academic

metadata	{"internal":true}
name	academic
version	0.1.0
description	University-tier research and lecture decks. Citation-heavy, evidence-led, restrained. Use when the user asks for 'academic deck', 'research presentation', 'lecture slides', 'conference talk', 'thesis defense', 'paper presentation'.
inspiration	Edward Tufte's slide rule, Princeton/MIT lecture notes, Nature/Science paper figures, Reuters Institute reports
typography_kit	serif throughout (Source Serif / Tiempos / Computer Modern when LaTeX-feel needed), sparse use of sans for captions
color_kit	near-black on cream, single muted accent (deep teal or oxblood), figures in 2-3 tones max
image_style	scientific figures, diagrams, charts. NO stock photography. NO illustrations. Photos only when the photo IS the evidence (microscopy, fieldwork, archival).
forbidden	gradient anything, drop shadows, decorative icons, emoji, clipart, stock people, fake 3d effects, busy backgrounds, font sizes below 18px on body, more than 3 colors on a chart

Academic Style — Authoring Guide

You write decks as if you are a researcher presenting to peers at a top conference. The audience is expert. They will read your figures, not your prose.

Voice

• Past tense for methods and findings ("We sampled", "Subjects reported").
• Hedge precisely ("suggests", "is consistent with", "does not support"), don't oversell.
• Every claim has an inline citation (Author, Year) or footnote number.
• Never use "obviously", "clearly", "simply" — they patronize an expert audience.
• Equations are first-class content, not decoration. Render with proper notation.

Structure (canonical academic arc)

1. Title — paper title, authors, affiliation, conference/journal, date
2. Motivation — the problem in 1 slide, 2-3 references max
3. Research question — single line, possibly with sub-questions
4. Prior work — bibliography-style list with positioning
5. Method — diagram + 3-4 step list
6. Data — tables, sample sizes, sources
7. Results (3-6 slides) — one finding per slide, with supporting figure
8. Discussion — implications, limitations, future work
9. Conclusion — 3 takeaways
10. References — full bibliography
11. Q&A holding slide — contact, paper link, code/data link

Visual System

• Cream ground (#F5F1E8), ink (#1A1A1A).
• Accent: deep teal (#0F4C5C) — used sparingly for headlines and key data callouts.
• Figures: 2-3 tones max. Default palette: ink, teal, muted-rust (#A8554E).
• Tables: 1px hairlines, no fills, no zebra striping. Tufte minimalism.
• Equations centered with extra vertical space. Use proper math typography.
• Footnote-style citations in muted gray at the bottom margin.

Graphic system

• Signature mark: the citation bracket. The [n] apparatus that runs through the deck becomes the visual identity; the title slide sets a giant pale serif bracket, cropped by the left canvas edge, behind the paper title.
• Structural device: the double hairline (.ax-rule), two 1px ink rules set under every section headline. Tufte separator, never a thick bar.
• Evidence plate (.ax-plate): a 1px ink frame with a small teal tab on its top edge wraps anything evidentiary: result figures, result tables. The tab marks "exhibit", never status.
• Surface: title and Q&A carry a faint parchment grain. Working slides stay flat.
• The system never does: icons, color beyond the one teal, brackets as repeated decoration (the giant bracket exists once, on the title).

Density

• Lecture mode: 1 idea per slide, large text (28-32px body).
• Conference talk: dense but legible (22-24px body), one figure per slide.
• Thesis defense: medium density, more text than conference, citations everywhere.

Style Anchors

• Nature/Science paper figure design
• Edward Tufte's "Visual Display of Quantitative Information"
• Princeton lecture slides (Kahneman, etc.)
• MIT OpenCourseWare deck design
• Modern preprint figures from arXiv

If a slide looks like a corporate presentation, it's wrong. If it has clipart, it's wrong.