# Present Markdown. Ship Nothing Else
You wrote your slides in an `.md` file.
You have one dependency.
You typed `deck0 presentation.md`.
You are already presenting.
*That's it. That's the whole thing.*
## Why does this exist?
Because life is too short to right-click → Insert New Slide.
DECK
## The PowerPoint Tax
Every PowerPoint presentation costs you something:
- 🧠 **Cognitive overhead** — Did I align that text box? Is this font consistent? Why is there a random shadow?
- ⏳ **Time** — 40 minutes of content. 3 hours of formatting.
- 💾 **File size** — A 5-slide deck somehow weighs 14 MB.
- 🔒 **Lock-in** — `.pptx` is readable by… PowerPoint. And sometimes LibreOffice. And sometimes neither.
- 😰 **The animation panel** — You opened it once. You closed it. You opened it again. You regret everything.
> [!WARNING]
> PowerPoint's "Presenter View" has a 12% chance of catastrophically failing the moment you plug in a projector.
The alternative? **A text file.**
## reveal.js — We Respect the Hustle, But…
reveal.js is genuinely impressive. It's also a framework.
- Requires a Node project scaffold
- `npm install` pulls in **hundreds** of packages
- Customising styles means fighting with its existing CSS
- Built-in themes look like 2014 conference slides
- Still need to write HTML if you want full control
- `data-markdown` is a workaround inside a workaround
```html
```
> [!NOTE]
> If you need speaker notes, multiplexer support, and a PDF export pipeline — use reveal.js. No shame. DECK0 is for humans who just want to *present*.
## Tables
GFM tables — pipe syntax, column alignment, rendered live:
| Language | Paradigm | `deck0` syntax highlight | First appeared |
| :--------- | :--------------- | :----------------------: | -------------: |
| JavaScript | Multi-paradigm | ✅ | 1995 |
| Rust | Systems | ✅ | 2010 |
| Python | Multi-paradigm | ✅ | 1991 |
| Go | Concurrent / CSP | ✅ | 2009 |
| SQL | Declarative | ✅ | 1974 |
## Code Syntax Highlighting
Fenced code blocks via **highlight.js** — 190+ languages, GitHub dark theme:
```javascript
// deck0.js — serve a markdown file as a slide deck
import { createServer } from "http";
import { marked } from "marked";
const slides = marked.parse(src).split(/(?=])/i);
createServer((req, res) => {
res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/html; charset=utf-8" });
res.end(buildHtml(slides));
}).listen(33000);
```
## Callouts
GFM blockquote alerts — rendered as styled callout panels:
> [!NOTE]
> Rendered from a standard `> [!NOTE]` blockquote — no custom syntax.
> [!TIP]
> Works in GitHub README files too, so your slides and docs share the same idiom.
> [!WARNING]
> Do not open the PowerPoint animation panel. There is no coming back.
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Your content is a plain `.md` file. It lives in your repo. It diffs. It PRs. It ships.
## Images
Standard Markdown image syntax — local files served by deck0, remote URLs loaded directly by the browser:
```markdown
```
## Mermaid Diagrams
```mermaid
flowchart TD
A([🤔 Need to give a talk?]) --> B{Got time to fight\nslide software?}
B -->|Sure, I love pain| C[PowerPoint\n😰 14 MB of regret]
B -->|Absolutely not| D{Need speaker notes,\nPDF export, or\nfancy animations?}
D -->|Yeah, actually| E[reveal.js\n📦 npm install && pray]
D -->|Nope, just slides| F([✅ npx @tforster/deck0 talk.md])
style F fill:#238636,color:#ffffff,stroke:#2ea043
style C fill:#6e2020,color:#ffffff,stroke:#f85149
style E fill:#3d3d00,color:#ffffff,stroke:#d29922
```
## Feature Face-Off
| Feature | PowerPoint | reveal.js | **DECK0** |
| --------------------------- | :--------: | :-------: | :-------: |
| Write in plain text | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Use local and remote images | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| One dependency | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Zero config | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Works offline | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Version-controllable | 😬 | ✅ | ✅ |
| `npx` it and go | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| GFM tables | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Callouts | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Syntax highlighting | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mermaid diagrams | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Inline HTML + styles | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Open format | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| File size overhead | 14 MB | ~6.5 MB | ~17 KB |
> [!TIP]
> DECK0 scores the win column in every row that matters for a quick technical presentation.
Includes Mermaid runtime for offline diagram support
## You're Already Done
Here's your entire workflow:
```markdown
# My Presentation
## Slide One
Your content here.
## Slide Two
More content.
## Slide Three
Done.
```
Run it:
```bash
npx @tforster/deck0 my-talk.md
```
Powered by three open source leaders in their respective fields —
[marked](https://github.com/markedjs/marked) for Markdown parsing,
[highlight.js](https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js) for syntax highlighting, and
[mermaid](https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid) for diagrams —
delivered via a Node HTTP server with pure CSS transitions.
No build step. No config file. No `.gitignore` full of shame.
> [!IMPORTANT]
> DECK0 is a **tool**, not a framework. It gets out of your way so you can focus on what you're actually saying.
**Navigate:** `←` `→` or `Space` / `Backspace` or **click** / **right-click**
**Quit:** `Esc`
*Now go give that talk.*