Paper Deck Style

Paper Deck Style

Overview

Create or extend Paper slide decks in a restrained, premium visual system. Favor whitespace, short copy, one central graphic, and calm composition over dense explanation.

Inspect surrounding slides before editing or adding anything. Match spacing, title scale, footer behavior, and the current section's visual language before introducing new elements.

Workflow

1. Inspect nearby slides and at least one representative screenshot.
2. Identify the slide archetype before designing: overview, modality, explainer, section variant, or prompt -> output.
3. Keep one strong idea per slide.
4. Build one central graphic that carries the meaning.
5. Trim copy until the slide reads in a few seconds.
6. If a slide feels crowded, remove elements before shrinking them.

Core Rules

• Keep everything minimal, spacious, and high-end.
• Use lots of whitespace and avoid crowded layouts.
• Stay on slightly off-white backgrounds.
• Use simple Apple-like typography: large, elegant, clean.
• Prefer one strong idea per slide.
• Show concepts with graphics, UI, and diagrams rather than text-heavy explanation.
• Keep text short and presentation-friendly.
• Make visual flows obvious and easy to scan.
• Use soft, muted accent colors.
• When changing sections, introduce a subtle but clear style shift.
• Keep the overall deck polished, calm, and intentional.

Layout Patterns

Overview

Use a single, simple map of the arc.

• Keep the number of stages low.
• Use one horizontal progression or one clean cluster.
• Avoid busy overview collages.

Modality

Use a title plus one large explanatory graphic.

• Center the graphic in the open middle of the slide.
• Use prompt -> response, input -> output, or source -> synthesis flows.
• Treat the bottom line as a short speaker cue, not body copy.

Explainer

Use one plain-language concept card plus one simple metaphor.

• Good pattern: definition on the left, visual unlocks on the right.
• Avoid jargon unless the slide explicitly teaches it.

Section Variant

Use a restrained style change to signal a new chapter.

• Keep the same overall deck quality.
• Move labels or headers if it creates more space.
• Add a border or inset frame only when it helps distinguish the chapter.

Prompt -> Output

Make the transformation visually explicit.

• Left: prompt, request, or source.
• Middle: system, code, or transformation step.
• Right: rendered output.

Typography and Color

• Use SF Pro Display when available.
• Keep headings large and light enough to feel elegant, not heavy.
• Keep body text sparse and quiet.
• Use black or near-black for key text.
• Use pale blue, sand, green, and lilac as supporting accents.
• Keep contrast soft unless emphasizing a key action or directional arrow.

Paper-Specific Guidance

• Prefer building slides incrementally with small Paper writes.
• Reuse the current deck's spacing and alignments instead of inventing a new grid on every slide.
• Use screenshots when checking whether a slide is too busy or unbalanced.
• On an existing deck, preserve finished slides unless asked to redesign them.

Portability Notes

• Specific to the author's current workflow: the style language targets Paper boards and a minimal keynote-like aesthetic already used in existing decks.
• Reusable: inspect-before-editing, one-idea-per-slide discipline, central-graphic layouts, whitespace-first composition, and screenshot-based visual QA.
• Adapt before reuse: replace Paper-specific mutation tooling, fonts, colors, slide archetypes, and deck style assumptions with the target presentation tool and brand system.

References

Read references/slide-patterns.md when matching or extending the current deck. It summarizes the slide archetypes already used on the Paper board.