How to Make an Infographic in PowerPoint

You already have PowerPoint open most of the day, so it is a natural place to build a quick visual. With SmartArt, shapes, icons, and alignment tools, you can absolutely put together a clean graphic without buying a new app. This guide covers exactly how to make an infographic in PowerPoint step by step — and it is honest about where the manual approach gets slow, so you know when to reach for a faster option.

Why use PowerPoint for an infographic?

PowerPoint is everywhere, it is familiar, and it has more design tooling than people give it credit for. If your infographic is going to live inside a deck anyway, building it on a slide means it is already in context — no importing, no resizing surprises. You also get full control over every element, which matters when a layout has to match brand colors or a specific structure.

The trade-off is time. A polished infographic in PowerPoint is a manual, element-by-element job. There is no "make this look good" button, so the quality of the result depends entirely on your patience and your eye. Keep that in mind as we go.

Step 1: Set up the slide and a grid

Start by giving yourself room to work. Go to Design → Slide Size → Custom Slide Size and switch to a portrait or square format if your infographic is meant to be shared as an image rather than projected. A tall canvas (for example 9:16) suits social and long scrolling infographics; a square suits posts.

Then turn on your guides. Under View, enable Gridlines and Guides. These are the backbone of a tidy layout — almost every "amateur" looking graphic is really just a misaligned one. Drag a few guides to mark your margins and the center line so everything you add has something to snap to.

Step 2: Build the structure with SmartArt

SmartArt is the closest thing PowerPoint has to a built-in powerpoint infographic template. Go to Insert → SmartArt and pick a layout that matches your information:

• Process graphics for steps and flows
• Cycle graphics for repeating loops
• Hierarchy for org charts and tree structures
• Relationship and Pyramid for comparisons and priorities
• List for grouped categories

Type your text into the SmartArt outline pane and the shapes populate automatically. SmartArt is the fastest way to get a real structure on the slide, and you can recolor it from the SmartArt Design tab. The catch: SmartArt styling is generic, so most people convert it to plain shapes afterward to customize it. Right-click the SmartArt and choose Convert to Shapes when you want full control.

Step 3: Add shapes, numbers, and containers

Beyond SmartArt, the Insert → Shapes menu is where most of an infographic actually gets built. Use rounded rectangles as cards, circles for step numbers, and lines or block arrows to show flow. A few habits keep it looking intentional:

• Reuse the same shape for the same kind of element (every step card identical in size).
• Use Format → Size to type exact dimensions instead of eyeballing them.
• Give shapes a subtle fill and either no border or a single consistent border weight.
• Add large numbers (01, 02, 03) inside circles to guide reading order.

This is also the slowest part. Each card, number, and connector is placed by hand, and any change to the structure means nudging everything that follows.

Step 4: Drop in icons

Modern PowerPoint includes a built-in icon library under Insert → Icons. Search a keyword, insert a flat icon, and recolor it from the Graphics Format tab to match your palette. Icons do a lot of the visual lifting in an infographic — a small symbol next to each stat or step makes the whole thing read faster.

Keep them consistent: one visual style, one or two colors, and the same size across similar elements. Mixing detailed illustrations with flat line icons is the quickest way to make a graphic look stitched together.

Step 5: Align, distribute, and apply color

This is the step that separates a clean infographic from a messy one. Select related shapes and use Format → Align:

• Align Left / Center / Right to line elements up on a shared edge
• Distribute Horizontally / Vertically to create equal spacing automatically
• Group finished sections so they move as one unit

For color, pick two or three colors and stick to them. Set them as theme colors under Design → Variants → Colors → Customize Colors so every new shape pulls from the same palette. Use one accent color for the single most important element and neutrals for everything else. Restraint reads as polish.

Step 6: Export as an image or PDF

When the graphic is done, you rarely want to share the raw .pptx. To export:

• As an image: select all elements, right-click, and choose Save as Picture (PNG keeps a transparent or clean background). Or use File → Export → Change File Type → PNG to export the whole slide.
• As a PDF: File → Export → Create PDF/XPS for a crisp, print-ready file.

For higher resolution, increase your slide size before exporting — PowerPoint rasterizes at the slide's pixel dimensions, so a larger canvas gives a sharper PNG.

The honest limitation

Here is the truth after six steps: making an infographic in PowerPoint works, but it is genuinely manual. You are responsible for every alignment, every color choice, every icon, and every spacing decision. A single graphic can easily eat an hour, and if you need to restructure it halfway through, you are rebuilding a lot of it by hand. SmartArt helps, but it only gets you a generic starting point — the part that makes an infographic look custom is all you.

That is a fine trade when you need pixel-level control. It is a frustrating one when you just need a clear, professional graphic and you need it now.

The faster way: generate it with AI, then drop it into your slide

If the manual route feels like too much, you can let AI handle the layout, icon selection, color, and spacing — and still end up with the image right where you need it.

With Infogiph, you describe what you want in plain language — for example, "a 4-step customer onboarding process with icons and stats for each step" — and it generates a polished, structured infographic in seconds. Everything stays editable, so you can fix labels, swap icons, and recolor to match your brand. Then export a PNG or SVG and drop it straight onto your slide.

The workflow looks like this:

1. Open the infographic maker and describe your idea in a sentence.
2. Let AI build a clean, aligned layout for you.
3. Tweak anything you want, then export PNG or SVG.
4. In PowerPoint, Insert → Pictures to place the finished graphic on your slide.

PNG works everywhere; SVG stays crisp at any zoom and can be ungrouped and edited inside PowerPoint if you want to adjust it further. Either way, you skip the hour of nudging shapes.

If you want the full manual workflow in any tool, see our general guide on how to make an infographic. Building one inside a document instead? We have a companion guide on how to make an infographic in Word that uses the same core techniques.

Frequently asked questions

Does PowerPoint have an infographic template? Not a dedicated one, but SmartArt is the closest built-in equivalent — a small library of process, cycle, hierarchy, and list layouts you can fill with your own text. For more variety, Microsoft and third-party sites offer downloadable PowerPoint infographic template files you can import, though quality and licensing vary, so check the source before using one commercially.

How do I make an infographic in PowerPoint look professional? Use a grid and the Align tools so everything lines up, limit yourself to two or three colors and one icon style, keep card sizes identical, and give elements plenty of breathing room. Misalignment and too many colors are what make a graphic look amateur.

Can I export a PowerPoint infographic as a high-resolution image? Yes. Increase your slide dimensions first, then use File → Export → PNG, or right-click selected elements and choose Save as Picture. A larger canvas produces a sharper export because PowerPoint rasterizes at the slide's pixel size.

Is there a faster alternative to building infographics manually? Yes. An AI tool like Infogiph generates the layout, icons, and styling automatically from a text description, then exports PNG or SVG that you insert into your slide. It turns an hour of manual work into a few minutes.

Ready to skip the manual layout? Make your infographic with Infogiph — describe it in a sentence, export a PNG or SVG, and drop it straight into your next slide.