prezo 2026.1.3

A TUI-based presentation tool for the terminal, built with Textual.

Prezo

A TUI-based presentation tool for the terminal, built with Textual.

Display presentations written in Markdown using conventions similar to those of MARP or Deckset.

Features

• Markdown presentations - MARP/Deckset format with --- slide separators
• Column layouts - Pandoc-style fenced divs for multi-column slides (::: columns)
• Live reload - Auto-refresh when file changes (1s polling)
• Keyboard navigation - Vim-style keys, arrow keys, and more
• Slide overview - Grid view for quick navigation (o)
• Search - Find slides by content (/)
• Table of contents - Navigate by headings (t)
• Go to slide - Jump to specific slide number (:)
• Presenter notes - Toggle notes panel (p)
• Themes - 6 color schemes (T to cycle): dark, light, dracula, solarized-dark, nord, gruvbox
• Timer/Clock - Elapsed time and countdown (c)
• Edit slides - Open in $EDITOR (e), saves back to source file
• Export - PDF, HTML, PNG, SVG formats with customizable themes and sizes
• Image support - Inline and background images with MARP layout directives (left/right/fit)
• Native image viewing - Press i for full-quality image display (iTerm2/Kitty protocols)
• Blackout/Whiteout - Blank screen modes (b/w)
• Command palette - Quick access to all commands (Ctrl+P)
• Config file - Customizable settings via ~/.config/prezo/config.toml
• Recent files - Tracks recently opened presentations
• Position memory - Remembers last slide position per file

Demo

Installation

pip install prezo

Or with uv:

uv tool install prezo

Usage

# View a presentation
prezo presentation.md

# Disable auto-reload
prezo --no-watch presentation.md

# Use custom config
prezo -c myconfig.toml presentation.md

# Set image rendering mode
prezo --image-mode ascii presentation.md   # Options: auto, kitty, sixel, iterm, ascii, none

# Export to PDF
prezo -e pdf presentation.md

# Export with options
prezo -e pdf presentation.md --theme light --size 100x30 --no-chrome

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
→ / j / Space	Next slide
← / k	Previous slide
Home / g	First slide
End / G	Last slide
:	Go to slide number
/	Search slides
o	Slide overview
t	Table of contents
p	Toggle notes panel
c	Cycle clock display
T	Cycle theme
b	Blackout screen
w	Whiteout screen
i	View image (native quality)
e	Edit in $EDITOR
r	Reload file
Ctrl+P	Command palette
?	Help
q	Quit

Presentation Format

Prezo supports standard Markdown with MARP/Deckset conventions:

---
title: My Presentation
theme: default
---

# First Slide

Content here...

---

# Second Slide

- Bullet points
- Code blocks
- Tables

???
Presenter notes go here (after ???)

---

# Third Slide

::: columns
::: column
**Left Column**
- Point A
- Point B
:::

::: column
**Right Column**
- Point C
- Point D
:::
:::

---

# Fourth Slide

<!-- notes: Alternative notes syntax -->

::: center
**Centered content**
:::

See the Writing Presentations in Markdown tutorial for a complete guide on creating presentations, including column layouts, images, presenter notes, and configuration directives.

Themes

Available themes: dark, light, dracula, solarized-dark, nord, gruvbox

Press T to cycle through themes during presentation.

Export Options

Prezo supports multiple export formats: PDF, HTML, PNG, and SVG.

# PDF export
prezo -e pdf presentation.md                    # Default: 80x24, dark theme
prezo -e pdf presentation.md --theme light      # Light theme (for printing)
prezo -e pdf presentation.md --size 100x30      # Custom dimensions
prezo -e pdf presentation.md --no-chrome        # No window decorations
prezo -e pdf presentation.md -o slides.pdf      # Custom output path

# HTML export (single self-contained file)
prezo -e html presentation.md

# Image export (PNG/SVG)
prezo -e png presentation.md                    # All slides as PNG
prezo -e png presentation.md --slide 3          # Single slide (1-indexed)
prezo -e svg presentation.md --scale 2.0        # SVG with scale factor

PDF/PNG/SVG export requires optional dependencies:

pip install prezo[export]
# or
pip install cairosvg pypdf

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/user/prezo.git
cd prezo
uv sync

# Run
uv run prezo presentation.md

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format .

License

MIT