vimdeck
A Ruby gem that converts markdown files into VIM-based presentations with ascii art rendering.
What is vimdeck?
Vimdeck is a Ruby gem that converts markdown files into VIM-based presentations. It transforms plain text documents into a series of slides that open directly in VIM, providing a keyboard-driven presentation experience with ascii art rendering for headings and images.
VIM enthusiasts and developers who prefer giving presentations from within their text editor and want a minimalist, terminal-friendly presentation workflow.
Developers choose Vimdeck because it integrates presentations directly into VIM with familiar keyboard navigation, avoids switching to separate presentation software, and creates visually interesting ascii art slides without leaving the terminal.
Overview
VIM as a presentation tool
Use Cases
Best For
- Giving technical presentations entirely from the command line
- Creating presentations with code snippets and syntax highlighting
- Presenting to audiences who appreciate terminal/ascii art aesthetics
- VIM users who want to avoid switching to PowerPoint or Keynote
- Lightning talks where setup time needs to be minimal
- Presentations that emphasize keyboard navigation over mouse interaction
Not Ideal For
- Presentations requiring high-resolution graphics or embedded media
- Teams needing real-time collaboration or web-based slide sharing
- Audiences expecting polished, graphical slide decks like PowerPoint or Keynote
Pros & Cons
Pros
Provides pre-configured VIM keybindings for slide navigation, such as PageUp/Left to go backward and PageDown/Right to go forward, making presentations efficient for VIM users.
Converts headings and images into ascii art, creating a unique, terminal-friendly visual style that appeals to developers and terminal enthusiasts, as shown in the README screenshots.
Uses a limited subset of markdown (headings, images, code blocks) to keep slide files human-readable and simple to edit, aligning with the project's minimalist philosophy.
Seamlessly opens presentations in VIM with syntax highlighting support when plugins like SyntaxRange are installed, leveraging the user's existing editor setup without requiring a separate application.
Cons
Only renders h1s, h2s, images, and fenced code blocks; other markdown elements like lists and blockquotes are displayed as plain text, as admitted in the README, reducing flexibility for complex slides.
Requires installing Ruby gems, ImageMagick, and VIM plugins, with noted issues on Mac OS Sierra and dependencies like RMagick, making setup non-trivial and error-prone for some users.
Highlighting functionality using {~ ~} tags is experimental and not thoroughly tested, which could lead to instability or bugs during presentations, as mentioned in the README.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
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remarkA simple, in-browser, markdown-driven slideshow tool.
WebSlidesCreate HTML presentations in seconds —
deck.jsModern HTML Presentations
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