# Presentations > Use when building, theming, or exporting a presentation deck — pitch, sales, keynote, board/QBR, leave-behind one-pager — from slide structure to a token-based theme to PDF or editable PPTX (Marp, Slidev, python-pptx). NOT the words (that is `marketing`), NOT the visual tokens (that is `design`), NOT the investor story arc (that is `pitch-deck`). - Skill: `ericrisco/presentations` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 9 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ericrisco/presentations` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ericrisco/presentations/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: ericrisco (https://skillmd.com/u/ericrisco) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ericrisco/presentations --- # Presentations — Stunning, On-Brand Decks (PDF + PPTX) > Two first-class pipelines, one decision. Design-led Markdown decks (Marp/Slidev) for a deck that > *flipa* and exports clean to PDF **and** PPTX, or native editable PowerPoint via `python-pptx` > when the user must hand off a `.pptx` people will edit in PowerPoint/Keynote/Google Slides. > The deck owns *structure, visual system, and export*. The **words** are `marketing`'s job; the > **visual tokens** are `design`'s. This skill orchestrates all three into a finished deck. Also out of scope: a web-native, scroll/animation-heavy **landing page** (that is `../design/SKILL.md` + `../nextjs/SKILL.md`); a **video / motion explainer** as the deliverable — this skill uses motion only as restrained slide transitions and builds, never as the medium; and the live financial *model* behind an investor deck — this skill renders the slides and cites the model as the source of truth. ## Brand grounding (gate — clears before the first headline) **Never produce deck copy or a deck narrative without a complete brand study.** A deck is the brand on stage: generic slides read as "another AI deck" the moment they hit the projector, and the only cure is grounding every headline, claim, and tone choice in a real, persisted brand profile. This is the same gate `marketing` and `design` enforce — decks share the study, they do not fork it. 1. **Locate the brand study.** Read the project's root `CLAUDE.md` for a `## Brand & voice` section linking into `02-DOCS/wiki/brand/` (the `harness` Karpathy-wiki convention: compiled brand articles under `02-DOCS/wiki/brand/`, raw inputs the user pastes under `02-DOCS/raw/brand/`). No `CLAUDE.md`, no link, or a link that points nowhere = ABSENT. 2. **Check completeness** against the checklist in `references/brand-grounding.md` — it extends the shared brand checklist with **deck-specific** dimensions: deck purpose, audience & setting, length, presenter-vs-leave-behind, and must-include slides. Any empty dimension = INCOMPLETE. 3. **If ABSENT or INCOMPLETE, STOP and interview the user** — one focused batch at a time, never all questions at once. Voice samples are mandatory; never fabricate a voice. Then persist: write/update the brand study under `02-DOCS/wiki/brand/` (raw inputs verbatim under `02-DOCS/raw/brand/`), and add/update the `## Brand & voice` link in root `CLAUDE.md`. Exact format → `references/brand-grounding.md`. 4. **Only once the study is complete, proceed** — and cite which articles drove the deck (e.g. "narrative grounded in `02-DOCS/wiki/brand/value-proposition.md`, voice in `voice.md`"). Single exception: if the user explicitly says "skip it, rough draft", you may produce a clearly-labelled `DRAFT (ungrounded — not brand-checked)` and still recommend running the gate before it ships. ## Design the message before the pixels A deck is a *communication* artifact, so the design that matters most is the message design. Everything below descends from **audience-centered design** — every choice serves the audience's understanding, not the presenter's comfort. **Plan the message (six questions).** Lock these before storyboarding: (1) who *specifically* is the audience and what do they already know; (2) the ONE main message they remember a week later; (3) the 3–5 supporting points that carry it; (4) the evidence proving each; (5) the single call-to-action; (6) what is essential vs. expandable under time pressure. These feed the deck arc directly: message = thesis, points = beats, CTA = closing ask (→ `references/storytelling-and-decks.md`). **Assertion-evidence is the slide unit.** Each slide = one assertion (a complete claim, written as the title) + the visual evidence that proves it — never a topic label over a bullet list. *"User engagement rose 43% after the redesign"* + a chart, not *"Engagement"* + three bullets. The body proves the headline; it never repeats it. **One concept per slide.** Working memory is small and the audience is also listening to you. If a slide needs two breaths to explain, it's two slides. Reveal sequential parts progressively — build order *is* the explanation — rather than dumping everything at once. **Spoken vs. shown — never both.** The slide and your mouth are two channels; redundancy wastes both. *Show* the assertion, the visual, the number, the next step; *say* the elaboration, the context, the interpretation, the story. Reading slides verbatim is the fastest way to lose a room. Full frameworks — the planning questions, the spoken/shown table, the **1–5 evaluation rubric** (audience-centered / visual clarity / cognitive load / accessibility), the implementation checklist, and the communication anti-patterns — live in `references/slide-design.md`. Score any draft against the rubric (≥ 4 on each axis) before shipping. ## Which pipeline? (decide before building) Pick once, up front — switching mid-build is expensive. | Question | → Markdown deck (Marp/Slidev) | → Native PPTX (python-pptx) | | --- | --- | --- | | Primary deliverable | A **stunning** deck; PDF is the hero, PPTX a bonus | An **editable `.pptx`** people will open and change | | Who edits after handoff | You / engineering, in Markdown + Git | Non-technical stakeholders, in PowerPoint/Keynote/Slides | | Visual ceiling | High — full CSS/HTML, web fonts, CSS grid, gradients, SVG | PowerPoint's box model; native charts/tables/SmartArt-lite | | Theming source | Design tokens → CSS theme (OKLCH, type scale, spacing) | Design tokens → `.pptx` theme (sRGB colors, theme fonts) | | Data viz | SVG / chart libs / images, full control | **Native, editable** PowerPoint charts (live in the file) | | Diffable / reviewable in Git | Yes (Markdown) | No (binary) | | Speaker notes | Yes (`` / `notes:`) | Yes (native notes pane) | | Version control of changes | Excellent | Poor (binary blobs) | **Default to the Markdown pipeline** for anything where "stunning" matters and the user is fine getting a PDF (+ image-based PPTX). **Choose python-pptx** the moment the user says "I need to edit it in PowerPoint", "the client edits the slides", "live charts", or "corporate template `.potx`". When unsure, ask one question: *"After I hand it over, will someone edit the slides in PowerPoint/Keynote, or is a polished PDF enough?"* You can also build in Markdown and additionally export a `--pptx` for handoff — just warn that Marp/Slidev PPTX slides are **images, not editable text** (a key gotcha, see exports). Deep recipes for each → `references/markdown-decks.md` and `references/pptx-python.md`. ## Workflow 1. **Ground in the brand study** (gate above). Pull voice, positioning, proof, audience. 2. **Pick the deck arc** for the purpose (pitch / sales / product / keynote / investor / QBR) from `references/storytelling-and-decks.md`. Lock the one-sentence thesis the whole deck proves. 3. **Write the slide-by-slide skeleton** — one assertion headline per slide + the proof it carries. This is a `marketing` collaboration: headlines are copy. Get the skeleton approved before designing pixels. 4. **Pick the pipeline** (table above). 5. **Build the theme from design tokens** — map the project's OKLCH palette, type scale, and spacing into a Marp/Slidev CSS theme or a python-pptx theme. (→ `references/slide-design.md`, `references/markdown-decks.md`, `references/pptx-python.md`) 6. **Lay out the slides** against the visual system: grid, type scale for projection, data-viz best practices, imagery, contrast, restrained motion. (→ `references/slide-design.md`) 7. **Produce presenter + leave-behind variants** if needed: presenter version is sparse (headline + visual, talk track in notes); leave-behind is self-explanatory (more on-slide text, appendix). (→ `references/storytelling-and-decks.md`) 8. **Export** to PDF (vector, fonts embedded, 16:9) and/or editable PPTX; handle font-embedding and file-size gotchas. (→ `references/markdown-decks.md`, `references/pptx-python.md`) 9. **Verify** with `scripts/verify.sh` (lint deck sources, dry export, import check) and the QA gate below. 10. **Record deck conventions** in `02-DOCS/wiki/stack/presentations.md` (Project grounding, below). ## Worked example — storyboard → theme → export (Markdown pipeline) One end-to-end pass, brand study already complete. Read this once and you rarely need to round-trip the references for a standard Markdown deck. **1. Storyboard the spine** (assertion headlines only — read top-to-bottom, they ARE the pitch; → `references/storytelling-and-decks.md`). Thesis: *"Onboarding v2 is why we can raise now."* ```text 1 Onboarding v2 cut churn 40% (title) 2 One in three users never finished setup (problem — make it ache) 3 We rebuilt the first run as one screen (solution, one visual) 4 Activation rose 28pts in six weeks (proof — chart, one series) 5 TAM is $12B, growing 24%/yr (market, stated assumptions) 6 The ask: $2M to make this the default path (CTA — one ask) ``` **2. Theme from design tokens.** Pull OKLCH palette + type scale from `02-DOCS/wiki/stack/design.md` into a Marp CSS theme (full theme → `references/markdown-decks.md`). The load-bearing move is mapping tokens to variables *once*, never hand-picking hex per slide: ```css /* @theme brand — generated from 02-DOCS/wiki/stack/design.md */ @import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Fraunces:wght@700&family=Inter:wght@400;600&display=swap'); :root { --brand: oklch(0.62 0.19 264); --ink: oklch(0.18 0.03 264); --surface: oklch(0.98 0.005 264); --accent: oklch(0.74 0.17 52); } section { background: var(--surface); color: var(--ink); font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; } h1 { font-family: Fraunces, serif; font-size: 44px; } strong { color: var(--accent); } ``` Write the spine into `deck.md` with `marp: true`, `theme: brand`, `size: 16:9`, talk track in ``. **3. Export to PDF + PPTX** and verify fonts embed (gotchas → `references/markdown-decks.md`): ```bash npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --theme ./theme.css --pdf --pdf-outlines --pdf-notes npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --theme ./theme.css --pptx # image-per-slide; NOT editable text pdffonts deck.pdf # every font must read 'emb yes' ./scripts/verify.sh # lint + dry export + QA checklist ``` If the client will *edit* the slides, this is the wrong pipeline — rebuild with python-pptx (→ `references/pptx-python.md`), whose `build_deck.py` emits the same six slides as native editable shapes/charts. ## Tooling & current versions (verified 2026-06) - **Marp** — `@marp-team/marp-cli`. Run pinned: `npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --pdf`. Exports HTML / PDF / PPTX / PNG / JPEG. Needs a Chromium-family browser (Chrome/Edge) or Firefox for PDF/PPTX/image export (v4 added Firefox via WebDriver BiDi as a fallback; Chrome/Edge are preferred and give the most faithful PDF). `--pptx` is image-per-slide; `--pptx-editable` is **experimental** and needs LibreOffice (`soffice`). `--notes` / a `.txt` output exports speaker notes. Node 18+. (→ `references/markdown-decks.md`) - **Slidev** — `@slidev/cli` (Vue-based). Scaffold `npm init slidev@latest`; dev `slidev`; export `slidev export` (PDF default; `--format pptx|png`). Export needs `playwright-chromium` installed in the project (`npx playwright install chromium` or `npm i -D playwright-chromium`). PPTX is image-per-slide; notes carry over per slide. Best for code-heavy / developer talks (live code, Monaco, Mermaid, Vue components). (→ `references/markdown-decks.md`) - **python-pptx** — `pip install python-pptx` (current major `1.x`, e.g. `1.0.x`). Pure Python, **no** Office/LibreOffice needed to write `.pptx`. Creates masters/layouts, text, tables, **native editable charts**, images, speaker notes. Cannot render to PDF itself — convert via LibreOffice `soffice --headless --convert-to pdf` or open in Office. (→ `references/pptx-python.md`) - **decktape / Playwright** — fallback HTML→PDF for any web deck (reveal.js, custom HTML) when Marp/Slidev export isn't available. (→ `references/markdown-decks.md`) Always pin/verify the version in the target project before generating (`marp --version`, `npx slidev --version`, `python -c "import pptx; print(pptx.__version__)"`). Tooling moves; re-check rather than trusting memory. ## Slide copy (with `marketing`) The deck's words are conversion copy on a stage. Defer the *craft* to `../marketing/SKILL.md`; this skill enforces the deck-specific shape: - **Benefit-led, climbing feature → benefit → proof**, stopping at the rung the audience cares about. Specificity (a number, a mechanism, a receipt) beats adjectives — "2× faster" not "blazing fast". - **Two text densities, chosen deliberately:** *presenter* slides carry a headline + one visual + 0–3 support points, with the argument in the speaker notes / your mouth; *leave-behind* slides are self-contained because no one is narrating. Never ship a wall-of-text presenter slide. - **Voice from the brand study.** Headlines obey the do/don't word lists and tone samples. Ban-list words ("revolutionary", "seamless", "game-changer", "supercharge") are defects. ## Visual system for slides (with `design`) The deck's pixels are the brand's design system projected at 3 metres. Defer the *system* to `../design/SKILL.md`; this skill enforces the deck-specific constraints (full depth → `references/slide-design.md`): - **Layout grid** built for 16:9: a 12-column grid, generous margins, one focal point per slide, consistent safe-area so nothing clips on a projector. - **Type scale for projection**, not laptop reading distance: display/headline/body/caption steps, body ≥ 24pt (≥ 28–32pt for talks), ~6 words/line and ~6 lines/slide as a ceiling, contrast ≥ 4.5:1. Never drop below the legibility floor to cram text — split the slide instead. If it doesn't read at 3 metres, it doesn't ship. - **Color from tokens, allocated for a room:** dark themes read better in dark rooms / on big screens, light themes for printed handouts and bright rooms. High contrast always; never rely on color alone to encode meaning. - **Data viz that makes one point:** one chart = one takeaway named in the headline; remove gridlines/clutter; label directly; pre-attentive emphasis (one highlighted bar/line) over rainbow palettes; never a 3-D pie. Every number traces to a source — mark gaps `[[NEEDS PROOF]]`, never fabricate one to fill a chart. - **Imagery** full-bleed and intentional (with a legibility scrim behind text), not stocky decoration; respect resolution so it doesn't pixelate on a 4K projector. - **Motion with restraint:** one transition family, ≤ 300ms, builds that reveal one idea at a time; reduced-motion honored in HTML pipelines. Animation explains sequence/state change, never just fills time. ## Anti-patterns | Anti-pattern | Why it's wrong | Do instead | | --- | --- | --- | | Topic-label headlines ("Market", "Team") | Forces the audience to find the point | Assertion headline that states the point | | Wall of bullets / paragraphs on a slide | Audience reads instead of listening; nothing lands | One idea, ≤ ~6 lines; move detail to notes/appendix | | Reading the slides verbatim | The slide and the talk become redundant | Slide = the visual; you = the narration; notes = the script | | Tiny text to fit more | Unreadable from the back; signals filler | Split into more slides; raise the floor, not lower it | | Hand-picked hex per slide | Drifts off-brand, inconsistent | Map design tokens once into the theme | | Rainbow charts, 3-D pies, dual axes | Decoration over meaning; misleads | One highlighted series; direct labels; honest axes | | Generic stock photos + purple gradient | Reads as "AI deck"; no identity | Brand imagery + token palette + a real type pairing | | Every-element animation, slow transitions | Noise; tanks pacing; nausea | One fast transition family; builds that reveal meaning | | Exporting PPTX from Marp/Slidev and calling it "editable" | Slides are flattened images, not text | Use python-pptx when editability is required | | Fonts not embedded in the PDF | Renders with fallback fonts on other machines | Embed fonts; verify (see exports gotchas) | | Invented metrics to fill a chart | Destroys credibility in the room | Cite the source; mark gaps `[[NEEDS PROOF]]` | ## Quick reference ```bash # --- Markdown: Marp (PDF is the hero; PPTX = images) --- npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --theme ./theme.css --pdf # vector PDF, fonts embedded npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --theme ./theme.css --pdf --pdf-outlines --pdf-notes npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --pptx # image-per-slide PPTX npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --pptx --pptx-editable # experimental, needs soffice npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck.md --notes notes.txt # speaker notes only # --- Markdown: Slidev (code-heavy talks) --- npm init slidev@latest # scaffold npx slidev # dev server (localhost:3030) npx playwright install chromium # one-time, for export npx slidev export # PDF (default) npx slidev export --format pptx # image-per-slide PPTX # --- Native editable PPTX (python-pptx) --- pip install python-pptx python build_deck.py # your generator (see ref) soffice --headless --convert-to pdf deck.pptx # PPTX -> PDF via LibreOffice # --- Fallback: any HTML deck -> PDF --- npx decktape reveal http://localhost:8000 deck.pdf # --- Verify before shipping --- ./scripts/verify.sh # warn-by-default; lint sources + dry export + import check ./scripts/verify.sh --strict # gate CI (warnings become failures) ``` ## Deck QA gate Run before claiming done — each line is a defect if unchecked. `scripts/verify.sh` automates the mechanical subset. - [ ] Brand study located, complete, and cited (which articles grounded the deck). - [ ] One idea per slide; every slide titled with an assertion headline, not a topic label. - [ ] Body text ≥ 24pt (≥ 28–32pt for a talk); ≤ ~6 words/line, ≤ ~6 lines/slide; contrast ≥ 4.5:1. - [ ] Colors / type / spacing come from design tokens, not hand-picked per slide. - [ ] Deck follows a deliberate arc with a single thesis; opens with a hook, closes with the ask/CTA. - [ ] Every number traces to a source; gaps marked `[[NEEDS PROOF]]`, none invented. - [ ] Charts each make one point, named in the headline; no 3-D/rainbow/dual-axis clutter. - [ ] Motion is one restrained family (≤ 300ms); reduced-motion honored (HTML); builds reveal meaning. - [ ] Presenter vs leave-behind variant chosen deliberately; presenter notes hold the talk track. - [ ] 16:9; PDF is vector with fonts embedded; PPTX opens clean in PowerPoint/Keynote/Slides. - [ ] PPTX editability matches the promise (python-pptx if "editable", not flattened Marp/Slidev images). - [ ] File size sane (compressed images, subsetted fonts); ban-list words absent from copy. - [ ] Scored ≥ 4/5 on each axis of the design rubric — audience-centered, visual clarity, cognitive load, accessibility (→ `references/slide-design.md`, "Diagnostic rubric"). ## Project grounding (02-DOCS) In a project with a `02-DOCS/` layer (the [`harness`](../harness/SKILL.md) Karpathy wiki), read `02-DOCS/wiki/stack/presentations.md` first and stay consistent with it; create or refresh it when missing or stale, and index it in `02-DOCS/wiki/index.md`. It records this project's real choices: the chosen pipeline (Marp / Slidev / python-pptx) and why, the theme file path and how it maps the design tokens, the standard deck arc(s), export commands and the canonical output, the presenter-vs-leave-behind convention, and font-embedding / asset-location notes. The deck theme is downstream of the design tokens: always reconcile that article with `02-DOCS/wiki/stack/design.md` so the deck and the product share one palette and type system. No `02-DOCS/` layer? Skip silently (optionally suggest `harness`). Unlike the brand study, deck conventions are *recorded, not gated* — never block the task on this.