Art guidance for templates

Only use appropriate art and photos

All art in a template must be approved and needs to meet geo-political standards for art.

• Images that include people must show diversity as much as possible. A variety of ethnicities and genders must be used across all templates.

• Images that might have religious connotations must be used only in context, such as in religious holiday cards.

• If you want to select images that will “most-likely to pass a geo-pol review”, look for images that don’t show:

  • Bare feet or shoulders (elbow length sleeves or longer preferred), or the soles of feet.

  • Hand gestures, or just a few fingers on a hand (need to show all five fingers, unless in a business context).

  • US-centric maps or maps that include disputed areas or labels. Use Bing Maps images if you’re showing a map.

  • Flags or national symbols (including national flowers)

  • Animals

  • Colors that represent meaning (“black hats” for villains)

  • Specific locations or landmarks (like the pyramids in Egypt)

  You can see more global guidelines in the Microsoft Style Guide. If there are images in a template that are questionable, consult your Microsoft contact.

Art sources

You can use any of the SVG icons from the Insert > Icon command in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

You can create images based off of Microsoft's 3D models on Remix3D.

You are free to use original photos or artwork that you created provided you grant full rights for us to redistribute.

Any other photos or artwork you add to the templates need to be from our library of images or acquired by us for use in templates. We have an large library and the ability to purchase more, so let us know if there's an image you need us to purchase from Getty images.

Graphics formats

You can insert the following types of graphics into templates:

Working with art

Ensure that there is no Personally Identifiable Information (Names of Persons or Companies or otherwise) in the Image Properties (right-click the image file in Windows Explorer and choose Properties > Details.)

Before you insert the images into a template, ensure that metadata properties on images are empty. Some image metadata may contain Personally Identifiable Information (Names of Persons or Companies or otherwise). These should be cleared. Common metadata fields include Title, Subject, Tags, Authors, Program Name – these should all be cleared.

• All art must have alt text.

• No piece of art should include text because art that includes text cannot be localized into other languages if the template is chosen for this.

• If the template has multiple instances of art, the art should not be grouped. However, if a single piece of art is made up of more than one clip, the clips may be grouped. If the piece of art is one that the user is likely to want to replace with their own, then grouping the clips will make it easier for them to highlight/replace. If the art is not likely to be replaced, such as in a greeting card, then it does not need to be grouped.

• If clip art has been resized larger or smaller, use the SHIFT key to maintain proportion as it is resized.

• Do not use a drawing canvas to place art. Instead, insert art in line with text or positioned explicitly so that it is easier for users to replace the art while still maintaining its position.

• If it is likely that the user will insert his or her own logo, use a logo placeholder - the placeholder should be at 100% scale or less.

See Also

Create templates for Office