Getting started

Install

Go 1.27.2 or later:

go install github.com/go-slides/slides/cmd/slides@latest

slides is one static Go binary with no cgo: nothing else to install, no Node, no Chrome. This page describes v0.9.0.

A first deck

Any Marp deck is one. Save this as talk.md:

---
marp: true
theme: default
paginate: true
footer: "{{ .talk }}"
data:
  talk: Pure Go slides
  topics: [Why, How, Next]
---

<!-- _kind: title -->
# {{ .talk }}

{{ range .topics }}
---

# {{ . }}
{{ end }}

The front matter is Marp’s, plus data:. The body is a Go template: the range writes one slide per topic, each starting with ---, and the first slide is of the built-in kind title (no header, no footer, no page number).

Build it

slides talk.md                 # writes talk.html beside the deck
slides -o slides.html talk.md  # or somewhere else; -o - for standard output

slides with no command is slides build. Flags may come before or after the deck. Open the HTML in a browser; the keyboard moves between slides.

Export images, PDF, PPTX and ODP

slides talk.md --pdf                  # one page per slide, with an outline
slides talk.md --images png           # talk.001.png, talk.002.png, …
slides talk.md --image jpeg           # the first slide only
slides talk.md -o out/slides.pdf      # the extension picks the format; out/ is created
slides talk.md --images jpeg --jpeg-quality 90
slides talk.md --images png --image-scale 2   # 2560×1440 for 16:9
slides talk.md --pdf --allow-local-files      # images from under the deck's directory
slides talk.md --pptx                         # or -o talk.pptx, with notes
slides talk.md --odp                          # or -o talk.odp: the same, as OpenDocument

No browser is involved: go-webengine renders the slides and go-pdfkit writes the PDF. Local images are refused unless --allow-local-files is given. Since v0.5.0 the slides of a PPTX or ODP are editable — text boxes, shapes and pictures, fonts embedded — where marp-cli’s are pictures; --pptx-raster keeps pictures (Editable PPTX and ODP). Since v0.4.0 the PDF is vectors, its text selectable (v0.3.0 wrote one image per page). See Command line.

Expand it

slides expand talk.md

prints the same deck as plain Marp Markdown (output of main at 4ae5c49, 2026-10-18):

---
marp: true
theme: default
paginate: true
footer: "Pure Go slides"
---
<!--
_class: "lead"
_footer: ""
_paginate: "false"
-->


# Pure Go slides


---

# Why

---

# How

---

# Next

The four slides the range generated, the footer with its value, and the title kind replaced by the spot directives it stands for. Anything that reads Marp — marp-cli, the VS Code extension — can take it from there, so nothing written with go-slides' additions is locked in.

Next

• Marp compatibility: what is read the way Marp reads it.
• Templates and Kinds: the two additions.
• Command line: every command and flag.