Quickstart

From nothing to an edited, exported talk in five commands.

1. Install

git clone https://github.com/ronceray/Revealer.git
cd Revealer
pipx install .

This puts the revealer command on your PATH with all its Python dependencies isolated. See Installation for details and the optional external tools (headless Chrome for PDF export, pdftocairo for PDF figures).

2. Create a presentation

revealer root ~/Presentations   # once: where your talks live
revealer new MyTalk

revealer new scaffolds a folder under the root: a pre-filled MyTalk.pres, a downloaded reveal.js engine with the extensions you pick, and a .revealer.toml recording the exact versions. Use revealer new MyTalk --here to create it in the current directory instead.

3. Open it — write and edit live

revealer MyTalk/MyTalk.pres

Pointing revealer straight at a .pres file (or its folder) starts the dev server: the deck opens in your browser and rebuilds + reloads on every save, keeping your slide. The toolbar in the top-left corner is the browser editor:

  • ✏ Edit (or press E) — click any element on a slide to select it, then edit it in the side panel, drag its handles, or nudge it with the arrow keys;

  • every change is written into MyTalk.pres itself as a minimal text edit — there is no separate save, and you can keep a text editor open on the same file at the same time.

Prefer typing? Edit MyTalk.pres in your editor of choice and just save — the browser follows. The authoring guide covers the whole language; the essentials:

=== A slide title            # === starts a slide, --- a vertical one

Plain text, **bold**, $E=mc^2$ and raw HTML all work.

* bullets
  * nested bullets

! Media/figure.png | caption # images: drop the file in Media/

4. Export

revealer build MyTalk        # -> MyTalk/MyTalk.html (self-contained deck)
revealer pdf MyTalk          # -> MyTalk/MyTalk.pdf  (one page per slide)

Both are also one click away in the served deck’s toolbar (⬇ HTML / ⬇ PDF).

5. Presenting

Navigate with the arrow keys. Press Esc (or o) to open a grid of slide thumbnails — click one, or move with the arrow keys and press Enter, to jump anywhere. This works both when serving and in an exported deck.

Where to go next