Deckyard
Try the editor

Open source presentation software

Presentations on your own terms.

Your organisation should have a say in the software it relies on. Deckyard is an open alternative to big tech presentation tools, with a visual editor for your colleagues and content built on web standards. Help put it to work: try it with your team.

Discuss a pilot Try the editor

Sandbox: no installation or signup. AI, uploads and publishing are disabled. Guest decks are deleted after 24 hours.

Edit a slide. See what changes.

Change a title or add a step to this timeline. Beside the slide, you can see the same content as a heading and a list in HTML, or as data in JSON. This is the structure your own tools can work with.

Your slide

Trying Deckyard together

  1. Start Choose a presentation
  2. Next Try it with colleagues
  3. Review Gather feedback

This example shows a slide and its HTML structure. Enable JavaScript to edit it, or open the full editor.

An example timeline. The source panel follows your edits.

Simplified HTML
<section aria-labelledby="example-title">
  <h2 id="example-title">Trying Deckyard together</h2>
  <ol>
    <li>Start: Choose a presentation</li>
    <li>Next: Try it with colleagues</li>
    <li>Review: Gather feedback</li>
  </ol>
</section>

A simplified heading and ordered list for this slide. This is not the full HTML export.

What can you control?

Look at the code, the format and the way Deckyard runs. They give your organisation something concrete to assess before trying it with a team.

Inspect the software and its format

Deckyard's source code is public under the MIT licence. Its presentation format is documented too, so developers can build tools that read or create the content. A connection to another application still needs to be built and tested.

Keep the structure readable

In the timeline above, a title is a heading and the steps form an ordered list. That structure gives browsers and assistive software information about the content. Accessible presentations also require care in the content, design and controls.

Choose who runs it

Run Deckyard on your own server, or arrange managed hosting. With your own installation, your organisation manages access, updates and backups. External services you enable need their own assessment.

Connect your own tools

Structured slide content can be read and changed by software. Deckyard offers an API and an MCP interface for creating and editing presentations from your own tools. Colleagues can continue working in the visual editor.

Your colleagues can work visually

Choose a slide type and edit its content in the browser. You can make and present a deck without writing code.

Make a presentation

Start with a slide type and fill in your content. The editor shows the result as you work. If AI is enabled on your installation, it can help with a first draft; check and edit the result before sharing it.

The Deckyard editor with a metrics slide on the canvas, slide thumbnails on the left and layout controls on the right.
Edit a metrics slide directly on the canvas, with layout controls alongside it.

Work together

Give colleagues access to edit the deck and leave comments on slides.

The comments panel open next to the slide preview, with one open thread and one resolved thread.
Discuss changes in comments attached to the slide.

Present and share

Present with speaker notes and a preview of the next slide. Publish the deck when you want others to read it through a link. You can also invite the audience to respond to polls or submit questions; live interaction needs a connection to your Deckyard instance.

Presenter view: the current slide, a clock with a 20-minute target, the next slide as a thumbnail, and the speaker notes for this slide.
Keep notes and the next slide in the presenter view.

Keep your house style consistent

Use a theme for your colours, fonts and logos. The examples show the same content in two styles. Save useful slides in the library so colleagues can reuse a copy.

  • Background

    ACME

    Historical development of the Stand

    1. 2021 Constituted by resolution
    2. 2022 First strategic partnership
    3. 2025 Trading resumed

    Green house style

    Accent colour
    #2d6b4a
    Heading font
    Bricolage Grotesque

  • Background

    ACME

    Historical development of the Stand

    1. 2021 Constituted by resolution
    2. 2022 First strategic partnership
    3. 2025 Trading resumed

    Editorial house style

    Accent colour
    #9a3412
    Heading font
    Georgia
Same content and fictional ACME logo, two style examples. Check your slides when switching themes in Deckyard.

Try it with your organisation

An open alternative needs people willing to put it to use. Deckyard is still developing. We'd like to hear from organisations that want to try it with colleagues and find out what works and what needs improving.

Email Jaap about the presentations your team makes and what you would want to test. Together, we can discuss a useful starting point and how to organise hosting and management.

Discuss a pilot Try the editor

Sandbox: no installation or signup. AI, uploads and publishing are disabled. Guest decks are deleted after 24 hours.

jaap@jaapstronks.nl

Looking into hosting and management?

Follow Deckyard's progress

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