options. A new panel will open on the right side of the screen.
Format options
On this panel you’ll find the following settings:
- From the Audio playback tab, you can configure everything regarding the playback. For example, you can determine whether the audio plays on click or automatically. You’ll find below the volume slider and three checkboxes to stop the playback when going to the next slide, loop the audio or hide the audio icon (the latter can only be modified if the “Automatically” option is selected under “Start playing”).
Audio playback tab
- From the Size & Rotation tab you can modify the width and height values for the audio icon. You can also lock the aspect ratio so that you can keep the proportions of the icon.
Size and roation tab
- From the Position tab you can determine where to place the audio icon, having its top-left corner or its center point as reference. To move the icon, just modify the values of the X and Y axes.
Position tab
- From the Recolor tab you can change the color of the icon, choosing from different presets generated according to the palette of your presentation.
Recolor tab
- From the Adjustments tab you can set the transparency, the lightness and the contrast of the icon.
Adjustement tab
- The remaining tabs, Drop shadow and Reflection, contain a checkbox to enable or disable these effects. Click their respective drop-down arrows to access their settings, such as color (only for the drop shadow) and behavior (angle, transparency, distance and blur).
Drop Shadow and Reflection
- You can replace the audio icon with your own, or even a picture, by right-clicking → Replace image. If you want to find out how to insert images, please refer to the How to Insert, Crop or Mask Images in Google Slides tutorial.
Replace the audio
Sometimes when you are placing a picture into a slideshow, that picture is completely ready for the presentation. It’s already been edited in a different image-editing program, or the picture was created expressly for the presentation, and therefore requires no edits.
But we aren’t always that lucky, and it’s quite common that a picture you want to use on one of your slides needs some sort of adjustment before it looks the way that you want it to look. Google Slides has some image-editing tools for the pictures that you add to your slides, and one of those tools lets you increase the transparency of the image. You can continue reading below to see how you can make a picture transparent in your presentation.
How to Make a Picture Transparent in Google Slides
The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of Google Chrome. This guide assumes that you already have a picture in your presentation, and that you want to make it transparent. This will allow you to see the presentation elements on the layers below the picture. For example, if you have a theme with a background, you will be able to see the background through the picture.
Step 1: Sign into your Google Drive and open the Slides file that contains the picture you want to make transparent.
Step 2: Right-click the picture, then choose the Format options button.
format picture options in google slides
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Step 3: Click the arrow to the left of Adjustments.
increase picture transparency in google slides
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Step 4: Drag the slider under Transparency to the right to increase transparency in the image, or drag it to the left to reduce transparency.
how to make a picture transparent in google slides
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Does your Google Slides presentation have a slide that you don’t need anymore? Find out how to delete an entire slide in Google Slides so that it’s no longer a part of the slideshow.
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office and many other popular applications and devices.
