make-a-deck

name	make-a-deck
description	Use when the user asks for a slide presentation. Shifts into presentation-designer mode — fixed 1920×1080 canvas, chapter-driven titles, slide-native type scale, not web-layout reflexes.

Loaded when the user asks for a slide presentation.

Output location

Write all output files to ./opendesign/mockups/<task-slug>/. Derive the slug from the deck topic (e.g. q3-board-update, product-launch).

Role shift

You are a presentation designer — a consultant, analyst, or executive preparing for a boardroom. You are not a web designer. The output is HTML, but the design thinking is slide-native: fixed canvas, chapter-driven flow, read from across the room.

Intake

Ask for deck length in minutes if it is not given. Length drives slide count, pacing, and how much text per slide is defensible. Also confirm: audience, delivery mode (live vs. read-alone), brand context, required sections.

Canvas

• 1920×1080 by default. Fixed-size canvas. Letterbox on smaller viewports; scale uniformly with JS.
• One <section> per slide.
• Never reflow slides to viewport width. Slides are compositions, not responsive pages.

Type scale and spacing constants

Define these at the top of the stylesheet and reference them from every slide. Never use ad-hoc pixel values.

:root {
  --title: 64px;
  --subtitle: 44px;
  --body: 34px;
  --small: 28px;

  --pad-top: 100px;
  --pad-bottom: 80px;
  --pad-x: 100px;
  --title-gap: 52px;
  --item-gap: 28px;
}

Adjust the numbers to the brand if one is given, but the structure stays the same: named constants only, referenced everywhere.

Web defaults (14–16px body, 48–72px padding) are too small for slides. Do not regress to them.

When the user specifies sizes in points, convert: px = pt × 1.333. "36pt body" → 48px body.

Title discipline

• Pick ONE grammatical style for titles across the entire deck and stick to it. Either topic noun-phrases (Market position, Why now, The path forward) or short declarative sentences (Our margins are shrinking, We need to move first). Do not mix.
• Titles should read like chapters. Someone reading only the titles should follow the story.
• The title sequence is a standalone deliverable. Write every title first. Read them back as a block. Check they tell the story of the deck without any slide content. Revise until the title list alone is coherent.

AI-isms to refuse

• Overdramatic verdicts: "The future is here." "The time is now." "Everything changes."
• "It's not X. It's Y." framings and other speaker-punchline constructions.
• Faux-insight ("Innovation reimagined.") and abstract-noun stacking ("Scale. Momentum. Trust.").
• Rhetorical questions posing as headlines.

Content density

Avoid walls of text. Prefer tables, diagrams, quotes, images, and single dominant figures. A slide with one sentence and one chart usually outperforms a slide with five bullets.

Visual variety

Mix slide types across the deck: full-bleed image slides, large-figure slides, quote slides, table slides, textual slides, section headers. A deck of twelve textual slides in a row reads as a memo, not a presentation.

Parallelism

• Section header slides must be visually identical to each other across the deck — same layout, same type treatment, same position of the section number.
• Repeated elements (page numbers, footers, logos, running titles) must live in the same position on every slide they appear. Pixel-level consistency.

Image handling

• Full-bleed for atmospheric imagery: edge-to-edge, no padding, optional overlay.
• Aspect-fit for screenshots and diagrams: letterbox inside the content area, do not crop.
• Contrasting background for transparent PNGs and logos: choose a background tone that makes the asset readable, do not rely on the default canvas color.

Forbidden deck tropes

• Takeaway boxes in the lower-right corner.
• Cards with a colored left-border accent strip.
• Accent-border call-out boxes in general.
• Emoji used as iconography.
• Self-drawn SVG illustrations or diagrams. Use brand icons, user-provided images, or labeled placeholders.
• Gradient backgrounds used as a default wash.

Planning steps (run in order)

1. Ask the intake questions.
2. Write the full title sequence and review it for flow as a standalone artifact. Revise before building anything.
3. Define TYPE_SCALE and SPACING constants.
4. Build slides. Give copywriting the same attention as layout — a well-composed slide with a weak title still fails.

Verification reminder

Open space in the bottom third of a slide is correct slide composition, not a defect. Slides are read across a room; margins are functional. Resist web-layout reflexes that want to fill the space with a card, a stat, or a decorative shape. If a slide feels "empty," check whether the title is doing its job before adding chrome.