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deckcraft/docs/file-format-parity.md
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Matúš LacoandClaude Opus 5.5 c871c5f634 Export: animated GIF of the deck (Export… dialog, CLI, MCP) (#171)
There was no way to turn a presentation into an animated GIF. file.export now writes one: format
`gif` (or a .gif path), one frame per slide drawn by the slide renderer and shown for
secondsPerSlide, encoded with the `image` crate's GIF encoder (already a dependency, no new
crates) with a 256-colour palette per frame: exact when a slide has 256 colours or fewer,
NeuQuant otherwise. Slides are composited onto white.

Options: width (small 640, medium 960 (default), large 1280, extraLarge 1920, or 16-3840 px; the
height follows the slide's aspect ratio, no side over 3840), secondsPerSlide (0.1-600, default 5,
written in GIF hundredths), loop (forever by default, or once: no NETSCAPE2.0 block), slides (a
list of indices, in play order) and includeHidden (hidden slides are skipped by default).
Out-of-range or wrongly typed values, NaN and infinities are BadParams errors, never panics; at
most 500 frames and 200 million pixels in total, checked before anything is rendered.

- Engine: crates/engine/src/gif_export.rs (options, frame list, size, encoder);
  cmd::file::gif_bytes, save_bytes("gif"), format_for_path(".gif").
- UI: the Export… dialog (Command palette; the app has no File menu yet) gets "Animated GIF (.gif)" with Size, Seconds per slide, From/To slide,
  Loop forever and Include hidden slides; an invalid range or value keeps the dialog open with a
  message. The web build downloads the bytes (image/gif).
- CLI: convert IN OUT.gif, run --export OUT.gif --export-params JSON; usage lists the format and
  options.
- MCP: the export tool lists gif and width/secondsPerSlide/loop (slides and includeHidden now
  apply to PDF and GIF).
- Docs: file-format parity GIF row, gaps (video export remains), parity checklist row M -> P
  (P2 breadth 36% -> 37%, overall 79%), control protocol, MCP, README, ROADMAP progress log.

Transitions and build animations are not animated in the GIF (tracked with video export).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-11 23:00:33 +02:00

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Raw Blame History

File-format parity with PowerPoint

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Change: minor (animated GIF export, #171; previous: major, created; formats taken from PowerPoint 16.113.4's Info.plist, PPTX coverage measured from crates/pptx) · Target: Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 16.113 (Microsoft 365)

Every format PowerPoint reads or writes, DeckCraft's support, fidelity and how it is tested. Gaps are itemized in gaps.md. Dimension score: ~58% ready (estimated), 60–110 h to parity.

Weights inside this dimension: PPTX 70%, PDF export 10%, image export 5%, legacy binary formats 5%, everything else (templates, shows, macros, ODP, video, GIF, outline) 10%.

Documents

From /Applications/Microsoft PowerPoint.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleDocumentTypes (Editor = PowerPoint opens and saves; Viewer = opens only).

Format PowerPoint DeckCraft read DeckCraft write Fidelity / notes Tested by
.pptx presentation Editor yes yes Broad (see below); never measured on real decks crates/pptx/tests/roundtrip.rs, sample.rs, malformed.rs, sniff.rs (30 tests); opened in PowerPoint by hand 2026-10-06
.potx template Editor yes (as a presentation) no: written with the .pptx content type file.saveTemplate is Save As under another name none
.ppsx slide show Editor yes (as a presentation) no: written as .pptx content Doesn't start in show mode none
.pptm / .potm / .ppsm macro-enabled Editor no no Should open and keep vbaProject.bin without running it none
.ppt / .pot / .pps 97–2003 binary Editor no no Owner decision; import only would be enough none
.odp OpenDocument Editor no no none
.thmx Office theme Viewer no no Browse for themes is a P2 row none
.deckcraft native (zip + JSON) n/a yes (also .slidecraft) yes Lossless for the DeckCraft model, forward compatible crates/format tests
PDF export no yes Slides, notes pages, handouts (1–9); real-text layer with embedded subsets, links, bookmarks. Slide artwork is a raster image at print resolution, not vector crates/pdf tests
Outline .rtf / .txt export (RTF), import (outline) .txt/.md outline (slide.fromOutline) .txt outline No RTF engine tests
PNG / JPEG slide images export n/a yes (file.export, deckcraft-cli render) Matches the editor's renderer render tests
TIFF / BMP / GIF slide images export n/a no Easy (the image crate writes them) none
Animated GIF of the deck export n/a yes (file.export format gif, Export…, deckcraft-cli, MCP export) One frame per slide from the slide renderer; size small/medium/large/extra large or 16–3840 px wide, 0.1–600 s per slide, loop forever or play once, slide range, hidden slides skipped; a 256-colour palette per frame (exact, or NeuQuant above 256 colours). Transitions and build animations are not animated crates/engine/src/gif_export.rs tests (decoded frames, size, delay, loop, hidden slides, hostile params), MCP, CLI and export dialog tests
MP4 / MOV video of the deck export n/a no Needs timeline render + H.264 encode none
Print yes n/a no PR #66 (browser) open none

Pictures and media inside decks

Kind PowerPoint DeckCraft Notes
PNG, JPEG, GIF (animated), BMP, TIFF, WebP yes yes image 0.25; animated GIFs play since #39
SVG yes (with PNG fallback) no The PNG fallback shows; SVG files can't be inserted
EMF / WMF yes no Common in decks made on Windows: blank picture
HEIC yes (macOS) no
Audio: MP3, AAC/M4A, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus yes (Ogg/Opus partly) yes Pure-Rust decoders in crates/media, crates/opus
WMA yes (Windows) embedded, not playable
Video: H.264, HEVC in MP4/MOV yes yes Pure-Rust, software decode
Video: VP9, AV1 in WebM/MKV partly (OS codecs) yes Ahead of PowerPoint for Mac
WMV yes (Windows) embedded, not playable
Online video (YouTube embeds) yes no Cloud feature
Embedded OLE objects yes kept on round trip (opaque), not insertable or editable ShapeKind::Opaque
3-D models (.glb) yes no
Embedded fonts yes no p:embeddedFontLst ignored

PPTX coverage (PresentationML / DrawingML)

What crates/pptx reads and writes, from ECMA-376. "Kept" means the XML is preserved untouched for the round trip even though DeckCraft doesn't model it.

Part / feature Read Write Notes
OPC package, content types, relationships yes yes Content types found anywhere in the zip (#19); zip bombs capped; relationship cycles bounded
Presentation, slide size, sections (p14), custom shows yes yes
Slide masters, layouts, placeholders and inheritance yes yes
Themes: colour, font (Latin/EA/CS), effect schemes, background styles yes yes Unknown theme parts kept
Notes slides and notes master yes yes No notes-master editing view
Handout master no no
Shapes: preset geometry (~150 presets), custom geometry, groups, connectors yes yes Presets re-derived in crates/geom/src/preset.rs
Fills: solid, gradient, picture (stretch/tile/crop), pattern, group yes yes
Lines: dash, compound, caps, joins, arrowheads yes yes
Effects: shadow, glow, soft edges, reflection yes yes
3-D: scene3d, sp3d kept kept Not rendered
Text: runs, paragraphs, bullets, numbering, levels, autofit, columns, vertical, RTL, script fonts, fields, hyperlinks yes yes Round-trip tests incl. justLow and date fields
Text warp (prstTxWarp) yes yes Not rendered
Pictures with crop, recolour, duotone, alpha, luminance yes yes
Tables with styles yes yes
Charts (c:chartSpace) yes yes Original XML kept in Chart.raw
Charts (cx: chartex: waterfall, funnel, treemap, sunburst, histogram, box) no no
SmartArt (dgm) drawing part only, as a group as shapes Diagram data model lost on save
Equations (OMML, a14:m) no no PR #55 open
Audio / video (p14:media, trim, fades, bookmarks) yes partly Playback options lost on save (#74)
Ink (contentPart) yes as a group of freeform lines PowerPoint sees shapes, not ink
Transitions incl. p14/p15 (Vortex, Morph…) all 48 all 48 every_transition_kind_round_trips
Animations: timing tree, build paragraphs, triggers, motion paths yes (flattened to the Animation Pane list) yes (rebuilt) every_animation_effect_survives; rewind lost (#77)
Comments: legacy yes yes
Comments: modern threaded (p188) yes no (written as legacy) Replies and resolved state lost (#70)
Unknown slide-level elements (graphicFrame OLE, extensions, mc:AlternateContent) kept kept Rendered as a labelled placeholder with the preview picture when present
Tags, custom XML, VBA no / no / no
Embedded fonts no no
Encryption (password to open) no no

What would move the PPTX number

  1. An owned corpus of real-world-shaped decks (corporate templates, SmartArt, chartex charts, EMF, embedded fonts, every transition and animation) in a corpus repo, with import → render → export → re-import checks in CI and a PowerPoint reference render for each (owner runs PowerPoint).
  2. The round-trip losses above (#70, #74, #77).
  3. EMF/WMF and SVG rendering.

Revision history

Date Change Summary
2026-10-11 minor Animated GIF of the deck: export yes (#171)
2026-10-10 major Created from PowerPoint 16.113.4's CFBundleDocumentTypes, crates/pptx reader/writer and tests, and the open round-trip issues