slides

One markdown file in, a full presentation out. No editor lock-in, no npm install, no fighting with CSS. Just write your talk and present it.

slides is a single Rust binary that turns a .md file into a browser-based presentation with live reload, speaker notes, multi-column layouts, and PDF export.

Editor view

Presentation view

Quick start

# Generate a starter presentation with all syntax examples
slides init

# Preview with live reload
slides serve presentation.md

# Present with speaker notes, timer, and progress
slides present presentation.md

# Visual editor — create slides in the browser, markdown file updates in real time
slides edit presentation.md

# Export
slides export presentation.md -f html -o deck.html
slides export presentation.md -f pdf -o deck.pdf  # requires --features pdf

What you get

• Live preview — saves trigger instant reload in the browser
• Layouts — split columns (:::split 60/40), grids (:::grid 2x2), vertical stacks (:::stack)
• Speaker notes — block (:::notes) or inline (^[note]), shown in presenter mode with a timer
• Fragment reveals — use + as a list marker for items that appear one at a time
• Semantic styling — annotate blocks with {.emphasis}, {.callout}, {.aside} and let the theme handle the rest
• Themes — minimal (light) and dark built-in, customizable via CSS custom properties
• Export — self-contained HTML or PDF via headless Chrome
• Visual editor — slides edit opens a browser-based editor with toolbar, layout selector, and live preview; the .md file updates in real time
• Syntax reference — visit /help in the browser while presenting, or run slides init for a starter deck that exercises every feature

Syntax and usage

• SYNTAX.md — complete reference for the authoring syntax (frontmatter, layouts, speaker notes, fragments, semantic annotations).
• USAGE.md — keyboard shortcuts and CLI commands.
• Running slides serve or slides present? Visit http://localhost:3030/help for the same content rendered in-browser, or http://localhost:3030/syntax.md for the raw markdown.

Install

# One-line install (macOS Apple Silicon / Linux x86_64)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/inhesrom/slides/master/install.sh | bash

# Update to latest
slides update

# Or build from source
cargo install --path .

# With PDF export support
cargo install --path . --features pdf

License

MIT