Terminal-based presentation tools are experiencing growing interest among developers and technical presenters, with presenterm emerging as a notable solution for creating markdown-formatted slideshows that run directly in the terminal. The tool has sparked discussions about the benefits of terminal-based presentations compared to traditional slideshow applications, particularly for technical demonstrations that involve code examples.
Terminal Font Sizing Protocols Spark Discussion
The implementation of larger fonts in terminal-based presentations has become a technical point of interest among users. Kitty terminal's approach to font sizing through its custom protocol (documented at kovidgoyal.net/kitty/text-sizing-protocol/) has generated particular attention. Some users noted that while terminals like Xterm have long supported text sizing through DEC protocol commands for double-height and double-width text, Kitty implements its own approach. This highlights the fragmented nature of terminal standards, with one commenter describing TTY technologies as full of arcane/legacy/defacto standards. Support for these features varies significantly across terminal emulators, with Kitty, iTerm2, and Wezterm offering robust support for presenterm's visual features, while VTE-based terminals face compatibility limitations.
Seamless Code Demonstrations Drive Adoption
A compelling advantage of terminal-based presentations that emerges from community discussions is the seamless transition between slides and live code demonstrations. Users who have adopted presenterm for work presentations highlight the fluid workflow between presentation content and terminal-based development environments.
Being able to seamlessly transition from slides to example code in Vim is really, really nice. No need to jungle multiple windows, just terminal tabs or even ctrl+z/fg. Plus it looks really cool.
This integration appears particularly valuable for technical presenters who need to show working code examples during their presentations. Rather than switching between separate applications, presenters can remain within the terminal environment, using familiar commands to navigate between content. Some users have even developed their own terminal-based presentation workflows using tools like Vim with tabs representing slides, demonstrating the demand for such functionality.
Comparison with Web-Based Markdown Presentation Tools
Community members frequently compared presenterm to web-based markdown presentation tools like Slidev and Marp. While these alternatives offer similar markdown-to-presentation functionality, they operate in browsers rather than terminals. The discussion reveals different use cases, with terminal-based tools appealing primarily to users who prefer terminal-centric workflows and need to demonstrate command-line tools. Features like column layouts and selective code highlighting were noted as advantages of presenterm over some web-based alternatives, though some users reported challenges with layout customization compared to more mature presentation platforms.
Terminal Emulators with Good Presenterm Support
- Kitty (with text sizing protocol as of v0.40.0)
- iTerm2
- Wezterm
Key Presenterm Features
- Markdown-based slides
- Image and animated GIF support
- Customizable themes
- Code highlighting for multiple languages
- Selective/dynamic code highlighting
- Column layouts
- Mermaid graph rendering
- LaTeX and typst formula rendering
- Snippet execution
- PDF export capability
- Speaker notes
Dependency Challenges for Advanced Features
Users attempting to implement some of presenterm's advanced features encountered dependency challenges, particularly with mermaid chart rendering. The requirement to install mermaid-cli through npm was identified as a potential barrier for users wanting to avoid the Node.js ecosystem. This highlights a common challenge in terminal-based tools that aim to provide rich visual features while maintaining a lightweight footprint. The presenterm developer acknowledged this limitation, noting that mermaid's browser-based rendering engine makes it difficult to implement without these dependencies.
Terminal-based presentation tools like presenterm represent an interesting evolution in how technical content can be presented, particularly for audiences familiar with command-line interfaces. While they may not replace traditional presentation software for all use cases, they offer unique advantages for code-heavy presentations and demonstrations, reflecting a growing interest in terminal-centric workflows among technical users.