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15 Best Slidesgo Alternatives 2024

Slidesgo is a platform with an extensive collection of free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates. It provides numerous templates for marketing, education, business, medical, and more.

Not only Slidesgo, many other platforms like SlidesCarnival , Keynote , and Prezi offer similar tools. However, the best Slidesgo alternative is SlideWin . It offers plenty of features along with the ability to choose templates in various categories and colors. You can pick beautiful templates for both PowerPoint & Google slides.  

About Slidesgo & What’s the need to explore alternative tools

1. slidescarnival, 4. slideegg, 7. template monster, 8. pitch deck, 11. slidemodel, 12. powtoon, 14. slidewin, 15. slidebazaar.

As a subsidiary of the Freepik Company, Slidesgo offers an extensive collection of high-quality vectors, infographics, icons , and other graphic resources .

Although most Slidesgo templates are free, free users are obliged to leave the attribution links in place. There’s a selection of Google Slides and PowerPoint templates for tutors and learners.

As an instructor or marketer, you may utilize these innovative visual designs for various objectives, including presenting abstract concepts in accessible ways, clarifying difficult-to-understand themes, simplifying complex procedures, providing step-by-step tutorials, etc.

Its innovative design and simple-to-edit visual tools will assist you in effectively communicating your ideas. Its free adjustable templates can help you connect your clients in your business presentations. They’re ideal for company meetings, pitch presentations, and project proposals.

However, Slidesgo has some drawbacks. Most users don’t find it simple and intuitive to navigate, it lacks artificial intelligence technology that’s present in modern presentation software , and it doesn’t support presentation in the 3D model. Besides, its free plan has limited features; you’ll have to upgrade to enjoy the best features.

These limitations are enough reason to consider Slidesgo alternatives that offer an exceptional user experience with outstanding features.

Ready to explore some of these alternatives? Stay with me.

Best Slidesgo Alternatives

SlidesCarnival is our first Slidesgo alternative. It has an extensive collection of free PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes that can help you improve any presentation. All templates are fully customizable, simple to change, and available for personal and commercial usage.

You can use one of these PowerPoint templates or Google Slides themes to design your presentations. SlidesCarnival’s feature-rich and editable templates allow you to create impressive presentations in minutes.

It will make you stand out from the crowd by being creative, professional, and using an unusual design. Because presentations do not have to be dull, this tool lets you provide an engaging and unforgettable experience for your audience.

It allows you to create the best birthday party or commemorate your accomplishments. These magnificent birthday templates are designed to assist you in planning a birthday celebration for a friend , family member, or co-worker and can bring your vision to life in no time.

Unlike Slidesgo, which has templates meant for businesses, SlideCarnival comes with customized templates for start-ups to use when pitching their ideas.

SlideCarnival enables you to quickly design stunning business presentations with their free PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes. All designs are professional in appearance and express confidence; feel free to use them for your presentations.

Padlet is intuitive and enjoyable to use, even if you’ve never used productivity software before. You can post with a single click, drag-and-drop, or copy-paste. Whenever you create designs , changes are automatically saved.

The software is available for use on Apple and Android devices. Also, you may take images and read QR codes using the app.

Padlet can be integrated with other apps. Unlike Slidesgo, you can embed Padlet into your blog or site. You can copy and paste a memorable custom link address and export your data as a CSV, PDF, Excel file, or image.

This software can showcase your best work, giving your colleagues and viewers more information about yourself. Besides, you can follow individuals who share your interests to become a part of the community.

It allows you to customize your profile with wallpapers and colors. You’ll have an easy time using it because it supports over 42 languages, which is better than Slidesgo.

You can include your closest friends and coworkers on this platform to collaborate on different designs. It permits you to give them read-only, writing, supervisor, or administrator access, with the option to withdraw it at any moment.

You’ll get updates whenever they arrive on all of your devices and allow people to use your work as a template and customize it.

There’s no need to look elsewhere if you’re blogging or promoting discussion. Three layouts will help you with that. These layouts are; a square board, a feed of information, and an open canvas.

You can choose from five different security settings to protect your data from third parties. These settings are public, secret, password-protected, completely private, and organization-wide.

Moreover, select who can see, write on, and moderate your Padlets from the drop-down menus for each option. Premium customers get access to a corporate network isolated from the main Padlet.

Keynote is another Slidesgo alternative with over 700 designed charts and galleries. Most Apple devices come with Keynote, making it simple to produce spectacular and unforgettable presentations.

Compared to Slidesgo, Keynote has an Apple Pencil that allows you to sketch diagrams or graphics on your iPhone or iPad .

Additionally, your team may collaborate in real-time regardless of whether they use a Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

Keynote works the same way on all of your Apple devices. In other words, any slides you’ve created on a Mac or iPad will appear the same way on an iPhone and vice versa.

You can make your presentation look more polished with the help of over 30 eye-catching themes. Alternatively, you can make your presentation designs, backdrop images, and page-by-page customizations.

It has over 30 dramatic transitions and effects that will help you add emotion to your presentation. Also, you can add textures, color gradients, and even images to your slides to make them stand out.

Keynote enables you and your friends to collaborate on the same project, whether across town or worldwide.

SlideEgg promises to give the most excellent PowerPoint templates that allow you and your organization to master every professional venture with their diversified staff of over 25 designers and imagery professionals .

Compared to Slidesgo, SlideEgg creates the presentation on your behalf when you pay a fee. They ensure that every detail matches your vision for the outcome. You need to give them a detailed set of requirements, and you can be sure that they’ll make engaging and beautiful Microsoft Presentation slides.

Every presentation or template they develop can be edited and modified in any version of Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote.

Its mission is to help you produce spectacular slides that impress audiences, communicate ideas, and get outcomes. Their customizable presentation decks allow you to present your thoughts and interact with your audiences.

PSlides allow you to display data and figures or show your thoughts concisely and accurately. When you use PowerPoint charts in a presentation, you can quickly explain complicated concepts by showing how they connect.

Suppose you’re searching for PowerPoint templates that include timelines or planning. PSlides will offer you a range of these templates like calendars, flowcharts , and Gantt charts.

Its PowerPoint charts allow you to show your team’s earnings, customer support, social media activity, and other metric targets. You may display how your staff or business associates are doing.

You can choose its variety of charts , including bar charts, line graphs, circle graphs, and percentile charts, which will simplify your team to identify where to improve in the future.

PSlides gives you access to several PowerPoint maps using its Editable Map PowerPoint slides. It’s an easy-to-use software compared to Slidesgo.

When giving a presentation with many numbers, you may rely on the Texts & Tables PowerPoint templates. You may easily link the numbers to a visual marker with this collection of PowerPoint templates, making it easier for people to remember the information.

HiSlide contains free presentation slides to captivate your audience. You can pick from ready-made Google Slides, PowerPoint, and Keynote designs.

When doing color scheme customizing, it takes less than two minutes. HiSlide allows you to use Excel spreadsheets to edit data in PowerPoint themes’ charts, graphs, and dashboards.

Besides that, you can access hundreds of different slides of analysis, infographics, reports, interaction templates in the business presentation section.

Its Google Slides themes are so simple that even newbie users may use them. You don’t need additional software to alter any of the elements in the Google workspace.

Unlike Slidesgo, HiSlide comes with Keynote Presentation templates that support retina monitors. All its infographics and images are developed with MAC Keynote in mind so that you can alter them with just two clicks.

Template Monster is a vast and rapidly expanding marketplace where you can enjoy high digital products that adhere to the most current web standards.

Also, it has a collection of templates appropriate for various special presentation projects, small and large businesses, start-ups, or any business. It comes with a modern and basic Keynote Template that makes it simple to edit everything.

Template Monster has Google slides themes for blogging and PowerPoint business templates available in various designs and styles. Most of them are completely customizable. Unlike Slidesgo, this platform can allow you to make 3D presentations.

With its infographic template package, you’ll get a range of diverse presentation templates that can take your presentation to the next level. These templates contain business features that will help you present statistical data.

If you want to give your presentation a visual appeal, this platform will give you an extensive collection of high graphics. Some graphics are icon and logo libraries, animated banners, typefaces, after effects, etc.

Moreover, it provides templates that will assist you in building a solid brand profile and make your business stand out.

Using Pitch Deck, you may build visually appealing presentations on the internet. Since its inception, Pitch Deck has been used by over 10,000 people from all walks of business to create presentations that motivate and excite their employees while showcasing their products and services.

With its tried-and-true Pitch Deck templates, you can take the guesswork out of Pitch Deck creation, resulting in a brief, persuasive, and prospect-friendly pitch.

When designing, try to incorporate its vast range of colorful icons, stock photos , fashionable graphics, and intriguing transitions that will grab the audience’s attention.

Pitch Deck’s unique visual analytic assets make boring stuff look fascinating and easy to understand.

Its Artificial Intelligent technology will help transform boring presentations into a spectacular design. That’s a tool that Slidesgo is missing.

You can monitor your progress and impact. You can immediately assess your audience’s response and select what changes to make.

Vizzlo is an online application that allows you to quickly generate stunning charts and corporate visuals. With over 100 chart designs, it makes it simple to build visualizations, infinite functionality, and seamless interaction.

You can upload your organizational design’s fonts, designs, colors, and icons to templates, keeping every team member in the loop.

It gives you an option to add teammates and let the creativity flow. Furthermore, the app’s document history lets you identify who works on which subjects.

Suppose you want to analyze data and make stunning graphs; Vizzlo will allow you to get that from offline and online chart builders with PowerPoint, Google Slides, and third-party connections. Slidesgo can’t offer you such ability.

You can subscribe and commence with a 14-day free trial. Its Professionals plan costs $11 per month, the Teams plan is $45 per month for five seats, and the Enterprise plan has a custom quote.

Prezi is a presentation tool that employs animation, zoom, and spatial relationships to help bring your vision to life, making you a better presenter. It is a video creator that puts your content together, allowing you to create immersive and compelling videos in minutes without prior editing knowledge.

Even though Slidesgo allows you to make presentations in video format, Prezi has an advanced feature called WebEx that is more captivating. Here you’ll present the content alongside yourself, ensuring that you maintain a face-to-face connection with the audience.

Also, you can present on Zoom, which offers the same results as WebEx.

The Prezi Gallery has a collection of presentations where you can find examples of presentations covering a variety of themes, current affairs, and industries. You can explore and get motivated with its breathtaking presentations.

With Prezi’s professional editable templates, you can create gorgeous, compelling slideshows . Those templates are entirely free and straightforward to personalize with your content.

Your security is their priority. Their expert security team manages all aspects of networking, systems, information, and application security with industry-leading technologies. Their organized security guarantees your data’s safety.

You can pay for their subscription plan which also comes with a 14-day free trial. The Basic plan is entirely free, Plus plan is $12 per month, and the Premium plan is $16 per month.

SlideModel offers customizable PowerPoint layouts and presentation themes that help you explain your ideas clearly.

Its user interface is simple, and if you’re a newbie, it will be easy to use SlideModel compared to Slidesgo.

This category provides excellent PowerPoint diagrams with distinctive slide styles and designs for presentations. You can download PowerPoint templates with various diagrams such as tree diagrams, circular, process flow diagrams, and cycle process diagrams.

You can also use the library of map outlines in your presentations. Just download its editable PowerPoint maps with customizable states to help you create unique projects.

Using attractive PowerPoint shapes in your presentations may leave a lasting impression on your clients. PPT presentations are the most effective approach to communicating ideas. You can get PowerPoint templates with shape-based drawings.

For delivering captivating PowerPoint presentations, you can download innovative timeline templates and PowerPoint timeline designs and graphics. Use the ready-made timeline slide layouts to create beautiful presentations for project planning presentations.

Try the PowerPoint chart templates to include facts and figures in your presentation. SlideModel data templates can assist you in presenting your data in the most straightforward manner possible.

Powtoon is a video creation software that allows you to make professional and personalized videos that your audience will enjoy.

Unlike Slidesgo, which relies on written content, Powtoon lets you turn daily communications into intense visual experiences throughout your entire organization. With its highest level of service and security, every department will expand its reach and influence.

It’s never been easier to create a workplace intranet, but by using an LMS or LXP, you can populate your blog or website. Also, you can send out excellent animated films and visual messages to the public via email or social media.

It is simple and easy to develop visual communications with Powtoon regardless of your skill level or videography experts.

Its dozens of animated characters , video backgrounds, layouts, and music will help you tell fascinating stories. It helps you make your movies, which takes no design or technical abilities, so you can start making a more significant impact at work right away.

You can subscribe to their monthly plan . Its Pro plan costs $89, and the Pro+ plan is $197.

iSlide is a PowerPoint add-in that does everything. It is one of the best Slidesgo alternatives that provide a designer with PowerPoint presentation templates.

You can join Images by combining slides to meet your demands and exporting them as an image in seconds. Also, it allows you to replicate shapes or create a circular pattern innovatively.

You can customize a multitude of parameter variables to personalize your PowerPoint slides.

Further, you can collect hundreds of templates, each with its fonts, colors, effects rules, cover, and layout.

Compared to Slidesgo, iSlide will give you over 4000 well-designed diagrams that adapt to the current slide’s color scheme and layout.

The well-matched color schemes will brighten your slides. Besides that, you can create eye-catching customized diagrams, make data adjustments, and see them all in real-time.

The application offers a monthly subscription of $9.99 and an annual cost of $39.95.

SlideWin offers numerous PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes for creating stunning presentations. All themes are easy to customize and are available for personal and commercial use.

You can look through its most incredible collection of free PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes for your next presentation. It has configurable templates that are easy-to-edit graphic styles and lovely backdrops.

SlideWin offers a huge collection of free Google Slides themes and PowerPoint templates that you can use in your presentations. In contrast, Slidesgo lets you download only 10 presentation templates per month for free; you can only access unlimited templates with the premium plan.

The Education template is incredible, and it has a high-quality visual design created specifically for school presentations. In that case, your stories will be more engaging, vivid, and appealing. As a result, they will capture the attention of everyone fast.

With its free Business PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes, you can create stunning presentations that surprise your clients. Use these slide sets to present your messages, visions, or facts professionally.

You can make use of its fantastic free infographics. It will help your complex information to be much easier to understand.

Furthermore, all of the templates in this collection are entirely adjustable. You can customize all slides to shape your vision even if you are not a skilled designer.

SlideBazaar is a focused group of enthusiastic designers who specialize in creating Presentation Templates. You’ll get access to its high-quality materials that can help you elevate your presentation to another level.

Unlike Slidesgo, It comes with keynote templates that are meticulously created. Users can use keynote templates to display a variety of themes in corporate, academic, marketing, and even yearly reports.

Besides, SlideBazaar has Corporate Slides, Case Studies, Whitepapers, and Annual Reports.

The premium and free professional ppt templates include high-quality layouts that make the presentation appealing to the audience.

Its timeline PowerPoint templates help you create fantastic timeline template slides for presentations in Marketing, Startups, Business, and even College Projects.

Using an infographic format for PowerPoint will condense vast amounts of data into a simple, easy-to-understand presentation. They are designed to grasp the concept of audiences of all ages.

You may get your monthly and annual subscriptions for $9.99 and $89, respectively. They also have an annual unlimited plan that costs $149.99/year, which allows you to make unlimited downloads per day and month. The Team License costs $299.99 per year for ten employees.

From the above Slidesgo alternatives, SlideWin carries the day. Why? It features tons of free high-quality PowerPoint and Google Slides templates.

I’m also able to find templates quickly because they are categorized according to industry, including education, marketing, medical, business, simple, and creative.

But that’s not all. You can access presentations based on more categories like professional, minimal, religion, modern, dark, elegant, and technology.

You can also search templates by colors, such as red, green, pink, yellow, orange, and more. The color schemes make it easy to find templates based on your brand colors.

Plus, when you click on a template, you have the option to download it in PowerPoint or Google Slides.

What’s more, you can access infographics templates on this platform, too.

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.

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Home / Business / List of Best SlidesCarnival Alternatives You Should Definitely Checkout

List of Best SlidesCarnival Alternatives You Should Definitely Checkout

Creating a presentation on short notice can be stressful, and searching for the best free PPT templates online can be a daunting task. Fortunately, SlidesCarnival comes to the rescue by offering an extensive library of free PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes. With SlidesCarnival, you can discover top-notch designs suitable for various purposes, including business meetings, school projects, marketing campaigns, and more. Additionally, SlidesCarnival provides an educational blog section where you can enhance your presentation knowledge and skills.

While SlidesCarnival offers a wide range of creative templates, it’s not the only resource available for high-quality presentation templates. We’ve compiled a list of the best SlidesCarnival alternatives that you should consider checking out.

What Website is Similar to Slides Carnival?

Slide Carnival is the best resource for a free presentation template using which you can effectively communicate your messages and impress your audience. If you are looking for the best SlidesCarnival alternatives, then you are in the right place. We have featured the best SlidesCarnival alternative. So, let’s get started.

We have listed our website in the first position, it might sound like a promotion to you.  But I guarantee you find a better resource than SlideChef for free presentation templates. SlideChef offers a diverse collection of presentation templates best suited for education, business, business promotions, etc. Moreover, SlideChef is 100% safe to use, you can instantly download the template, in a few steps without the need of registering your email. Also, you get here free infographic template library using which you can exhibit business data in an interesting way.

If you are looking for classic yet professional templates for your next presentation, then you should check out Slidebazaar. Slidebazaar library is loaded with powerful and creative designs that can easily captivate your audience’s interest. From free to premium. Slidebazaar offers an array to templates that you can download according to presentation needs.

Looking for some out-of-box designs for your next presentation? Then Slideheap can be your perfect choice. Being a new website, Slideheap offers amazing selection of infographics using which you can exhibit your data and convey your presentation more appealingly. Here you will find 1500+ premium infographic templates selection that will take your presentation to the next level.

Want ultra-professional business deck templates without losing your wallet or are not interested in buying a monthly or yearly membership, then visit SlideCompass. The website offers a 1000+ collection of business deck templates which you can buy for just a few dollars without the need to purchase membership. Each deck is designed by professional designers making it look polished and sophisticated.

Are you a regular Google Slides user for creating presentations, then you should try using SlideKit, it’s an exclusive template add-on application on Google Slides.

If you have been on a presentation for a long, then you might have heard about SlideModel. SlideModel is the most popular online platform that offers the widest range of pre-designed PowerPoint templates. Using Slide Model designs users can enhance the visual impact of their presentations and communicate their messages with clarity and professionalism.

Want to grab your audience’s attention and make your presentation more appealing? Then PPTMON has got the best creative templates selection all available for free. Here you get a wide collection of templates from business, and education. Moreover, you get the option to sort templates based on the colour scheme you want.

Whether you’re creating a business presentation, educational slideshow, marketing pitch, or anything in between, MyFreeSlides offers a wealth of visually appealing and customizable templates to make your content stand out. Whether you are a student, a business professional or just a presenter who wants to enhance their visual storytelling, MyFreeSlides has got the best templates for you.

Slidesgo is the ultimate destination for free and premium presentation templates. Slidesgo has the biggest template gallery designed to elevate your presentation and make them shine. From sleek designs, and modern aesthetics to playful designs, Slidesgo has got something for every occasion and purpose. So, download some amazing templates for slidesgo and stand out from the crowd. If you love SlideGo, then you should never miss out on its great alternatives. We have mentioned here at Best SlidesGo Alternative .

Get ready to discover the world of creativity at SlidesMania. Winner of the best tool for teaching and learning by ASSL, SlideMania is the best platform for creative templates and learning. Here you will find templates related to education, technology, games, geometrics and so on.

Although SlidesCarnival is a great platform for creative presentation slides, there are several other best slidescarnival alternatives websites that offer excellent presentation templates for free. In my opinion, SlideChef is the best alternative to SlidesCarnival. SlideChef provides a wide range of high-quality templates for Google Slides, and all of them are entirely free to use.

Moreover, SlideChef is a safe option since you don’t need to register to access their templates. But that’s not all; it also offers a well-organized library categorized by industry. Select the best for the best Slidescarnival alternatives.

About The Author

Priyanshu Bharat

Priyanshu is a copywriter who loves to tune into what makes people tick. He believes in presenting his ideas with flair and wit, which has made him an expert at standing on stage and charming the pants off of any audience he's faced with. Priyanshu lives for learning as much as he can, so if you ever need help understanding something - just ask!

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This TV "Tip of Your Tongue" Search Function Is a Game Changer

These are my 10 favorite spotify playlists for background music, this new stealthy malware targets illegal movie downloads: here's what to know.

It's easy to throw together a presentation without slides. However, if you want to make that presentation sound or look good, then you have to approach it with care. Thankfully, beautiful presentation templates can take some of the pressure off, especially if you're not a designer.

If you need a slideshow to nail your next office meeting or get an A in class, then these seven presentation "go-to" template sites can help.

1. Microsoft Office PowerPoint Templates

Some research by the International Journal of Innovation and Learning, compiled on Ars Technica , has shown that presentation slides may be a distraction to your audience.

Other studies have found the opposite. For example, a 2014 study by the journal Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences , found that students that were taught with a slide presentation exhibited better learning comprehension than those that were taught with other methods.

With this last study in mind: If you work in the educational field, and you're an experienced PowerPoint user, Microsoft Office PowerPoint Templates should be the first stop on your list.

This well-organized destination splits these beautiful PowerPoint presentation templates into numerous categories, ranging from agendas to personal photo albums. As such, it's pretty simple to find a pretty template that fits one of your needs. The template featured above is Microsoft's "Badge" template , and you can download it by clicking on the link.

Note: Microsoft templates are free to download after subscribing to Microsoft Office 365 . Subscriptions start at $69.99 per year, or $6.99 per month.

2. Behance's Slide Template Collection

The benefits of a slide presentation extend far beyond the classroom. You can use slides to convey information to your coworkers, or as a multimedia tool to explain your product at an industry event.

As a showcase site for hard-working creatives, Behance features an attractive and extremely artistic collection of slide templates. Some have helpful keywords in the title, such as "business presentation" or "infographic."

Some facts to keep in mind:

• Not all of these templates are downloadable, but some work with PowerPoint and Keynote.
• User ratings and filters like the "Most Appreciated" help you find the most popular template options at a glance. It's also possible to see a presentation's individual slide designs within a template before downloading it.

The template featured above is called " Duotone ," available for PowerPoint.

Note: Templates on Behance are available for free or at various prices, depending on the design and the creator's preference.

3. Slides Carnival

Featuring free PowerPoint and Google Slides templates, Slides Carnival is a good option for low-budget projects.

Whether you want to work with an inspirational theme or a playful one, you can sort through the categories by using the menus along the top. You can also browse the most recent themes listed on the site's landing page.

Additionally, if you're still not sure templates can help you make a strong impact, the site also has a section on presentation design tips explaining why templates work well, and advice on keeping audiences interested.

The template above is called " Kent ."

4. Slide Model

The website Slide Model promises to save you hours of work. Featuring more than 20,000 PowerPoint designs, it allows you to grab ready-made presentations for those awkward last-minute situations.

To begin, narrow down your search category by clicking on the dedicated links for the new or featured options. Look through the categories made for specific presentation formats like business, strategy, and marketing.

Although this is a subscription-based site, Slide Model offers a weekly freebie in exchange for your email address. The idea is that by downloading the template, you may become more confident about becoming a full-time subscriber.

You can also download the " Green Duotone Gradient " template featured above with a subscription to the site. Subscription plans range from $24.90 for one day access, to $199.90 for the whole year.

Additionally, if you want a PowerPoint presentation, but can't afford a subscription, you can check out this list of free PowerPoint alternatives for your presentation needs .

5. Free Google Slides Templates

FGST (Free Google Slides Templates) is a good place to go when you need complimentary Google Slides or Google Docs presentation templates.

You can get all of these stylish and royalty-free templates for personal or commercial purposes, so long as you follow the Terms of Use . So bookmark this site, and rely on it when time is short and deadlines are looming.

Additionally, there are also some handy links on FGST's blog that lead to help pages for both Google Docs and Google Slides. This could be useful if you're not accustomed to creating a presentation in Google Slides, or you've gotten rusty.

The template above is called " Business Plan ." All Google Slide templates are available for free.

6. Ginva's Google Slides Presentation Themes

Ginva is a website that has a handy list of over 40 Google Slides themes. The collection is quite diverse when you consider its relatively small number of options.

For example:

• There are templates that help you make organizational charts for discussing a current or upcoming business structure.
• There is an arrow diagram template that directs attention to certain portions of the text, and even a template made for start-up businesses.
• Ginva also features numerous other categories like WordPress themes and desktop wallpapers, all of which are worth checking out.

For example, you can download the "Orange Presentation" template featured above, accessible through Ginva's list. Other themes are free or paid, depending on a template-by-template basis.

Canva has been a mega player in the world of online templates for a few years now, and its Presentations section offers you one of the best ways to find beautiful slideshow templates for any occasion.

To access these presentations, you need to have a free account with Canva. Even outside of needing an account for presentations, we strongly recommend getting one at large. The account can be used to access designs for many other uses.

However, if you're still not convinced, you should still be able to browse the general Canva Templates section without an account.

Please note:

• Most of the presentation templates on Canva are free, but any content that is only accessible with a pro subscription will clearly be marked as such.
• When you log into your account, you may see a link to the Presentations section. You can also search for presentation templates that you can alter by using the search bar, too.

Once you've located the Presentations section, you'll see a Canva "working space" where you can tweak your design, along with template options clustered along the left side of the screen, grouped by categories. To use a design, just click on it. Canva will load the template into your workspace.

The template above is called White and Yellow Simple Technology Keynote Presentation , and it can be accessed by logging into Canva or creating an account.

If you want to know more, read our tutorial on how to create the perfect professional presentation in Canva .

Impress With a Pretty PowerPoint Template

All the sites highlighted above have templates to help you impress colleagues, professors, or students. You'll also love the wide variety of designs that can suit casual presentations, too. After all, these templates may prove to be so useful that you'll wonder why you didn't search them out sooner.

If you want to explore other ways to create a stellar presentation, check out these online tools to give a presentation from anywhere .

Image Credits: Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

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The Best Free PowerPoint Presentation Templates You Will Ever Find Online

If you’re looking for the best free PowerPoint presentation templates online, then you’re reading the right article. There are many places online where you can download free templates, but to be frank, most look outdated and well, cheap.

You may think the best free PowerPoint templates are those that you need to spend money on. Well, that may be true, but nowadays, there are a lot of websites that offer modern-looking and well-designed templates for free. You’ll get to know several of them later on in this article.

To whet your excitement, here’s a sneak peek at a premium-looking template that’s 100% free from 24Slides’ Template Hub known as Templates by 24Slides ! While 24Slides is known for providing presentation design services , their template hub has hundreds of free templates available to download right away!

While there are obvious benefits to using templates, some may not be sold on the idea simply because most free presentation templates leave a lot to be desired design-wise. This is why some people still prefer designing slides from scratch instead of working off of a template.

Do you feel the same way? Check out the next section to find out which option you should go for – use templates or design slides from scratch?

Designing Slides From Scratch Vs. Using PowerPoint Templates

Designing PowerPoint slides from scratch is a time-consuming process. Sure, you may have found a few well-designed presentation slides on SlideShare. And you think you can use these as inspiration for coming up with your own design. But, how much time do you really have to devote to design slides from scratch?

If you’ve got design skills, then perhaps you can easily create your slides. But, if you don’t and you depend on other people’s designs for inspiration, then you may be spending far too much time thinking about colors, fonts, and other design elements. For instance, you could be asking yourself these questions:

Would this foreground color look great with this background?

What about this font? Shall I use a different font for the headlines?

Will it match with the double lines on this slide?

The thing is, these are questions you need answers to for just one slide! When you go to the next slide, you’ll have to think about the best design that will match the next slide’s message.

Think how many times you’ll be asking the same questions over and over again if you need to work on several slides !

If you need to design 10, 20 or 100 slides, then prepare to spend several HOURS (if you’re an experienced designer) or DAYS (if you’re an inexperienced PowerPoint user).

Thinking about the nuances of design can literally make your head spin if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Creating slides from scratch is a good thing if you’ve got design chops as you can make your slides as unique as you want. But even then, if you’re a busy person, you may not want to waste your time designing slides when there are easier and less time-consuming alternatives.

If you’re a time-poor individual, then you need to seriously consider using PowerPoint templates. Not only will these save you a lot of time, but you’ll also need to expend less energy thinking about your slides’ design!

The Pros and Cons of Using Free PowerPoint Templates

The best PowerPoint presentation design templates can be used many times over. You’re not limited to using it a single time. You can edit it as you see fit. With that said, here are the pros and cons of using free templates for your presentation:

Why You’ll Love Free Templates (If You Don’t Already)

1. Free templates don’t cost you money

Free templates are just that – free. They won’t cost you a dime to download. Premium templates can go anywhere from a few dollars to a couple hundred. If you want custom templates made, then you’re looking at a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, depending on your requirements.

Now, you’re probably asking why anyone would want to give away something they’ve worked on so hard for free.

Well, individuals and companies do it for various reasons. They may want to increase brand awareness to get more people acquainted with their services. By giving valuable templates for free, they’re positioning themselves as an authority-figure that people can trust.

Also, some websites use free templates as a way to get more people to sign up to their mailing list so they can sell them premium templates or other services later on.

2. Free templates help free up your time

Obviously, the number one benefit of using templates (whether it’s free or not) is that you’re basically saving yourself tons of time.

Instead of spending hours or even days perfecting your presentation’s look and design, you can simply download a free template or buy a premium one.

With the hours you get to save, you can use these towards more bottom line-impacting activities, such as looking for leads and customers, improving your sales funnel, working on your ad copy, and so much more.

Graphic designers spend hours creating templates – capitalize on their efforts so you don’t have to!

3. You’ve got plenty of free templates to choose from

As you’ll see later on in this article, there are plenty of websites where you can get free PowerPoint templates. From basic-looking templates that look like they were done in a hurry to premium-looking templates carefully designed by professional designers, you’ll usually find something you can use.

A Few Reasons Free Templates May Not Be Good For Your Presentation

There are quite a few cons when using free templates. But they’re not all that bad, as you will find out below.

1. Free templates aren’t exactly known for having professional design

Not all free templates are going to be professionally designed. Far from it, in fact. Most of them will be far from professional. Here’s one example:

And here’s another free process flow template which will probably make you think twice if you’re going to include it in your presentation (hopefully not!):

With 24Templates, however, our templates are all professionally designed by our in-house team of graphic designers. As you can see in the screenshot below, our free templates are professionally designed and look miles better than the 2 examples above!

2. Most free templates don’t have consistent design

Consistency may vary across free templates providers. Some designers just want to get their name out there without really thinking about providing a higher level of consistency in their templates.

At 24Templates, however, we can assure you that our designers create not only visually-pleasing and professional-looking templates, but that design consistency is there, too. Here are screenshots of our free HR Template Slides:

This is the Title slide of 24Templates’ Free HR Template slides pack

This sample slide from 24Templates’ Free HR Template slides pack is still consistent with the colors and design used in the previous slides

3. Free PPT templates don’t really help with your branding

Some free templates include placeholders for logos and company names. But that’s about it. If you’re using your presentations as a branding opportunity, then you’d have to edit your templates to make it fit with your brand’s image.

For branding purposes, you may want to consider having a bespoke template made especially for your company.

Another alternative is you can hire a PowerPoint design company like 24Slides to edit your slides professionally. Our team of experts will help you either brush up or completely redesign your slides, all while making sure your company branding sticks!

Not All Free PowerPoint Templates Are Created Equal

When it comes to templates, people basically fall into two camps, those who say Yay to templates and those who say Nay .

But why say Nay when templates are literally lifesavers for many presenters?

Well, I’d like to offer an opinion. Those who say Nay are actually saying no to the basic, outdated, and overall terrible-looking PowerPoint templates they find on the PowerPoint dashboard itself.

Don’t believe me? Let’s go take a peek at the pre-loaded PPT templates!

First, open up PowerPoint on your computer. You’ll then see PowerPoint’s welcome screen which displays a number of free templates like you see in the screenshot below:

Do any of these templates look familiar to you? I wouldn’t be surprised if you said ‘yes.’ After all, thousands or maybe even millions of PowerPoint presentations have been built on these pre-loaded templates through the years!

With that said, my point is that not all templates are created equal. Check out this image of 24Templates’ free Sales Presentation template:

Now, you know that not all free templates are ugly. Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to use free templates as long as it’s visually pleasing, and of course, easy enough to edit to fit your needs.

How To Get Your Hands On Great PowerPoint Presentation Templates

So, now you know the power of using PPT templates for your presentation. How do you get your hands on them? Well, there are generally 3 options:

Option 1. Download free PowerPoint templates from sites like 24Templates and SlidesCarnival (more on this in the next section).

Option 2. Buy a premium PowerPoint template from online marketplaces like GraphicRiver or CreativeMarket.

Option 3. Hire a competent PowerPoint designer on freelancer marketplaces like UpWork or Freelancer.com . Alternatively, you can hire a good design agency to create custom templates for you.

Obviously, with options 1 and 2, you’ve still got to do the work yourself. The quality between free and premium templates vary greatly.

As you’ve seen in some of the screenshots above, many free PowerPoint templates aren’t worth downloading. But thankfully, there are some websites like 24Templates which offer 100% free and premium-looking templates.

Of course, premium templates come with better support, theme options and an impressive number of layouts and template slides. But nevertheless, free PPT templates are a good starting point (more on this below).

With option 3, you’re going to invest a considerable sum of money to hire a PowerPoint expert. Services like these don’t come cheap since you’re paying for talent. But the good thing is your template will be custom and tailor-made for you.

This is obviously great for your company’s branding activities. If the presentation is done correctly, a custom corporate PowerPoint template will open doors for your business.

Since our article’s focus is about free templates, we’ll be focusing on option 1. Scroll down to read where you can find the best free PowerPoint presentation templates online!

The Top Places To Find The Best Free PowerPoint Presentation Templates Online

1. 24templates.

Of course, the first one on the list is our very own 24Templates. This is a 100% free template directory that’s open to anyone who’s looking for premium templates, but can’t afford to spend money for it just yet. This is our way of providing value and giving back to the global PowerPoint community.

We have a few hundred templates available for download now. Over time, we’ll be adding even more professionally-designed free templates! You’ve already seen samples of our free templates. Here’s more!

Free PowerPoint Timeline Templates

You can use this free PowerPoint timeline template to present timelines and roadmaps for both business and non-business presentations. You can add your logo on the lower left section of the slide, though of course, you can move it around somewhere else.

Free PowerPoint Chart Templates

Here’s another example PowerPoint chart template. If you want to reveal trends or progress over a specific period of time, you can use a line graph like you see in the screenshot above. The graph is divided into 4 quarters. You can rename and edit as you see fit.

Free PowerPoint Organizational Chart Templates

If you need to use an organizational chart to display your company’s structure, then this free organizational chart template from 24Templates is perfect for you. Obviously, you may need to add more or delete some of the pre-filled boxes depending on your company’s size.

If you’re looking for an organizational chart that will display a smaller subset or division in your company, then this particular slide design may be a good fit for your needs. Feel free to put your team’s photo on the left!

Free Sales Presentation Templates

Here’s an example Sales Presentation Template. You can use this template when you’re communicating your company’s purpose, a value proposition, or a pain point. You can easily customize this free template to suit your situation.

If you’re looking to impress potential clients and investors, you can use this free sales flowchart template from 24Templates. You can add a simple animation while you go from one point to the next so your audience can follow along and understand your sales process.

Here’s another free sales presentation template which you can quickly edit. You can add up to 7 points in the flowchart. If you need to add more, it’s best to create a duplicate slide and just continue points 8, 9, and so on, in the next slide. Otherwise, if your sales process has fewer than 7 points, you can simply delete the points you don’t need and maybe reposition the circles a bit.

Free Marketing Presentation Templates

When marketing your products or your services, you need to convince your audience of why they need to choose your brand and not your competitor. This product comparison table will allow you to easily show your audience why you’re the best.

You can use this template to compare your product or service to your competitors. You can even try enlarging your product’s box (say you’re product A) to make it look bigger. That way, your audience can easily spot the best from the rest. Alternatively, you can also use this template to list down your product features or components and maybe break down product costs.

Free Project Presentation Templates

If you’re looking for PPT templates you can download for free for your project presentation, then check out this template. Whether you’re presenting a school or a business project, this free Project Presentation template from 24Templates will allow you to display a vibrant image of your project, along with some text and ratings for your project.

If your project involves maps, you can use this template to display data and information about your project’s locations. You can easily replace the map in the background, if you’re using a more local map, say for instance, your country or your state. Simply swap out the map, edit the text, and you’re good to go!

Free Professional PowerPoint Presentation Templates

If you’re looking for professional PowerPoint templates you can download for free, then you may want to check out this particular template from 24Templates. While these slides are originally designed to illustrate the distribution of tasks, these are generic enough to be applied to many contexts. You can use this as an academic presentation PowerPoint template or maybe even in conferences and seminars.

Just like the previous sample template, this professional-looking PPT template can be edited to fit a variety of presentations. Whether you’re using this slide as part of your pitch deck or maybe as a conference presentation PPT template, with just a little bit of editing, you can make this template uniquely yours!

These are just a few samples of what you’ll find in 24Templates. You can download templates for your corporate and business presentations . There are specific templates for presenting data like tables, graphs, and charts, as well as a variety of maps and text slides. We even include free icons which you can use along with your free templates!

2. Slides Carnival

Slides Carnival is a side project of Jimena Catalina, a visual/UI freelance designer from Madrid, Spain. She made the site because, according to her bio, she suffers a lot when she sees poorly designed presentations. Also, she’s publishing these templates so that presenters can focus on creating meaningful content without worrying too much about design.

She has categorized her professional PPT templates (free download) into different categories like formal, inspirational, creative, simple, startup, elegant, business and playful. She includes about 2 dozen slides per template as well as free icons.

3. SlideIst

Designed by freelance graphic designer, Kata Ragasits, the free PowerPoint templates on her site showcases her design skills. If you use any of these modern and cool PowerPoint templates in your presentation, no one’s going to think you got it for free!

Each template includes several layouts, these include title slides, title+content slides, image slides, chart designs, and so much more. She even includes free fonts and a free icon pack for each template.

There are many talented designers on Behance who chose to give away their premium-looking templates for free. Most templates include several layouts you can choose from, so you’ve got plenty of options to go through. Some designers request a link back to their sites or to their Behance profiles, so if you do choose to benefit from their talent and their hard work, don’t forget to credit them accordingly.

5. Graphic Panda

Graphic Panda curates both free and premium PowerPoint templates, Keynote templates, and Google Slides templates. You can easily tell which templates are free as it will say that in the title just like you see in the screenshot above. Their free templates include real estate, medical, health, minimalist, business, and many more categories. For premium templates, you’ll be redirected to template marketplaces like GraphicRiver.

While it’s branded as AllPPT.com, the website’s domain name has been updated as you’ll notice when you visit the site. There are tons of free templates available, and they claim to add new templates every day. As of this writing, they have over 66 pages of templates.

Templates can be used for school, business and even commercial presentations. If you’re logged in to Google Drive, you can preview what the slides look like without downloading the template files to your computer.

7. Slide Model

Slide Model offers membership packages for those who want to get access to their premium templates, however, if you’re not willing to shell out any money for templates, you can check out their free PowerPoint templates. Some of their most popular templates include academic, business and general purpose templates. They give away a free template every week.

If you want to sign up for a membership, the cheapest option is $24.90 for 1-day access where you can download up to 5 templates in a day. Their annual plan goes for $199.90/year where you can get unlimited downloads per day, and you can license for up to 10 employees.

More Free PowerPoint Templates

If you’re looking for a free PowerPoint poster template , you can check out GeniGraphics , MakeSigns , and PosterPresentations . Their free templates come in various colors, styles, and sizes. Simply choose the template you want to use and download it to your computer so you can start working on your poster.

If you want to print your poster, simply send it back to the website where you downloaded your poster presentation template from so they can print and ship it to you!

For free PowerPoint game templates , check out this article on The Balance where they provide direct links to several PPT game templates like Jeopardy, The Price Is Right, Deal or No Deal, Family Feud, Wheel Of Fortune, and Cash Cab.

If you want some free infographic templates which you can edit in PowerPoint, HubSpot’s freebie is a great resource. Here’s a screenshot:

All you have to do to download the free templates is fill out a short form and give a few details about yourself. Now, you’re going to have to decide if that’s something you want to give away in exchange for the 15 free infographic PowerPoint templates.

Free Templates From Microsoft Itself

From a personal point of view, I don’t find most free templates from Microsoft visually appealing. But still, many people use these templates, so I thought I had better include this in the list too.

As more and more designers contribute to Microsoft’s free templates, over time, we may see better-looking templates pre-loaded in PowerPoint as well as on the Microsoft website itself.

If you want to use any of Microsoft’s free PowerPoint templates, these are your options:

• Search for online templates by typing in the search bar. Note you need an Internet connection to do this [see (1) in the screenshot below]
• Scroll down through the pre-loaded templates and double-click the template you want to use [see (2) in the screenshot below]

Here’s what it looks like:

If you want to check out the pre-loaded template’s gallery of available layouts and themes, simply click on a template and you’ll see something like this on your screen (I clicked on the Atlas template ):

As you can see on the left side of the screenshot, this is the template’s Title slide layout. On the right, you’ll see the available color themes for this particular template.

If you want to see what other layouts are available, click on More Images at the bottom. Here are the other available layouts:

If you want to use one of the pre-loaded templates as a base for your PowerPoint presentation, simply click on the Create button.

What do you think? Do you think the free built-in templates look great? Maybe. Maybe not.

If you do choose to use any of the built-in templates, then know that you’ve got millions of other people using the same templates. So, if you value being unique and standing out from the crowd, then perhaps you may want to browse the other websites I listed in this article.

Now, Microsoft’s free templates aren’t too bad especially if you’re pressed for time, and you really have no other choice. Just don’t expect to win any design or presentation awards though.

Of course, one of PowerPoint’s best features is its versatility. You can use any of the available templates, and redesign it to make it your own. But obviously, that kind of beats the purpose of using a template, right?

You use a template because you want to save time. You don’t have hours to spend creating a template from scratch, so you use a template with pre-designed layouts and colors, etc. But the pre-loaded ones just don’t cut it nowadays.

Back in the 1990s or early 2000s when PowerPoint was a relatively new software, we were more accepting of cookie-cutter templates. But not anymore. In 2018 and beyond, free templates that look like they were created in 1999 are not going to capture anyone’s attention.

Final Words

I hope your journey to get access to the best PowerPoint templates – free or otherwise – has come to an end in this article. Many talented designers are putting their love for PowerPoint design above all else. They are giving away some of the best PPT templates you’ll ever find online.

Just remember that using templates is just a tool to help you save time. It’s not going to be doing the presenting for you. You still need to work on it yourself. The good thing is, with the amount of time you’ll save with using a cool PowerPoint template, you’ll be able to spend more time perfecting your presentation.

You might also find this interesting: The Ultimate PowerPoint Template Guide

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Slides Carnival and Alternatives for Google Slides Templates

Last updated on November 17th, 2023

Since PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation app in the world, millions of presentations are created daily using various free PowerPoint templates available across different websites. When we look at cross-platform alternatives, the most viable alternative is Google Slides, free to use and available via the web and mobile apps. Slides Carnival is a website offering free PowerPoint templates optimized for Google Slides.

In this article we will see:

What is Slides Carnival?

Search google slides templates by category, preview and download presentation templates, use templates as google slides themes.

• Alternative 1 – FPPT
• Alternative 2 – Free Google Slides Templates
• Alternative 3 – Macfadden’s Google Slides templates
• Alternative 4 – Slide Model

Slides Carnival is a website that provides free presentation templates for PowerPoint, Google Slides and Canva presentation templates. The slide decks available at Slides Carnival come with elaborate sample slides that can be easily edited for creating professional presentations. If you were wondering how to make Google Slides look good then the resources you can find in this website can help you.

You can search for PowerPoint and Google Slides templates by category from the top menu or the popular searches listed at the bottom. Templates are categorized by color and topics. Some topics and categories listed at Slides Carnival include formal, inspirational, elegant, playful, business, technology, medical, education, etc.

For each presentation template that you select, you can preview the slides from the product page and download it for PowerPoint or open it directly in Google Slides.

Once you click on ‘Use as Google Slides Theme’ , the template opens up in preview mode. From here, you can click on Use Template from the top right corner to open and use the template as a Google Slides theme.

Good Alternatives to Google Slides

There are plenty of websites out there providing free and paid resources for presenters. While Google Slides gained some popularity in recent years, you can find creative presentation templates for Microsoft PowerPoint with more elaborate slide decks. These templates can also be used with Google Slides.

Alternative #1 – FPPT.com – Free PowerPoint Templates & Presentation Slides

At FPPT, you can download thousands of presentation templates with awesome presentation backgrounds . These templates are available for virtually any topic imaginable. You can use these presentation templates for PowerPoint or open and use them in Google Slides.

Alternative #2 – Free Google Slides Templates

Free Google Slides Templates is another good alternative if you are looking for Google Slides Themes and Backgrounds for your presentations. Unlike the rest of the template providers mentioned in this post, Free Google Slides Templates is primarily geared towards the provision of high-quality templates for Google Slides.

Visit Free Google Slides Templates

Alternative #3 – Macfadden’s Google Slides templates

Mike Macfadden is a Digital Graphic Design teacher who created these Google Slides designs for his students and then shared them online so anyone who needs presentation designs for Google Slides can use them. At the time of writing this article, we could count 23 presentation templates available on the site, while the collection is reduced these are definitely useful and effective templates for any educator or a business professional who require Google Slides templates.

This is a very interesting website offering free templates for Google Slides. Even if the templates are available with only a single slide [the cover image], the slide designs look really good and Macfadden’s templates feature great cover slides that will help your slide deck to look awesome, by captivating the user’s attention from the beginning of the presentation. In the site you can find templates named as Firelight, Zen Master, Shiplap, Late Autumn, Karate Chop, White Bricks, Ombre, Podium, 80’s Night, Vanstock, Doodly Doo and more. By duplicating the slides and creating internal slides for your presentation with the same styles and fonts, you can keep the overall presentation and slides to look uniform in terms of look and feel.

Visit https://mmacfadden.com/templates/

Alternative #4 – Slides Go

Slidesgo is a relatively new player in the presentation space, but even though the site has been positioned as one of the free resources out there. Unlike other professional services providing high-quality slides for business presentations, such as SlideModel for example, SlidesGo focuses in providing cartoonish slides with some nice illustrations.

If you are looking for websites like Slidesgo or alternatives, there are many other alternatives that you can find in this post. Some other websites like Slidesgo offer resume templates, illustrations, and multipurpose presentations for a broad audience. While Slidesgo claims to be a free service, they also have templates available upon paying a subscription. Some users at Reddit provide clues on how to get premium Slidesgo for free, but this is not covered in this article.

Alternative #5 – SlideModel.com (Editor’s Choice)

SlideModel is a presentation template provider with templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides. At SlideModel, you will find several premium templates for making formal presentations. There are several robust business presentation templates, including complex models and editable diagrams for making SWOT analyses, funnel diagrams, cause and effect illustrations, PESTEL analysis, timelines, road maps, etc. Furthermore, you can also find templates with editable maps for each continent, region and dozens of countries.

SlideModel not only have PowerPoint templates available, but a good collection of templates for Google Slides . Most of them are compatible in both presentation software tools and you can combine graphics, diagrams and styles from the templates in the catalog.

Final words

While Slides Carnival is a good website for downloading PowerPoint and Google Slides templates, alternatives such as FPPT and SlideModel have a more extensive collection of presentation templates. SlideModel is one of the most complete resources where you can download diagrams, assets, and graphics for your presentations. Created around PowerPoint themes, the site also provides Google Slides themes, representing a good alternative.

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Presentation software or tools are designed to help presenters in creating presentations. These tools contain a variety of features that make communication effective. By using presentation tools, users can organize their content logically in clarity and flow. To influence the audience, presentation software must contain attractive templates. Slide templates hold creative elements and graphics to inspire the crowd.

Considering the need for presentation templates, SlidesGo is a widely recognized website. It is known for its templates that can be customized after downloading. Due to complex data and diverse audience needs, SlidesGo templates might lack certain aspects. This article aims to introduce 8 exceptional  SlidesGo alternative  websites and tools.

In this article

• A Brief Overview of SlidesGo
• 8 Best Alternatives to SlidesGo

Part 1. A Brief Overview of SlidesGo

Freepik is a room for creative resources like vectors, icons, and illustrations. SlidesGo is an extension of Freepik company for getting PowerPoint and Google Slides templates. Users can get templates of any niche, from education to business or any other field. This website enables one to search templates according to format, size, color, and style.  

Every template description contains an introduction and features that help users in selection. SlidesGo website claims to create a presentation with an AI option. In reality, that option directs users towards the Wepik website, which is also a product of the Freepik company. Thus, SlidesGo does not offer any AI option but just provides presentation templates.

Part 2. 8 Best Alternatives to SlidesGo

You might be aware of SlidesGo presentation templates as a student or employee. Any presenter can make an engaging presentation by using the SlidesGo resource. This website contains some drawbacks, according to modern presentation makers. Thus, in this guide, we are exploring 8 competitors and websites like SlidesGo to consider in presentation-making.

1. Wondershare Presentory

Considering the SlidesGo alternatives , Wondershare Presentory is the finest choice among all. It is an AI presentation software with unique and dynamic presentation-making features. This AI tool offers multiple stunning templates and designs for presentation. Users can edit and rearrange elements or text in the template. Despite offering free templates, it can create and record video presentations.

Presentory contains an AI feature that can generate presentation content and outlines. Moreover, users can save their efforts and time used in researching content. Also, with an AI content-generating feature, text can be added to slides with a single click. This tool provides Cloud service to save projects with a secure experience.

Free Download Free Download Try It Online

• With the Teleprompt option, users can deliver flawless scripts by writing key points there.
• There are rich resources of stickers, texts, and slide backgrounds.
• While recording the presentation, add makeup and remove blemishes from your face in the video.
• You can also make real-time presentation live stream on popular platforms like Zoom, Meet, Skype, Google Meet, etc.
• Explore and add visual aids from a wide range of transitions and animation effects resources.
• Presentory only provides 1500 AI credits in its 14-day free trial.

2. Slideegg

Discover your required presentation template by selecting your niche on this website. Slideegg aims to deliver a simplified presentation by solving complex problems. In this regard, it offers professional presentation redesign services. Presenters have to upload their files and brief details to get redesigned slides from experts.

Chargers may vary as per slide redesign timings and the number of slides included. Despite redesigning the presentation, you can download slide templates in 4:3 and 16:9 formats. The selected template can be downloaded in PowerPoint and Google Slides.

• Slideegg updates templates regularly, and one can find new designs from recent options there.
• The desired template design can be achieved by adding color and a node filter.
• It does not hold any cloud service or real-time editing options like others.

3. SlidesCarnival

With an extensive range of slide templates, SlidesCarnival is another website like SlidesGo . It offers templates in Canva, Google Slides, and PowerPoint format. This website lets users search PowerPoint through topic, style, and color filters. You can preview the template in full-screen before downloading it.

The template can be shared using URL links, Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also collaborate on the designs of this website by using their Canva format. By leveling up designs with Canva, access millions of illustrations, fonts, and photos in the slides.

• In SlidesCarnival, you can also filter the presentations with the help of different color options.
• No registration or download limit is necessary to get templates from this website.
• It lacks unique designs of templates due to its collaboration with Canva.

4. Slidenest

To get the latest and trending slide templates, visit the Slidenest website as a SlidesGo alternative . It offers templates from minimal, creative, cute, and vintage styles. Users can search for slides by choosing the required color and format.

Moreover, select a niche from education, medical, and multipurpose template options. There are over 577 infographic templates on this website for users. Furthermore, templates can be downloaded in Keynote, PowerPoint, and Google Slides formats.

• Latest and trending templates are available for presenters of any field.
• Display the total number of templates available to help users keep searching or switch to other sites.
• It doesn’t allow you to access any template without going through an ad.

5. SlidesMania

American Association of School Librarians (AASL) recognized SlidesMania as the best digital tool. For learning and teaching, it provides PowerPoint and Google Slides templates. From the range of educational templates, you can choose certificates and notebooks to customize.

Furthermore, students can make digital journals and later download them in PDF format. Users can also choose template styles from animated, floral, formal, and organic shape options. The colors available in templates are especially designed for students and children.

• A wide range of templates are available for educational purposes.
• Contains unique fonts and aesthetic slides in the templates.
• In some templates of SlidesMania, users cannot rearrange or customize objects in the slides.

6. SlideModel

Compared to SlidesGo, this website contains a simple interface for newbies. You can communicate ideas through PowerPoint presentation templates in SlideModel. Moreover, the team of SlideModel is working hard to introduce new templates in planning, public speaking, marketing, strategy, and corporate framework.

Users can get diagrams, comparison tables, charts, shapes, and maps despite slide templates. Keynote, Google Slides, and Office 365 are supported versions for template downloading. Also, one can get templates in MS PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 formats. For Mac template downloading, only PowerPoints 2011 and 2016 are supported.

• A detailed description of every slide in the templates is written under the template.
• High-quality graphics, shapes, and templates are available, resulting in a reduced workload.
• Many users reported editing issues in the map templates of the SlidesModel website.

7. SlidesGala

SlidesGala brings thoughtful templates to make presentation content crystal clear to the audience. The templates from this website compel content to make a professional impression. There are options to choose slide templates from creative, business, playful, startup, and elegant. You can view the user’s rating of your selected templates.

Moreover, slides contain tables, graphics, and other objects according to the topics. It also allows you to use the template as a Google Slides theme and download it later in PPT, PDF, or other. Templates can be directly downloaded in PowerPoint format through this website.

• The ending slides of the templates are rich with icons and objects for further customization.
• Provide an HTML link to the slides to make sharing easy for everyone.
• This website holds a limited variety of slide templates for users.

8. SlideChef

Unleash your artistic side with the help of this SlidesGo alternative website. From educational to professional templates, SlideChef contains over 1,000 templates. It offers templates of brochures, infographics, SmartArt, Google Slides, and PowerPoint presentations.

Additionally, there are more than 1,000 Canva-supported templates of posters. The downloaded templates contain high-quality 3D elements that can be fully customized. Moreover, users can get templates of minimal, modern, medical, and aesthetic designs.

• SlideChef offers the latest trending and top-downloaded template options.
• Animated high-quality templates are also available for download.
• Templates lack professional and educational topic-related slide designs.

Overall, it can be said that SlidesGo is a popular and useful PPT template resource but has powerful competitors, too. In the presentation tools, we have examined numerous websites to get stunning templates. Every website has several pros and cons that help users to choose the right one. In this regard, Wondershare Presentory can be considered as an AI tool holding compelling templates and designs.

Apart from stunning template designs, there are rich library resources and other elements. Surprisingly, presenters can record their presentations along with slides. Also, it allows you to enhance facial features and video quality while recording a presentation. Evidently, it can be said that Presentory is the most effective SlidesGo alternative .

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what is better than slidesgo, 2. is there a free program like slidesgo, 3. is there a google docs version of slidesgo, you may also like.

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Prezentt Blog

10 great resources to find great powerpoint templates for free.

By Lauren Clarke

They say a picture paints a thousand words. We like to think of it as a great PowerPoint template reiterates your thousand words, and makes them more professional and engaging.

Regardless of what the aim of your presentation may be, please remember that a great PowerPoint template is a fantastic way for you to impress your audience when you are giving a presentation.

When you have other issues to worry about like the research and content of your PowerPoint slides or preparing for your presentation itself, looking for great PowerPoint templates should be easy and should not take up too much of your time. Therefore, spending hours searching for the perfect PowerPoint template is something to avoid.

We have made your life easier, and have listed some of the best sites that you could visit to look for those great PowerPoint templates for your presentation.

Free PowerPoint Templates

This site offers a free collection of great PowerPoint templates, pictures, animations and illustrations that are ready for you to download and use for your presentation. They have a vast collection which includes themes, backgrounds and even animations. All you have to do is find the appropriate background for your PowerPoint slides via their catalogue as they have been tagged and categorised in themes for your convenience.

Presentation Magazine

Besides the interesting collection of great PowerPoint templates, Presentation Magazine is another site that guides you on how you can make your presentation slides look more presentable as well as some tips on how you could improve your presentation skills.

Slides Carnival

Slides Carnival is a slick looking website filled with plenty of great PowerPoint templates, categorised in creative ways. Whether you are looking for a formal template, elegant or even something simple and creative, this is a great site to visit.

Free PowerPoint Templates Design

If you are looking for something quick and user-friendly, this is a simple site that provides an assortment of great PowerPoint templates for your presentation. The site may be a little difficult to navigate, however they frequently update their sites with new templates and have arranged them in popularity.

Indezine provides PowerPoint tutorials and articles for your presentation. It is a platform for PowerPoint presentations, software, picture editing and even clip media. They have a Search toolbar option to make it more convenient to find the PowerPoint template that you are looking for.

Templates Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office also another website that provides great PowerPoint templates for free. While their sites may not be as user-friendly as some others, you could always trust Microsoft when it comes to providing professional or business looking presentation slides.

Templateswise

Templateswise is one of the best places to download free PowerPoint templates and backgrounds. Their collection contains themes on different topics from business to abstract and it also includes pre-designed slides by a professional graphic designer. The site also provides great music loops if you need a music track in your presentation. You definitely could build stunning presentations in less time with their PowerPoint templates.

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Brainy Betty

You can find hundreds of free PowerPoint templates and backgrounds at Brainy Betty. You can find animations, suitable music for your presentations and even royalty free photos for your slides.

Another fantastic website that you can visit to get great PowerPoint templates is Slide Team. Slide Team is a more comprehensive websites with over 100,000 templates to choose from. All you have to do is sign up with them and you can download the PowerPoint templates for free.

PresentationLoad

A big selection of free PowerPoint slides for work, school or university – easily create professional presentations with these pre-designed slide packs.

As a presenter, it is your job to inspire and get your audience engaged in your slides and presentation. The last thing you would want to worry about is how your PowerPoint slides look. We trust these ten hand-picked sites will be helpful for you to find great PowerPoint presentation templates for your next presentation.

On behalf of the Prezentt team, best of luck with your next presentation!

7 responses to “ 10 Great Resources to find Great PowerPoint Templates for Free ”

great list, here is another site for free powerpoint templates http://www.eurekatemplates.com/

Hello, thank you for posting this list.. I want to suggest a great ppt background resources for ppt templates http://www.pptbackgrounds.org

hopefully it benefits your business.

For your pleasue the list of a +300 Free PowerPoint Templates. http://www.poweredtemplate.com/free-ppt-powerpoint-templates.html

Hello Lauren, very interesting list! You can also probably add those 2 free PPTX resources: http://www.showeet.com and http://www presentationgo.com Cheers!

Great list of resources! We also have professional powerpoint designers who make incredible designs for you.We Translate your services and product into a presentation that promote your brand. I have mentioned my website in details.

Very nice list. You can add one new site with powerpoint templates http://pptx-templates.com/

A successful presentation depends not so much on content as on how to present it. At the same time, words and thematic design, inspire, inspire confidence and motivate to act. http://imaginelayout.com/powerpoint-templates/

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The best free PowerPoint templates online

• Written by: Olivia Kippax Jones
• Categories: PowerPoint design
• Comments: 4

When creating presentations in PowerPoint it’s important to have a template to ensure design consistency, but it takes time, effort and skill to create high quality templates and masters. Of course, there are lots of places you can get free PowerPoint templates, but are they any good? Well, we’ve done the legwork for you and have collected a few of the best free PowerPoint templates online.

Before we get started, a word of warning: Even nice-looking templates can be ineffective if the layouts are just bullet points on bullet points. Whichever PowerPoint template you chose, you should still try to create visual, engaging slides. Treating these free PowerPoint templates as building blocks, rather than finished masterpieces will help you create something more customised to your needs. Check out this blog post to find out more about visual slide design.

Slidesgo has lots of templates that can be used either in PowerPoint or Google Slides. They are organised under the categories: Popular, Business, Medical, Education, Marketing, and General.

There are oodles of different styles on offer but pay particular attention to the illustrated ones as these kinds of designs can be hard to create from scratch, especially if you don’t have much artistic talent!

The Slidesgo templates are easily editable: you can move elements around and duplicate or delete them. This means you can use as many or as few of the provided graphics as you want. You can also change the theme colours, so they fit into your brand. If you’re not sure how to change your theme colours, don’t worry: we’ve got a guide for that !

Top tip: If you think that an element of the template is not editable, it’s always worth checking the Slide Master before giving up hope. Go to the View tab in the PowerPoint ribbon, then click Slide Master . Here you can find all the slide layouts, without content, and you may be able to edit the objects in the background of the slide.

Slidesgo also has some lovely photography-heavy free PowerPoint templates. However, you can’t always swap out the default images for your own, which is likely to be an issue. An effective presentation uses photography intentionally to tell a story, not just to make slides look pretty. It might be best to use these templates for inspiration; see how they are constructed and then build your own version with your own images.

Along with a bunch of different slide layouts, one of the best things about Slidesgo’s free PowerPoint templates is that they all include 16 slides of assets. These slides provide you with lots of themed icons (in both a thin line style and solid style) covering nature, business, marketing, medicine and more.

There are also some useful graphic resources, including world maps and graphs, and each PowerPoint template includes a Fonts & Colours slide which tells you which fonts the deck uses (and provides links to download them), as well as the exact colours of the theme. These resources make it quicker for you to be able to start creating slides in the template style because you have all the information and assets you need.

You need to credit Slidesgo if you chose to use one of their free PowerPoint templates.

Slides Carnival

Slides Carnival offers harried presentation creators free PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Canva templates. The site is run by freelance designer Jimena Catalina who uploads a couple of new templates each month. There are plenty of free PowerPoint templates on the site already, though, so you can get started straight away.

Like Slidesgo, the templates are organised into different categories including formal, creative, simple, business, and playful. They are free for personal and commercial use – just remember to credit SlidesCarnival.

Each free PowerPoint template comes with 25 slide layouts including a title slide, quote slide, table, map, timeline and more.

You can easily duplicate or delete these slides to suit your project.

Slides Carnival templates don’t come with a huge set of icons, however if you visit the free resources section of the website, you’ll find various icon sets in different styles as well as world maps you can use in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Download these to have at your fingertips when creating your slides.

At the end of each deck is a slide telling you which fonts are used (and where you can download them) and the exact colours. Depending on the template, you may find some extra graphics here too. For example, these body graphics are at the end of a medical themed template.

Pixelsurplus

Pixel Surplus sell resources for graphic designers, including cool font bundles. They also have a bunch of great free design resources on their website: these are perfect for creating a stylish PowerPoint presentation. To find the free PowerPoint templates, click on Freebies in the top menu bar and scroll down to Templates . You can get your hands on some super cool free fonts on this site too, so have a browse!

To download the free PowerPoint templates, you need to provide your email address. You’ll be subscribed to the Pixel Surplus mailing list and get a few emails a week, but unsubscribing is simple if you don’t want to be pestered.

Each template page makes it clear whether you can use the resource for personal or personal and commercial use – so make sure to check this out before you commit. Some of the free PowerPoint templates on Pixel Surplus are a limited version of a paid template – you might be getting 20 slides out of a possible 100, for example – but they still give you plenty to work with.

A word of warning – don’t pick a deck just because you like the images used: photography is likely not actually included in the template. This is what one image-based deck looked like once I’d downloaded the template:

This deck is full of image placeholders. You can insert your own images into the placeholders easily and can find free imagery online on sites like Unsplash .

Pixel Surplus’ free templates might not have the full range of icons you can see in the paid versions, as you only get a few slides. However, they often include some cool assets – like these really nice photo masks – to make up for it. We’ve pulled together some of our favourite free design resources here to help you find images, icons and more to make your presentations look beautiful.

These slides are from the Start Up template .

Pixel Surplus’ free PowerPoint templates have set colour themes, so any PowerPoint shapes or text you add will automatically be consistent with the style. The slides aren’t animated but you can add animation to these and any other PowerPoint slides in native PowerPoint. Use your favourite default animation or take your slides to the next level with BrightSlide’s Animation Library.

BrightSlide is BrightCarbon’s own PowerPoint add-in designed by our experts to boost design and productivity. The Animation Library is a library of animation sequences that you can add to any object with just one click, to give a consistent, professional, and polished feel to your content.

Showeet supplies free PowerPoint templates online alongside charts and diagrams, maps, CVs, business cards and more. They have lots of PowerPoint templates , so if you have something in particular in mind, use the search bar to narrow down your options e.g. search ‘business’, ‘health care’, ‘Lego’ (yes there is a Lego themed template !).

The decks can be downloaded in 4:3 or widescreen 1:9 aspect ratios. They include custom colour palettes and are fully editable. As with the other free PowerPoint template sites we’ve looked at, you will need to credit Showeet if you use one of their templates.

As always, it’s important to use your best judgement when picking which layouts to use. This ‘BLAK’ template has over 100 layouts. The title slides look cool once you add your own pictures:

But a few of the other layout options are very text heavy!

It’s worth checking out Showeet’s other categories, including charts and diagrams, maps, and shapes and objects. You can find some great assets to help your deck stand out from the crowd, including these brush effects:

And these product mock-ups.

All in all, some great resources!

HiSlide offer free PowerPoint, Google Slides and Keynote templates. You have to register for a free account to download any of their resources, and there are paid options if you want to use their content without giving them credit.

A word of caution: HiSlide offers both free and paid PowerPoint templates. To save yourself from heartbreak, click PowerPoint Templates then Free PowerPoint Templates to filter the options accordingly.

HiSlide differs a bit from the other free PowerPoint template websites we’ve looked at in this post because it offers lots of one-slide templates, as well. These include calendar slides, and various charts to help you organise information. Some of these you could easily create using PowerPoint shapes but there are a few fun options.

HiSlide also has standard templates that would work for a professional presentation. Like with Showeet, the images you see on their website are often not included and some of the slides are really text heavy. You can (and should!) delete all the text and add in your own visuals.

Depending on the template you chose you’ll get timelines, icon sets, graphs or charts, maps, image-based slides, tables etc. You’ll receive around 25 unique slides per template (though some are huge, like this 1500 slide deck with 76 unique slides!).

An impressive bonus is that some of the templates have both an animated and a non-animated version. It’s great that at least one free PowerPoint template website appreciates the animation capabilities of PowerPoint. These simple animations chunk out the slide content and help the presenter stagger information. The animations are super easy to edit or remove so you can make changes to fit your own purposes. Kudos to HiSlide for offering animations!

Honourable mention: Behance

Behance is an online platform allowing creative professionals to share their work and view the creative work of others. There’s a small section showcasing PowerPoint design . There are some lovely looking PowerPoint templates and a few that you can download for free. It’s worth noting that you’re usually downloading a limited section of the template; you can follow the links to find a full paid version.

You’ll likely find that the samples offer enough inspiration to get you started – some of the paid templates have up to 250 example slides which is overwhelming and unnecessary for most presentation contexts.

Behance hasn’t made it into the main list because you may be directed to sites which ask for payment (even though the slides are described as free) and because there are different designers, so the quality is inconsistent.

There you have it – some of the best free PowerPoint templates online! Hiring a PowerPoint expert is always going to be the best option as they can design a custom template to fit your content and to scale with your organisation, but if you’re looking for budget options then these sites are your friends. Treating the templates as building materials, rather than something set in stone, means you can build something customised to help tell your story effectively. If you want to learn more about templates and masters in PowerPoint join us for our next templates and masters free masterclass or take a look at our free resources .

Have a different favourite? Let us know in the comments below!

Olivia Kippax Jones

Principal consultant (interim); content marketing lead, related articles, insights from a presentation templates expert.

• PowerPoint design / Industry insights

A PowerPoint template is the foundation on which polished and professional presentations are built. We interview BrightCarbon’s new Templates Lead, Gemma Leamy, and pick her brains on the ideal process for creating robust PowerPoint templates.

How to reduce text on your presentation slides

• PowerPoint design / Visual communication

It can seem daunting to take a text-heavy slide or list of bullets and turn it into something visual, especially if you don’t think you’re super creative. However, the first step is simply reducing the amount of text on your slides – and you don’t have to be an artist to do that!

5 presentation creation habits you should quit today

• PowerPoint design

If you’ve been looking for one, this is your sign to kick those bad presentation creation habits for good!

Take a look at slideegg.com, they have a vast collection of free PowerPoint templates.

Available for commercial use?

Thanks for sharing! I would add https://slidesgo.net/ to the list. They have editable templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides for many topics.

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BrightCarbon staff are knowledgeable with excellent skills, and are unfailingly enthusiastic for each new presentation. Sarah Appleton Brown Practice Plus Group

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New Indictment Alleges Conservative Media Company Took Millions in Kremlin Cash

Tim pool, dave rubin, lauren southern, and benny johnson have all worked with tenet media. .

Anna Merlan

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Mother Jones; Getty

A federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday alleges that a Tennessee-based media company which played home to several prominent right-leaning online commentators was secretly a Russian government-backed influence operation. The company is accused of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today (RT), a Russian state-backed media company, as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The allegations were part of a broader effort against Russian influence sites seeking to subvert the elections.

Tenet Media worked with American conservative or heterodox media figures, including Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Lauren Southern, who variously present themselves as independent journalists, documentarians, and political commentators. Not all of them immediately commented on having been publicly linked to a foreign propaganda site, but Johnson soon tweeted that he and other influencers had been “victims in this alleged scheme.” In his own tweet, Pool echoed that line, writing, in part, “Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” Rubin, too, described himself as a victim, adding, “I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period.”

The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York , alleges that RT and two specific employees, Kostiantyn “Kostya” Kalashnikov and Elena “Lena” Afanasyeva, worked to funnel money to Tenet Media as part of a series of “covert projects” to shape the opinions of Western audiences. RT has faced cancellations and sanctions in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the UK after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; federal authorities allege those travails led the company to instead create more covert means of influencing public perception.

While Tenet is only referred to in the indictment as “U.S. Company 1,” details made it readily identifiable. The indictment alleges that Tenet’s coverage “contain[ed] commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics…consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”  

The indictment also alleges that not everyone affiliated with Tenet was unaware of the scheme, stating that “Founders 1 and 2” of the company knew the source of their funding. The founders of Tenet Media are Lauren Chen and her husband; Chen is a conservative influencer and YouTuber who’s hosted a show on Blaze TV and who’s affiliated with Turning Point USA. Her husband, Liam Donovan, identifies himself on Twitter as the president of Tenet Media. 

The indictment alleges that the RT officials and Founders 1 and 2 “also worked together to deceive two U.S. online commentators (“Commentator-I” and “Commentator-2″), who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers.” Dave Rubin has 2.4 million YouTube subscribers, while Tim Pool has 1.37 million.

The indictment indicates that even some of the people working at Tenet found their content heavy-handed. On February 15 of this year, Afanasyeva, using the name Helena Shudra, shared a video in a company Discord channel of what the indictment calls “a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia.” While he’s not named in the indictment, it clearly matches Tucker Carlson, who toured such a grocery store, declaring himself slackjawed in wonder at how nice it was.

“Later that day,” the indictment adds, “Producer-I privately messaged Founder-2 on Discord: ‘They want me to post this’—referencing the video that Afanasyeva posted—but ‘it just feels like overt shilling.’ Founder-2 replied that Founder-I ‘thinks we should put it out there.’ Producer-I acquiesced, responding, ‘alright I’ll put it out tomorrow.'”

Tenet’s recent content on sites like YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok has been heavily larded with critical commentary about Kamala Harris. Conservative political commentator and documented plagiarist Benny Johnson, for instance, recently starred in a video about her “empty words.”

The allegations against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, who are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering, were part of a broader effort against what US authorities allege were Russian influence sites seeking to subvert the elections. Earlier on Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had seized 32 internet domains used in what they called “Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns.” 

At an Aspen Institute event on Wednesday afternoon, a DOJ official, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said the Russians charged in the case “used American-based individuals and entities to exploit, frankly, our free society to try to undermine our election,” including by deploying “unwitting influencers to push Russian propaganda and pro-Russian messaging.” 

One of the last things Tenet posted on their social media sites before the indictment was unsealed concerned—ironically enough—a government employee accused of secretly acting as a foreign agent. Tenet posted a video of Linda Sun, a former aide to New York governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul who has been charged with using her position to benefit the Chinese government. Tenet seemed to suggest that a few words Sun offered on a video call endorsing diversity, equity, and inclusion measures were part of an alleged foreign-backed messaging plot.

“Why would the Chinese government want to push DEI in America?” a tweet from Tenet read.

Abby Vesoulis contributed reporting.

Update, September 4: This story has been updated to include Johnson, Rubin and Pool’s comments.

Leaked Kremlin Memo to Russian Media: It Is “Essential” to Feature Tucker Carlson

The EU Is Trying to Combat Disinformation From Russian State Media. The US Should Do the Same.

“The Left Can’t Meme”: How Right-Wing Groups Are Training the Next Generation of Social Media Warriors

Story by Stephanie Mencimer, video by Mark Helenowski

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Kamala Harris has put the Democrats back in the race

Watch CBS News

Brazil block on social network X goes into effect joining other countries around the world

August 31, 2024 / 1:00 PM EDT / CBS/AFP

With its ban of X,  which went into effect on Saturday , Brazil joins a small club of countries to have taken similar measures against the social network, most of them run by authoritarian regimes.

The suspension was ordered by a top Brazilian judge after Elon Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country. Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Musk had been feuding for months over allegations X engaged in obstruction, criminal organization and incitement, namely the decision said, supporting a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices.

Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.

Other countries restrict X

Beyond permanent bans, some nations have temporarily restricted access to X, formerly Twitter, which has often been used by political dissidents to communicate.

These have included Egypt in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings, Turkey in 2014 and 2023, and Uzbekistan around that country's 2021 presidential election.

Here is a list of some of the others.

Beijing banned Twitter in June 2009 -- before it secured the prominent place it enjoyed in Western media and politics for much of the 2010s.

The block came two days before the 20-year anniversary of the government's crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations in the capital's Tiananmen Square.

Since then, many Chinese people have turned to home-grown alternatives such as Weibo and WeChat.

Twitter was also blocked by Tehran in 2009, as a wave of demonstrations broke out following a contested June presidential election.The network has nevertheless been used since then to pass information to the outside world about dissident movements, including the demonstrations against Iran's repression of women's rights since late 2022.

Isolated Central Asian country Turkmenistan blocked Twitter in the early 2010s alongside many other foreign online services and websites. Authorities in Ashgabat surveil closely citizens' usage of the internet, provided through state-run monopoly operator TurkmenTelecom.

Pyongyang opened its own Twitter account in 2010 in a bid to woo foreigners interested in the country. But the application has been blocked along with Facebook, Youtube and gambling and pornography websites since April 2016. Internet access beyond a few government websites is under tight government watch in the hermit regime, with access restricted to a few high-ranking officials.

X has been blocked since February 2021, when authorities took aim at the app for its use by opponents of the military coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government. Since then, the junta has kept a tight grip on internet access in Myanmar.

Some use VPN to connect to social media network X

Access to Twitter was throttled in 2021 by Moscow, which complained the site was allowing users to spread "illegal content".

A formal ban came in March 2022, just after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Many Russian users continue to connect to X via VPN services that allow them to get around the block.

X has been banned since parliamentary polls in February this year.

Pakistan's government, backed by the army, say the block is for security reasons. Former prime minister Imran Khan -- now in jail -- was targeted by widespread allegations of fraud spread via the platform against his opposition party.

Nicolas Maduro, who was declared winner of July's presidential election despite grave suspicions of fraud , ordered access to X suspended for 10 days on August 9 as security forces were violently putting down nationwide demonstrations. The block has remained in place beyond the expiry of the 10-day period.

The country's block on X has come from the judiciary, via Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes. He has highlighted the reactivation of accounts that had been ordered suspended by Brazilian courts.

Users connecting to X via a VPN face a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) per day.

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Justice Department Disrupts Covert Russian Government-Sponsored Foreign Malign Influence Operation Targeting Audiences in the United States and Elsewhere

Note : View the affidavit here . 

The Justice Department today announced the ongoing seizure of 32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as “Doppelganger,” in violation of U.S. money laundering and criminal trademark laws. As alleged in an unsealed affidavit, the Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog, operating under the direction and control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, used these domains, among others, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election.  

In conjunction with the domain seizures, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the designation of 10 individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated response to Russia’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This announcement follows the designation of actors involved in Doppelganger announced by the Treasury Department in March.

“The Justice Department is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and Russian government-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere in and influence the outcome of our country’s elections,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As alleged in our court filings, President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Sergei Kiriyenko, directed Russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. An internal planning document created by the Kremlin states that a goal of the campaign is to secure Russia’s preferred outcome in the election. The sites we are seizing today were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and other countries. Our actions today make clear that the Justice Department will be aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by the Russian government, or any other malign actor, to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.”

“The Department’s seizure of 32 internet domains secretly deployed to spread foreign malign influence demonstrates once again that Russia remains a predominant foreign threat to our elections,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “At Putin’s direction, Russian companies SDA, Structura, and ANO Dialog used cybersquatting, fabricated influencers, and fake profiles to covertly promote AI-generated false narratives on social media. Those narratives targeted specific American demographics and regions in a calculated effort to subvert our election. Our republic depends on elections that are free from foreign interference, and we will not rest in our efforts to expose foreign malign influence operations and protect our democracy, without fear or favor.”

“Today’s announcement exposes the scope of the Russian government’s influence operations and their reliance on cutting-edge AI to sow disinformation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Companies operating at the direction of the Russian government created websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.  By seizing these websites, the FBI is making clear to the world what they are, Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society.  The FBI will continue to work with our partners to expose and shutdown these covert influence campaigns.”

“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s announcement reveals Russia is willing to impersonate our free and open press in its egregious schemes. This is our third disruption of Russian foreign malign influence operations in two months, and the Justice Department remains relentless in protecting Americans from such unacceptable conduct. To Russia, and any other government seeking to stoke discord in our society: know that we will spare no effort and use every available tool to disrupt and expose this malign activity and defend our democratic institutions.”

“Protecting our democratic processes from foreign malign influence is paramount to ensure enduring public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “As America’s adversaries continue to spew propaganda and disinformation towards the American electorate, we’ll use every tool at our disposal to expose and dismantle their insidious foreign influence campaigns.”

The propaganda did not identify, and in fact purposefully obfuscated, the Russian government or its agents as the source of the content. The perpetrators extensively utilized “cybersquatted” domains, a method of registering a domain intended to mimic another person or company’s website ( e.g. , registering washingtonpost.pm to mimic washingtonpost.com ), to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate news media organizations. In other instances, the perpetrators sought to create their own unique media brands to promote Doppelganger content ( e.g. , Recent Reliable News). Among the methods Doppelganger used to drive viewership to the cybersquatted and unique media domains was the deployment of “influencers” worldwide, paid social media advertisements (in some cases created using artificial intelligence tools), and the creation of social media profiles posing as U.S. (or other non-Russian) citizens to post comments on social media platforms with links to the cybersquatted domains, all of which attempted to trick viewers into believing they were being directed to a legitimate news media outlet’s website.

The affidavit describes the perpetrators’ own internal strategy meeting notes, project proposals, and other records obtained during the course of the investigation. Several notable propaganda project proposals directed against the United States included:

• Good Old USA Project: Attachments 8A, 8B
• The Guerilla Media Campaign: Attachments 9A, 9B
• U.S. Social Media Influencers Network Project: Attachments 10A, 10B

Doppelganger’s foreign malign influence efforts were not directed solely against audiences in the United States. Other targets of the perpetrators’ propaganda included Germany, Mexico, and Israel, among others. Doppelganger’s influence campaigns sought to influence the citizenry of those countries to support Russian government objectives, including by undermining the United States’ relationship with those countries.

Doppelganger’s use of the U.S.-based domain names at the direction and control of, and for the benefit of, sanctioned persons, including Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, SDA, and Structura, violates the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). As a result, the accompanying payments for Doppelganger’s online infrastructure violate federal money laundering laws. In addition, Doppelganger’s publication of content on cybersquatted domains with names and content that mimic legitimate media outlets violates federal criminal trademark laws because those domains feature trademarks registered on the Principal Register maintained by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The FBI Philadelphia Field Office is investigating the case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

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Carnival Venezia cruise ship review: What to expect on board

Carnival Venezia is the Carnival ship you book in lieu of a trip to The Venetian in Las Vegas — or maybe the Italy area of Epcot at Disney World.

From a real gondola "sailing" down the middle of its main dining room to a pool deck built to look like a Venetian boulevard, Carnival Venezia boasts a Venice-themed design that makes you feel like you've stolen away to the iconic Italian destination. The theming carries through to just about everything on board, from the handmade Italian gelato on offer at JavaBlue Cafe to the Italian liqueur-infused concoctions found at many bars.

Like all Carnival ships, Carnival Venezia is a vessel aimed at travelers looking for an affordable, fun and lively cruise vacation. But it's one with an Italian twist — one so strong that you suspect there's a backstory, and indeed there is.

Carnival Venezia was never meant to be in the Carnival fleet. It was originally built for an Italy-based cruise line.

But now that it's part of Carnival, it seems to fit right in.

Overview of Carnival Venezia

Carnival Venezia is the newest ship in the Carnival fleet, having joined the line in May 2023. But, as noted above, it's new with an asterisk. The 4,090-passenger vessel was originally launched in 2019 for a different line — Italy-based Costa Cruises — and is already 3 years old.

Carnival Corporation, which is the parent company of both Costa and Carnival, transferred the ship between the two brands in 2023 due to shifting demand for cruises in the markets where the two lines operate.

This makes Carnival Venezia something of an outlier in the Carnival fleet. While it underwent an overhaul in dry dock to add many of Carnival's signature venues, it retains much of its Costa-aligned, Italian-themed design.

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This includes, notably, many public spaces that offer design nods to the palaces lining Venice's Grand Canal. (Venice is the inspiration for much of the ship's theming.) It also still boasts its original and distinctive yellow-and-blue Costa funnel (there's no Carnival "whale tail" on this ship).

In short, Carnival Venezia combines elements of both Costa and Carnival ships — enough so that Carnival originally planned to call the ship a "Costa by Carnival" product to differentiate it from the rest of the Carnival fleet. Carnival has since switched to marketing Carnival Venezia as a vessel that offers "Carnival Fun Italian Style."

All that said, as I saw in late May while sailing on Carnival Venezia's first voyage under the Carnival banner, it's a ship on which Carnival fans will probably feel right at home, despite its Costa roots. The Carnival and Costa brands have many similarities, and their ships are often built on the same platforms. While Carnival Venezia is considered a "Venezia-class" ship, it shares the same basic structural design and layout as Carnival's three Vista-class vessels ( Carnival Panorama , Carnival Horizon and Carnival Vista). If you've been on those ships, you'll find the ship's flow and location for venues strikingly familiar.

As is typical of Carnival (and Costa) ships, Carnival Venezia is an affordable, fun-focused vessel aimed at budget-minded vacationers looking to let loose and have a good time. It's loaded with eateries, bars, showrooms and lots of upper-deck activity zones, including pool areas, a water park, a ropes course and a sports court.

What I loved about Carnival Venezia

Fun ship vibe.

Carnival Venezia may not be the fanciest cruise ship afloat. You won't dine on foie gras and caviar or sleep on 1,000-thread-count sheets. But few vessels have such a fun vibe.

I loved that I could careen down a ripping waterslide, scramble across ropes more than 100 feet above the sea, practice my putting on a minigolf course and soak in a hot tub, all in advance of a night of bar-hopping, live music and not-for-your-kids late-night comedy.

This is true of pretty much every Carnival vessel, of course. This is the Fun Ship line, after all. But that doesn't make it any less true for Carnival Venezia. It's hard not to have a good time on this ship.

Italian theming

The Italian theming on Carnival Venezia was so strong when Carnival took over the ship from Italy-based Costa that, instead of stripping it away, Carnival chose to lean into it. When it sent the ship into dry dock in 2023 to become Carnivalized, the biggest new thing it added from scratch was ... a high-end Italian restaurant.

It also doubled down on the Italian vibe with new Italy-themed drinks at multiple bars, including the new Italian liqueur-focused Amari bar. The captain's reception is themed as a Venetian masked ball, with the crew handing out Venetian masks for passengers to wear.

The theming is a little over-the-top in places. The golden lion of St. Mark, a symbol of Venice, looming over the ship's central atrium on a giant faux-marble column sets the tone. But I found it wonderful in the way that Las Vegas resorts can be wonderful.

Carnival Venezia is a make-believe zone that whisks you away from your mundane, everyday life. There's no mistaking you are on vacation here — if not in Italy, at least in a faux version of Italy. Be warned, Venetian Resort. You have new competition.

Carnival has jumped into the mixology craze in a big way with Carnival Venezia — but with an Italian twist. At many of its main bars, you'll find creative concoctions made with unusual Italian liqueurs and bitters that you probably didn't know existed.

In the name of research, I ordered up one oddball creation after another at the Italy-themed Amari bar, from the Bitter Guiseppe (a Manhattan-like drink infused with Cynar, an Italian bitter aperitif) to an Amalfi Martini made with Italy-made limoncello and limoncino — and, for the most part, loved them.

Related: Why the coolest new bar in North America may be on a Carnival ship

For the Middle America crowd that is a mainstay on Carnival ships, the cocktails are a fun and playful diversion from the typical pre-dinner drink routine typically centered on ho-hum concoctions like vodka tonics and American light lagers. When in Rome (or fake Venice), as they say.

What I didn't love about Carnival Venezia

The lido pool.

As noted above, Carnival Venezia was originally built for Italy-based Costa. But it was a Costa ship designed for a specific group of travelers: residents of China. The ship was originally to sail in Asia for the Chinese market, offering Chinese travelers a taste of cruising Italian style. The result is that it has one of the most convoluted main pool decks that I have ever seen — one that would have worked for the Chinese market but is flawed for an American crowd.

Specifically, the pool area has little open-to-the-sky lounge space for sunbathing. This was by design, as Chinese travelers, in general, do not sunbathe. They prefer to be shielded from the sun, and that sort of environment is what Costa delivered around the ship's main pool.

The Lido pool, as it's called, is surrounded by Venetian villa-themed "buildings" that house lots of covered lounge and eating areas — places you can sit and have a coffee covered from the sun (the area has an unusually large coffee bar for a Carnival ship, the JavaBlue Cafe) or scarf down a burger from the nearby Guy's Burger Joint. There are two full decks of these covered, sunless areas around the pool, and if that weren't enough, the area is topped with a glass magradome that can be closed to completely shield the area from the elements.

Even when left open, this magradome has enough apparatus associated with it that it noticeably eats away at the space available for sunning, though to be fair there is quite a bit of sunning space with lounge chairs at other areas of the ship's top deck.

The cabin service

It's not entirely fair to judge any part of a ship's service based on its first sailing when the crew is still getting used to each other and the layout and procedures of a new vessel. That said, it's fair to say that service provided by cabin attendants in general on Carnival ships isn't quite what it used to be as the line cuts costs — something that will be true for Carnival Venezia six months from now as much as it is today.

My visit to Carnival Venezia in late May marked the first time I had sailed on Carnival since the line reduced cleaning service for cabins to just once a day from twice a day, which happened in 2022. Given the low price point of the typical Carnival cruise, it's hard to argue that one should expect twice-a-day room cleaning. Still, this was always one of the big wows that set Carnival (and other cruise lines) apart from similarly priced land-based resorts. You got a room steward who seemingly was always there, keeping your room spick-and-span.

I met my room steward in passing in the hallway, and he seemed pleasant enough. But I didn't feel the connection with him that I have in the past with some Carnival room stewards. And perhaps because I had my "Snoozin" do-not-disturb sign out a bit while working in my room, I went a full day and night at one point without my room being cleaned at all, which is something that never used to happen in the old days of twice-daily service.

Carnival Venezia cabins and suites

Carnival Venezia has 32 cabin and suite categories — a daunting number. But finding the right cabin category for you isn't as complicated as that number might make it seem. Many cabin categories on Carnival Venezia are essentially the same, with the exception of where the rooms are located.

My cabin was a cove balcony cabin. Near the bottom of the ship on Deck 2, these are the least expensive balcony cabins on Carnival Venezia, in part because they have balconies that aren't quite as open and light-filled as standard balcony rooms. Because they are near the ship's waterline, the balconies are built with more protective steel than is normal, creating a somewhat enclosed "cove" effect.

Other than that, cove balcony cabins (of which there are 110) are identical to the far more common standard balcony cabins that account for the greatest segment of Carnival Venezia accommodations (794 out of 2,045 cabins), all of which are located much higher on the ship.

Both standard balcony cabins and cove balcony cabins have the same interior space (185 square feet) with identical furnishings — a queen bed that can be split into two single beds; a built-in desk area with a miniature refrigerator; a seating area with a sofa and small table; built-in closets; and a bathroom.

Cove balcony cabins are priced a little lower than standard balcony cabins because, in theory, their unusual balcony configurations and low-on-the-ship locations make them less desirable. But to me, the more-enclosed nature of the balcony isn't a major drawback, and the closer-to-the-waterline location of the cabins is a plus, not a minus.

I love lounging on cruise ship balconies that are close to the waterline. You get more of a sense of the ship's movement through the waves and can sometimes spot waterbirds gliding just above the water.

There's a magical connection to the sea that one only gets from staying in a cabin near the waterline. You won't find that when you're lording it over the ship in a high-priced cabin or suite on Deck 12 or 14.

For the most part, I was happy with my cove balcony cabin on Carnival Venezia. Clearly, it won't win any awards for style. Its relatively bland white-and-cream walls and neutral, blue-accented carpeting are designed to fade into the background. The bedding is perfectly adequate for the Carnival price point but nothing memorable, with somewhat cheap-feeling polyester pillows topped with cotton pillowcases.

Still, my cove balcony cabin overall had a bit of an elevated feel compared to cabins on some Carnival vessels, and it ticked all the boxes for a cabin on a budget ship. There was ample storage for two in the floor-to-ceiling built-in closets, which notably were deep enough that my dress jackets and shirts could fit straight in on a hangar without having to be pushed to the side when it came time to close the door — something that isn't always the case even on higher-end ships.

While the nightstands next to the bed were so small and narrow that they seemed like afterthoughts, both did have built-in lamps for reading at night, and one side of the bed was nicely equipped with two USB ports. (Memo to Carnival: In a perfect world, you'd want these on both sides of the bed!)

Two more USB ports are located across the room at the built-in desk area, which also has two U.S.-style 120V plugs, a European-style 230V plug and a completely superfluous and destined-never-to-be-used "type I" 220V plug. I suspect the latter is a throwback to when the ship was scheduled to sail in China. I had to Google it to figure out what the heck it was.

As is typical for Carnival ships, the cabin bathroom is functional, if not particularly stylish or upscale in feel. You won't find marble-topped sinks or elegantly tiled showers with sleek Hansgrohe fixtures at this price point. However, the fiberglass-molded shower space has (just) enough room so you don't hit the wall when soaping, and there is ample storage space for toiletries on three open shelves located on each side of the vanity. (The vanity, it should be noted, has faux Venetian wood cabinetry and a golden mirror, in keeping with the ship's Italian styling.)

My biggest quibble with the bathroom, besides it being eminently bland, is its overall color scheme. It has brown textured fiberglass floors and light yellow walls that I suspect will become dated over time. It already looks a bit dowdy.

On a more positive note, Carnival Venezia is one of the rare Carnival ships that doesn't have air vents carved into cabin doors — something that often makes cabins on Carnival ships less soundproof than cabins on competing lines. This is one area where inheriting a vessel from sister line Costa was an advantage.

Other Carnival Venezia cabin tidbits:

• There are red "Snoozin'" cards to hang on your door when you don't want to be disturbed, which strikes us as a bit of an old-school way to do a do-not -disturb notice. Many cruise lines in recent years have switched to more sophisticated electronic systems that let you push a button inside your room to turn on a do-not-disturb light outside your door.
• Every cabin has a small hair dryer in a drawer in the desk area and a personal safe in the closet.
• There's a flat-screen television on the wall with movies on demand that, in many cases, are free. Carnival normally only charges for some first-run movies at a current rate of $6.99 per movie.

Those who want something a bit more exclusive than a standard or cove balcony cabin can book one of the 77 so-called Terrazza Carnavale cabins at the back of the ship. These rooms come with exclusive access to a private outdoor sunning area with lounge chairs, hot tubs, cabanas and a bar called the Terrazza Carnevale.

In addition, passengers staying in Terrazza Carnevale cabins get exclusive access to daily continental breakfast in the adjacent Carnevale Lounge; a specially curated brunch on select sea days, with a complimentary spritz or mimosa; and a private sailaway event with live music at the Terrazza Carnevale.

There are five types of Terrazza Carnavale cabins, all in the same general area at the back of the ship near the Terrazza Carnevale Lounge area. These include 26 aft-facing cabins across decks 6, 7, 8 and 9 that have extended curving balconies looking out over the back of the vessel and eight so-called Premium Vista balconies at the back corners of the ship that have extremely large, wrap-around balconies.

In addition, this Terazza Carnevale area of the ship has 27 Cabana cabins that have extended "cabana" balcony areas with lounge chairs and hammocks for lounging. Fourteen interior cabins are also part of this exclusive Terrazza Carnevale area.

Passengers must be 12 or older to stay in a Terrazza Carnevale cabin and enter the area's private outdoor lounge.

Carnival Venezia also has 20 suites, all the same in size and amenities. Dubbed the Ocean Suites, these accommodations aren't really suites in the true sense as much as larger-than-normal balcony cabins. Most measure 275 square feet, not including 65-square-foot balconies, and have a single bedroom with a sofa and table across from the bed, plus a larger-than-normal bathroom.

Focused mostly on budget-minded travelers, Carnival has never been known for the wide array of large and pricey suites found on some competing big-ship lines.

Carnival Venezia restaurants and bars

As is typical for Carnival ships, Carnival Venezia is packed with dining options — some included in the fare, some at an extra charge. It's got oodles of bars, too.

The vessel has two main dining rooms and a casual buffet eatery where meals are included in the fare. In addition, you'll find several included-in-the-price quick bite options and five extra-charge eateries serving everything from steaks to sushi.

In general, Carnival cuisine isn't high-end and — given the line's focus on vacations at an affordable price point — it's not meant to be. But Carnival is a line that long has underpromised and over-delivered when it comes to its food offerings, and you may be surprised by what you find.

Restaurants

While I only was on Carnival Venezia for five nights, I was able to hit just about every food outlet on board — something that isn't easy given how many there are. On a typical seven-night cruise, you'll have enough options to never get bored.

It's a good idea to make reservations for the ship's five specialty restaurants as soon as you can, as they tend to fill up quickly.

The biggest eateries on the ship, and the spots where you'll eat at least a few, if not most, of your dinners, are its two main restaurants, the Canal Grande Restaurant and Marco Polo Restaurant.

At the back of the vessel and spanning two decks, the Canal Grande Restaurant is the main restaurant for passengers who sign up for Your Time dining — the type of dining where you can show up whenever you want. The smaller Marco Polo Restaurant, at the center of the ship, is reserved for passengers who choose Traditional dining — the type of dining where you sit at a designated table at a fixed time.

As is always the case with Carnival sailings, you choose one or the other type of dining in advance of your cruise, and then you are assigned the appropriate main restaurant. Note that this choice only applies to dinners in these main restaurants. If you want to go to any of the extra-charge eateries, the casual buffet (called Lido Marketplace) or a quick-serve outlet for dinner, you can go whenever you want, no matter whether you've chosen Your Time or Traditional dining. Breakfast and lunch are also open seating during listed hours.

The Canal Grande Restaurant and Marco Polo Restaurant serve the same cuisine, but it is the come-anytime Canal Grande Restaurant, where I ate, that has by far the most spectacular setting — spectacular either in a good or a bad way, depending on your take on over-the-top theming.

Designed to appear like its tables are lining a canal in Venice, the soaring, two-deck-high venue has a real Venetian gondola "floating" in a faux waterway down its center, with faux brick bridges over the canal and a faux blue sky above. To which I say: fabulous. I love it. But, also, I'm half Venetian, so I may be wildly biased.

The dinner menu at the Canal Grande Restaurant typically offers six main courses from a dizzying mix of cuisines — on the night I ate there, the choices included an Asian-inspired sweet and sour shrimp dish, an Italian lasagna plate and a vegetarian Indian platter. Several "from the grill" choices, such as grilled salmon or chicken breast, are available every night.

While it was early days for the eatery when I visited, I found the food quality and delivery all over the map. A calamari fritti appetizer I ordered was so depressing in its appearance, chewy and tasteless as to be almost upsetting. However, my main course of grilled salmon came out perfectly soft and seasoned.

One of my tablemates also had the hilarious situation of ordering a burger for his son where he specified no ketchup or mustard, "just cheese," only to be served a bun with just cheese on it — and no meat. As noted, it's early days, and the crew still is learning.

The Lido Marketplace is Carnival Venezia's included-in-the-fare buffet venue, and it's always buzzing. Carnival fans love their Lido buffets. The venue is at the top of the ship between the main Lido pool and the back-of-the-ship Burano pool. Its decor evokes an outdoor Italian cafe of the sort you'd find in the square of a small Italian village, with faux trees, leaf-lined columns and casual cafe chairs.

At breakfast, the Lido Marketplace offers up all the staples in big trays along the buffet line, including scrambled eggs, eggs Benedict, hard-boiled eggs, pancakes, sausage and bacon. There are made-to-order omelet stations, too. Lunchtime brings a wide variety of options, including a salad bar and a hot sandwich grill turning out grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, Reubens, meatball subs and the like.

Just outside the Lido Marketplace at the back of the ship and steps away from the Burano pool is the ship's pizza-to-go outlet, Pizzeria del Capitano, serving up five pizza options: Margherita, fungi, pepperoni, quattro formaggi and prosciutto. You can order a slice or whole pie at no charge. Covered outdoor seating is available.

A second quick-serve outlet around the Burano pool, the Seafood Shack, serves lobster rolls, fish and chips, New England clam chowder and other classic seafood items for extra charges that seem out of whack with what the typical Carnival customer can afford. The lobster roll, for instance, is $18, and a single crab cake is $15 — prices that seem awfully steep.

On the flip side, an order of fish and chips is only $8, as is a bucket of fried clam strips, which seems more reasonable. Either way, I didn't see many people lining up for items here.

Moving forward to the Lido pool area on the same deck, you'll find two included-in-your-fare, iconic Carnival quick-service outlets. The most jammed, at any time its open, is Guy's Burger Joint, the Guy Fieri-created burger outlet that you'll find on every Carnival ship.

On Carnival Venezia, this eatery has an unusual Italian theme, with the fat-dripping, mouth-watering burgers for which it is known coming in two new Italian-inspired, Guy Fieri-created versions in addition to the classic options. These include a "pepperoni pizza burger" topped with fried mozzarella, pepperoni, marinara, provolone and aged Parmesan and a "super melty mootz" that is slathered in melted mozzarella, diced tomato, balsamic and fried basil. (Mootz, for those of you not in the know, is a slang term sometimes used for mozzarella.)

Don't worry; the classic Plain Jane, Straight Up and The Ringer burgers Fieri created for the wider fleet are also available.

Across from Guy's Burger Joint, the BlueIguana Cantina burrito outlet found in this location on other Carnival ships has been given an Italian twist, too. Renamed Tomodoro, it now serves Italian meatball subs, Sicilian chicken wraps and tortas de Milanese (imagine chicken Milanese turned into a panini) to go — in addition to made-to-order Mexican-style burritos and tacos.

We like it all, but for an outlet this small, the mash-up of Mexican and Italian quick-serve items adds an extra element of choice for customers that can slow down the line. Our advice to Carnival: Go Italian or go Mexican here, but don't try to do both.

The new entrant to Carnival's food scene is Il Viaggio, serving high-end Italian cuisine. With a fixed price of $42 per person, it's one of the priciest eateries on the ship. The restaurant leans into the Italian theming of the vessel with a relatively small, curated menu of Italian specialties such as Tuscan-style sea bass with a Parmesan crust and steak pizzaiola from the Lazio region.

Taking the place of the more casual (and far less pricey) Cucina del Capitano Italian eatery found on other Carnival ships, it served dishes in a hit-or-miss fashion when I visited. To be fair, it was the venue's first night in operation. I was served a mouth-wateringly soft house-made burrata with heirloom tomatoes and pesto as an appetizer, but a grilled octopus appetizer that looked absolutely beautiful on presentation was sadly under-seasoned to the point of having almost no taste.

On the positive side, Il Viaggio turned out a pappardelle with pork ragu as a main course that would have impressed even my Italian grandmother. Alas, my go-to test item for a quality Italian eatery, the cannoli dessert, came out with both shells and fillings that were uninspiring. To paraphrase the Peter Clemenza line from The Godfather , take the pappardelle, leave the cannoli.

Carnival Venezia's priciest eatery is its $48-per-person steakhouse, Fahrenheit 555 —a staple of nearly every Carnival ship. It offers all the steakhouse classics such as New York strip, filet mignon and lobster tail served in a warm and cozy space that retains much of its original Italian theming. Note the golden lion of St. Mark (the symbol of Venice) woven into the carpeting's repeating pattern and a larger lion of St. Mark statue in one corner of the eatery.

Carnival Venezia trivia: While often Italy themed, all the restaurants on the ship originally were designed to serve Chinese cuisine, in keeping with its original focus on the China market. If you look closely, you'll see traditional China motifs worked into the Italian theming, as well as heavy use of the popular-in-China color red (which, by luck, also is a color often found in Italian design — it's on the Italian flag, after all).

The other two major extra-charge eateries on Carnival Venezia are the twin Asia outlets Bonsai Sushi and Bonsai Teppanyaki, just across from each other on Deck 5.

Bonsai Sushi serves its namesake sushi and sashimi, as well as yakitori (grilled meat on skewers), noodle bowls and small plates of such Japanese classics as chicken Katsu and shrimp tempura — all at a la carte prices.

Found on many Carnival ships, Bonsai Sushi has always been one of my favorite Carnival eateries due to a combination of it getting the basics right when it comes to Japanese cuisine (the sushi always is fresh and tasty) and also being relatively reasonably priced. You'll pay $2 per piece for sushi or sashimi (it's a limited menu of shrimp, salmon, yellowfin tuna and amberjack) or $6 to $8 for a sushi roll that is downright huge. Poke bowls, shrimp tempura plates and noodle bowls are also available for just $8. It's hard to run up too big a bill.

Bonsai Teppanyaki is a classic teppanyaki eatery with a cover charge of $35 per person for lunch and $38 per person for dinner. For that price, you'll get starters such as pork belly yakitori and spicy tuna followed by a main course of teppanyaki-style salmon, lobster tail, shrimp, grilled tofu, black cod or filet mignon (or various combinations of these six options). Dessert is a chocolate "bento box" with green tea ice cream.

As is the shtick with teppanyaki eateries everywhere, the main courses here are all cooked in front of you on a steel-topped grill with various hijinks from the chef along the way. If you have the kids in tow, it's a crowd-pleaser. If, like me, you've moved past the age of having young kids and have suffered your fair share of family-friendly dinner shows, it's all a bit tedious.

Either way, the good news is that getting a seat for teppanyaki on Carnival Venezia is a little easier than on most Carnival ships, as there are more teppanyaki tables (four) at the ship's Bonsai Teppanyaki than at similar eateries on other Carnival ships — more fallout of the vessel being built for the China market.

Meanwhile, the food options don't end with the restaurants. An enticing array of extra-charge gourmet cupcakes and doughnuts ($4), cake slices ($6) and cookies ($2.50) are available at JavaBlue Cafe, which is at the top of the ship near the Lido pool. It's also home to fantastic homemade Italian gelato (hey, more of the Italian theming) for $3 a scoop ($5 for two scoops), as well as homemade milkshakes ($6.50) and made-to-order LavAzza espresso drinks that you can get spiked if you so choose.

Carnival Venezia is packed with bars, as is the way with Carnival ships. You won't walk far in any public area without hitting one.

The first one you'll see upon arrival is the St. Mark's Square-themed Atrium Bar, with its giant winged lion of St. Mark lording over it on a pedestal. Sitting at the base of the ship's central atrium, which has the Venice-themed name of Piazza San Marco, the Atrium Bar is right in the middle of everything and bustling at all hours. That's partly because it's a hub for live music — either a singer and pianist, a solo guitarist or a string trio, depending on the time of day.

You can find all your standard mixed drinks here, but its specialties are tropical classics (Bahama Mama, Tequila Sunrise) and martinis.

Fanning out from the top of the atrium on Deck 5, you'll run into a string of additional drinking establishments, each with its own theme.

Perhaps the most unusual is the stylish Amari bar, a new concept for Carnival that serves up specialty cocktails crafted with Italian Amari liqueurs and bitters. Some you would know, such as Aperol and Campari, and some you've probably never tried, such as Zucca, Averna, Cynar, Ramazzoti, Braulio, Montenegro and Nonino.

The curated list includes such unusual yumminess as the Bitter Guiseppe, a rift on a Manhattan made bittersweet with Cynar, vermouth, lemon and bitters. Or try the Negroni Sbagliato, a sparkling variation on the classic Italian cocktail made with Campari, Cinzano 1757 Vermouth di Torino and prosecco sparkling wine. You also can order Amari samplers with a choice of three of the liqueurs and bitters straight up.

Amari essentially replaces the cocktail-serving Alchemy Bar found on most Carnival ships. Fans of that bar will be relieved that Amari also offers a selection of that bar's most popular cocktails.

Just be warned: With so many new-and-unusual-for-Carnival crafty creations at the Amarai bar, you might just blow your drinks budget here if you haven't bought the ship's drinks package.

Just a few steps away from the Amari bar, working your way aft, you'll hit the sleek new Frizzante Bar, located in front of the Il Viaggio Italian restaurant. This bar's specialty is bubbly cocktails, most with an Italian twist. You'll find the classic Aperol Spritz here, as well as versions made with Campari, Amaro Averna and Creme de Cassis. The menu also features Bellinis, Limoncello Mojitos, Negronis and a relatively wide range of whiskeys.

As a nod to the ship's theme, the two beers on tap at Frizzante — Peroni and Birra Moretti — are brought in from Italy.

If you're traveling with one or more people avoiding alcohol, Frizzante Bar and Amari might be your two new favorite Carnival bar venues. Bartenders at both can make some of their iconic specialty drinks with non-alcoholic Lyre's Italian Spritz and Classico sparkling wine. They look and taste like the real thing but without the buzz.

Another Deck 5 favorite is the sprawling Gondola Lounge, which has its own stage and dance floor. It's the site of trivia contests during the day and live music and dancing at night, and its specialty is sangria (available by the glass or pitcher). The pricing for the sangria is a bit over the top for what is supposed to be a low-cost drink. A pitcher will set you back $36.

The Gondola Lounge is another outlet where you can get your daytime caffeine fix as it serves up LavAzza espresso drinks.

The lounge, like the nearby Canal Grande Restaurant, once had a real gondola sprawled out along one wall. It was removed during the overhaul of the ship after it was transferred from Costa to Carnival (my as-yet-unanswered question: Where did that gondola go?).

Two more bars on the same deck (yeah, that's five bars on a single deck!) include the cozy Piano Bar 88, which is part bar, part live piano music venue, and the Carnevale Bar and Lounge (mentioned in passing above). Keeping with the Italian theming, the latter is all about variations on the classic bellini, including an apple cider cucumber bellini, a blood orange bellini and a spicy mango bellini. The Carnevale Bar and Lounge is also the place to get spiked espresso drinks — if infusing yourself with stimulants and depressants at the same time is your thing.

Three additional bars around the top-deck pool areas (Rococo, the Pergola Bar and the Burano Bar) serve all the daiquiris and coladas you can drink, plus just about anything else alcohol-related you'd want to order while lounging by a pool. Our favorite of them all is Rococo, which Costa's designers gave an elaborate Italian palace theme with 1700s-era Rococo paintings on the walls that Carnival's designers subsequently defaced in the most hilarious of ways.

On one painting of a Renaissance woman being given a flower by a suitor, the Carnival designers painted pink sunglasses onto the woman and added a caption that says, "It's all about me." Another painting of two women in 1700era outfits is overwritten with the words "no fun plans tonight ... let's just wing it" and has a blue pigeon with a hat overpainted onto it for good measure.

Carnival Venezia activities and shows

As is typical for Carnival ships, Carnival Venezia is loaded with attractions that appeal to both adults and children, including multiple entertainment venues, a casino, a spa and lots of top-deck fun zones such as a water park and ropes courses.

In addition, you'll find all sorts of other diversions on board throughout the day in various lounge areas, from dance classes to bingo games and sports trivia.

For families, the top decks of the ship are where it's at for daytime fun, starting with a Carnival Waterworks water park that has more slides (three) than almost any other Carnival ship. As a Costa vessel, the water park had two slides, but Carnival jammed in a third during the ship's 2023 overhaul (while, notably, leaving the water park's yellow-and-blue Costa color scheme).

Only Carnival's bigger Mardi Gras and Celebration have as many water slides.

Carnival Waterworks is not far from the ship's main Lido pool, and there's a secondary Burano pool at the back of the vessel. As noted above, in part because it originally was built for the Chinese market, Carnival Venezia doesn't have as much open space with lounge chairs for sunning around the main Lido pool, which could be an issue for the ship when it sails in warm-water locales on itineraries with sea days. On those types of itineraries, lounging space around the main pool comes at a premium.

The Lido pool is, notably, built with a glass magradome that can be opened on sunny days and closed during inclement weather. This will be a plus when the vessel is sailing in colder locations, such as its season of sailings from New York City. But the magrodome eats up valuable real estate that otherwise would allow for more open-air lounge areas.

Other top-deck amusements include such Carnival classics as a ropes course where the challenge is stepping gingerly along ropes and platforms that tower 14 decks above the sea (you're safely roped in at all times, of course). It doesn't look all that scary from below, but — trust me — it's a bit terrifying when you get up there, and your legs go all wobbly trying to make it across a floating-in-the-sky pathway.

There's also a miniature golf course and a sports court that, like seemingly every other sports court at sea, has been newly rigged to allow for pickleball games.

Carnival Venezia's fitness center spans the entire front of deck 12 with epic views over the bow. The line made the space bigger during dry dock because Americans apparently like to exercise while on cruises more than Chinese travelers. A spa with 12 treatment rooms is in the same area, but the ship's hair salon was moved to Deck 5 (at the top of the atrium) to make more room.

In the evening, the ship's two-deck-high, Italian opera house-like Teatro Rosso and the smaller Limelight Lounge are the places for big entertainment. Teatro Rosso is the ship's main theater. Performances here might be an elaborate song-and-dance show with Carnival Venezia's resident performers or a comedy act or game show such as a Carnival version of television's "Family Feud." The Limelight Lounge morphs at night into the Punchliner Comedy Club with family-friendly shows in the early evening and R-rated versions late at night.

The Limelight Lounge also is where you'll find occasional bingo games and shockingly good karaoke contests. Carnival regulars come prepared to sing!

Karaoke may also take place in the Terrazza Carnivale or Gondola lounges.

Carnival Venezia also has a large casino with — and this is unusual — a dedicated room for nonsmokers.

The ship also has multiple fun zones dedicated to children. The heart of the offerings is Camp Ocean, located on Deck 11. It offers free, supervised activities daily for children ages 2 to 11. The line splits children here into three age groups — Penguins (2-5 years), Stingrays (6-8 years) and Sharks (9-11 years). Each group has its own age-appropriate activities ranging from face painting to pirate adventures.

There's also a hangout room called Circle C for tweens and teens ages 12 to 14 and a separate room for the older teen crowd (15 to 17) called Club O2. Both are tucked away at the front of the ship on Deck 3. If you wander toward them, you might come across a succession of no-longer-in-use small rooms built to be private karaoke rooms when the ship was destined for China. If you look closely, you can still make out what would have been the entrance and front desk for the karaoke area, now an oddly abandoned relic of what might have been for this ship.

For adults looking to get away from the kids, meanwhile, the front of the ship's top deck is devoted to an adults-only Serenity outdoor lounge area.

Carnival Venezia itineraries and pricing

Carnival Venezia will sail year-round out of New York through December 2024. After that, it'll move to Port Canaveral, Florida, for sailings to the Caribbean.

The ship's New York itineraries are unusually diverse, with 22 different routings available ranging from four to 15 nights in length. Destinations for the sailings out of New York include the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Bermuda, New England and Canada.

After moving to Port Canaveral, the ship will mostly sail seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages.

As of the publishing of this guide, fares for Carnival Venezia sailings were starting at $309 per person for the least expensive cabin on a four-night Caribbean sailing out of Port Canaveral. Seven-night Canada and New England sailings from New York start at $509 per person. Note that these fares are based on double occupancy and don't include taxes, fees and port changes, which range from around $100 to $250 per person for most sailings.

What to know before you go

Required documents

If you're a U.S. citizen, you'll need a current passport or an official copy of your birth certificate and a driver's license or other government-issued photo identification to sail. A few other forms of identification, such as a passport card, are also acceptable.

Passports must be valid for at least six months. Note that it is important that the name on your reservation be exactly as it is stated on your passport or other official proof of nationality.

Note that these are the rules for round-trip sailings out of U.S. ports of the sort Carnival Venezia will operate from New York and Port Canaveral over the next few years. If the ship eventually moves to another destination, these rules could change.

All this said, we recommend checking Carnival's website before sailing for the latest on requirements.

Carnival adds an automatic service gratuity of $14.50 to $16.50 per person, per day to final bills, depending on the cabin category (children under the age of 2 are exempt). If you are unhappy with the service you receive, you can adjust this amount at the Guest Services desk before disembarking. Also, an 18% gratuity is added to bar bills and the cover charge of the Chef's Table.

Wi-Fi service on Carnival Venezia is fast for a cruise ship. Carnival Venezia is one of a growing number of cruise vessels tapping into the new, super-fast Starlink satellite internet system developed by SpaceX, which has been revolutionizing internet speeds on ships.

However, you'll pay a hefty premium to experience the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available on Carnival Venezia. On my sailing, the fastest "premium" service on the ship, which allowed for video streaming, was priced at $30 per person for a 24-hour pass. A full-cruise pass for the 15-night voyage cost $330 per person — or $22 a day.

Carnival Venezia also offers a less expensive "social" plan that only allows access to key social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and messaging services such as WhatsApp. On my sailing, it was only available if bought for the entire cruise and cost $225 per person — or $15 per day.

A slightly more expensive "value" plan was also available at $22 per 24-hour period or $300 per cruise. The value plan adds access to email and most websites. Passengers who pay for a plan before sailing typically receive a discount.

Carry-on drinks policy

You can bring one bottle of wine or Champagne per person onto Carnival Venezia at boarding plus up to a dozen standard cans or cartons of nonalcoholic drinks such as sodas.

Nonalcoholic drinks in glass or plastic bottles are not allowed. You'll be charged a $15 corkage fee if you want to bring your own wine or Champagne to an onboard restaurant or bar to drink. Drinks brought on board must be carried in your carry-on luggage.

Smoking policy

Cigarette smoking (including electronic cigarettes and personal vaporizers) is only allowed outdoors in designated areas on Deck 5 forward (starboard side) and Deck 11 aft (starboard side) and in the casino. You cannot smoke in the casino unless you are seated and playing; smoking is not allowed at the casino bar or in the entire casino area when the casino is closed.

Smoking is forbidden in cabins and on cabin balconies.

Cigar and tobacco pipe smoking is only permitted at the outdoor smoking area on Deck 11 aft (starboard side).

Unlike most Carnival ships, Carnival Venezia does not have self-serve launderettes on cabin decks with washing machines, dryers, irons and ironing boards. You can pay to send out your clothes to be washed and/or pressed. As of the publishing of this guide, the cost for washing and pressing a dress shirt or blouse was $6; the cost for cleaning trousers was $6.50.

Electrical outlets

Carnival Venezia's cabins and suites offer USB ports next to beds. You'll find both U.S. 110V and European 230V outlets, as well as additional USB ports at built-in cabin desks. Americans may want to bring an adapter for charging devices in public rooms where the outlets are all European-style.

The onboard currency is the U.S. dollar.

As is typical for cruise ships, Carnival Venezia operates on a "cashless system," with any onboard purchases you make posting automatically to your onboard account. You'll receive a Sail & Sign card that you can use to make charges. This same card also gets you into your cabin.

Drinking age

You must be 21 or older to consume alcohol on Carnival Venezia.

During the day, there is no specific dress code, and people dress casually. If it's a sea day in a warm-weather destination, and you're bound for the top deck, that means looking like you're going to the beach. T-shirts, shorts and bathing suits (with a cover-up to go inside) are just fine.

During the evenings, the official dress code is pretty laid-back. Most nights are designated "cruise casual," which means just that — khakis or jeans, polo shirts, sundresses, etc. Super casual items such as cutoff jeans, men's sleeveless shirts, T-shirts and gym shorts aren't permitted.

One or two nights a cruise, there will be a more formal "cruise elegant" night where men are expected to turn out in dress slacks and a dress shirt, preferably with a sports coat or even in a suit. The suggested attire for women on such nights is cocktail dresses, pantsuits, elegant skirts and blouses.

Related: The ultimate guide to packing for a cruise

Bottom line

Carnival Venezia is an affordable ship that will appeal to a wide range of vacationers including families, couples and friends groups looking for fun in a not-too-fancy, not-too-pretentious setting. It has a distinctively Italian vibe because it was originally built for Italy-based Costa Cruises, a sister brand to Carnival. But Carnival fans will find all of their favorite venues on board, thanks to updates to the vessel since it joined the Carnival fleet.

If anything, Carnival Venezia has a classier look than some Carnival ships, particularly the line's older vessels. We found its Italian theming fun in a way that will fit right into the fun-focused Carnival fleet, and its new Italy-themed venues (Il Viaggio, Amari bar) are an upgrade for Carnival in our eyes.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

• The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
• A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
• The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
• The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise
• A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
• 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
• 15 ways cruisers waste money
• The ultimate guide to choosing a cruise ship cabin

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Trump Reposts Crude Sexual Remark About Harris on Truth Social

Though the former president has a history of making crass insults about opponents, the reposts signal his willingness to continue to shatter longstanding political norms.

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By Michael Gold

• Aug. 28, 2024

Former President Donald J. Trump used his social-media website on Wednesday to amplify a crude remark about Vice President Kamala Harris that suggested Ms. Harris traded sexual favors to help her political career.

The post, by another user on Truth Social, was an image of Ms. Harris and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s opponent in 2016. The text read: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”

The remark was a reference to Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and a right-wing contention that Ms. Harris’s romantic relationship with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco whom she dated in the mid-1990s while he was speaker of the California State Assembly, fueled her political rise.

Mr. Trump’s repost was the second time in 10 days that the former president shared content from his personal account making sexually oriented attacks on Ms. Harris. Though he has a history of making crass insults about his opponents, the reposts signal Mr. Trump’s willingness to continue to shatter longstanding norms of political speech.

The image Mr. Trump shared on Wednesday morning was another user’s screenshot of a post on X, and it was a reply to an unrelated video clip Mr. Trump had posted on Tuesday night.

Mr. Trump reposted the image as part of a series of 30 reposts he made on Truth Social between 8:02 and 8:32 a.m. on Wednesday, including several posts with references to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement and its slogan. Mr. Trump also reposted photos that called for the prosecution or imprisoning of top Democrats and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The former president has vowed to direct federal prosecutors to investigate his political enemies if elected.

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• NEWS EXPLAINER
• 28 August 2024

Mpox is spreading rapidly. Here are the questions researchers are racing to answer

• Sara Reardon

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You have full access to this article via your institution.

Monkeypox virus particles (shown in this coloured electron micrograph) can spread through close contact with people and animals. Credit: NIAID/Science Photo Library

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public-health emergency over mpox earlier this month , it was because a concerning form of the virus that causes the disease had spread to multiple African countries where it had never been seen before. Since then, two people travelling to Africa — one from Sweden and one from Thailand — have become infected with that type of virus, called clade Ib, and brought it back to their countries.

Monkeypox virus: dangerous strain gains ability to spread through sex, new data suggest

Although researchers have known about the current outbreak since late last year, the need for answers about it is now more pressing than ever. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has spent decades grappling with monkeypox clade I virus — the lineage to which Ib belongs. But in the past, clade I infections usually arose when a person came into contact with wild animals, and outbreaks would fizzle out.

Clade Ib seems to be different, and is spreading largely through contact between humans, including through sex . Around 18,000 suspected cases of mpox, many of them among children, and at least 600 deaths potentially attributable to the disease have been reported this year in the DRC alone.

How does this emergency compare with one declared in 2022, when mpox cases spread around the globe? How is this virus behaving compared with the version that triggered that outbreak, a type called clade II? And will Africa be able to rein this one in? Nature talks to researchers about information they are rushing to gather.

Is clade Ib more deadly than the other virus types?

It’s hard to determine, says Jason Kindrachuk, a virologist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He says that the DRC is experiencing two outbreaks simultaneously. The clade I virus, which has been endemic in forested regions of the DRC for decades, circulates in rural regions, where people get it from animals. That clade was renamed Ia after the discovery of clade Ib. Studies in animals suggest that clade I is deadlier than clade II 1 — but Kindrachuk says that it’s hard to speculate on what that means for humans at this point.

Even when not fatal, mpox can trigger fevers, aches and painful fluid-filled skin lesions.

Growing mpox outbreak prompts WHO to declare global health emergency

Although many reports state that 10% of clade I infections in humans are fatal, infectious-disease researcher Laurens Liesenborghs at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, doubts that this figure is accurate. Even the WHO’s latest estimate of a 3.5% fatality rate for people with mpox in the DRC might be high.

There are many reasons that fatality estimates might be unreliable, Liesenborghs says. For one, surveillance data capture only the most severe cases; many people who are less ill might not seek care at hospitals or through physicians, so their infections go unreported.

Another factor that can confound fatality rates is a secondary health condition. For example, people living with HIV — who can represent a large proportion of the population in many African countries — die from mpox at twice the rate of the general population 2 , especially if their HIV is untreated. And the relatively high death rate among children under age 5 could be partly because of malnutrition, which is common among kids in rural parts of the DRC, Liesenborghs says.

Is clade Ib more transmissible than other types?

The clade Ib virus has garnered particular attention because epidemiological data suggest that it transmits more readily between people than previous strains did, including through sexual activity, whereas clade Ia mostly comes from animals. An analysis posted ahead of peer review on the preprint server medRxiv 3 shows that clade Ib’s genome contains genetic mutations that seem to have been induced by the human immune system, suggesting that it has been in humans for some time. Clade Ia genomes have fewer of these mutations.

But Liesenborghs says that the mutations and clades might not be the most important factor in understanding how monkeypox virus spreads. Although distinguishing Ia from Ib is useful in tracking the disease, he says, the severity and transmissibility of the disease could be affected more by the region where the virus is circulating and the people there. Clade Ia, for instance, seems to be more common in sparsely populated rural regions where it is less likely to spread far. Clade Ib is cropping up in densely populated areas and spreading more readily.

Jean Nachega, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, says that scientists don’t understand many aspects of mpox transmission — they haven’t even determined which animal serves as a reservoir for the virus in the wild, although rodents are able to carry it. “We have to be very humble,” Nachega says.

How effective are vaccines against the clade I virus?

Just as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, health experts are looking to vaccines to help curb this mpox outbreak. Although there are no vaccines designed specifically against the monkeypox virus, there are two vaccines proven to ward off a related poxvirus — the one that causes smallpox. Jynneos, made by biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic in Hellerup, Denmark, contains a type of poxvirus that can’t replicate but can trigger an immune response. LC16m8, made by pharmaceutical company KM Biologics in Kumamoto, Japan, contains a live — but weakened — version of a different poxvirus strain.

Hopes dashed for drug aimed at monkeypox virus spreading in Africa

Still, it’s unclear how effective these smallpox vaccines are against mpox generally. Dimie Ogoina, an infectious-disease specialist at Niger Delta University in Wilberforce Island, Nigeria, points out that vaccines have been tested only against clade II virus in European and US populations, because these shots were distributed by wealthy nations during the 2022 global outbreak . And those recipients were primarily young, healthy men who have sex with men, a population that was particularly susceptible during that outbreak. One study in the United States found that one dose of Jynneos was 80% effective at preventing the disease in at-risk people, whereas two doses were 82% effective 4 ; the WHO recommends getting both jabs.

People in Africa infected with either the clade Ia or Ib virus — especially children and those with compromised immune systems — might respond differently. However, one study in the DRC found that the Jynneos vaccine generally raised antibodies against mpox in about 1,000 health-care workers who received it 5 .

But researchers are trying to fill in some data gaps. A team in the DRC is about to launch a clinical trial of Jynneos in people who have come into close contact with the monkeypox virus — but have not shown symptoms — to see whether it can prevent future infection, or improve outcomes if an infection arises.

Will the vaccines help to rein in the latest outbreak?

Mpox vaccines have been largely unavailable in Africa, but several wealthy countries have pledged to donate doses to the DRC and other affected African nations. The United States has offered 50,000 Jynneos doses from its national stockpile, and the European Union has ordered 175,000, with individual member countries pledging extra doses. Bavarian Nordic has also added another 40,000. Japan has offered 3.5 million doses of LC16m8 — for which only one jab is recommended instead of two.

Monkeypox in Africa: the science the world ignored

None of them have arrived yet, though, says Espoir Bwenge Malembaka, an epidemiologist at the Catholic University of Bukavu in the DRC. Low- and middle-income nations cannot receive vaccines until the WHO has deemed the jabs safe and effective. And the WHO has not given its thumbs up yet. It is evaluating data from vaccine manufacturers, delaying donors’ ability to send the vaccines.

Even when the vaccines arrive, Bwenge Malembaka says, “it’s really a drop in the bucket”. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, estimates that 10 million doses are needed to rein in the outbreak.

Bwenge Malembaka says that the uncertainty over vaccine arrival has made it difficult for the government to form a distribution plan. “I don’t know how one can go about this kind of challenge,” he says. Bwenge Malembaka suspects that children are likely to receive doses first, because they are highly vulnerable to clade I, but officials haven’t decided which regions to target. It’s also unclear how the government would prioritize other vulnerable populations such as sex workers, who have been affected by clade Ib. Their profession is criminalized in the DRC, so they might not be able to come forward for treatment.

Researchers lament that public-health organizations didn’t provide vaccines and other resources as soon as the clade I outbreak was identified, especially given lessons learnt from the 2022 global mpox outbreak. “The opportunity was there a couple months ago to cut this transmission chain, but resources weren’t available,” Liesenborghs says. “Now, it will be more challenging to tackle this outbreak, and the population at risk is much broader.”

Nature 633 , 16-17 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02793-9

Americo, J. L., Earl, P. L. & Moss, B. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 120 , e2220415120 (2023).

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