What software / template is being used for these fancy slide decks?

April 18, 2019 5:52 AM

My younger colleagues at University are using some either template or software to build slide decks that have a web2.0 look and feel, head and shoulders above your average google slides / powerpoint decks.

Googling "what slide deck constructor are young people using" didn't get me far and I'm embarrassed to ask.

Features I noticed were consistent among the three I saw:

- The frames of the slides were sort of paint-brushy complex textures
- Many slides had multiple z-axis layers with, e.g. a gif or a photo in a back layer with a colorizing filter layer on that, then the frame of the slide where text goes on top of that with a ragged aperture through which you could see the lower layers
- text looks a lot like the text done in something like Adobe Spark, with lots of alternating color text on white background / white text on dark background.
- looked to have native support for embedded gifs
- font package was definitely expanded beyond typical offerings in PP / gslides

posted by lazaruslong to Technology (10 answers total)

Prezi?
posted by hepta at 5:55 AM on April 18, 2019

Response by poster: Mmm I'm not sure but I don't think so. I should have mentioned there was none of the zoom-y movement that (for me) is a hallmark of a prezi deck.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:00 AM on April 18, 2019

Anything HTML-based will support embedded fonts/gifs/videos and layered backgrounds.

Reveal.js (used by Slides.com)

Impress.js
posted by Phssthpok at 6:44 AM on April 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Hmm. Nope, not those either.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:18 AM on April 18, 2019

You could, you know, ask your colleagues what they use. People who are into making their presentations pretty are often happy (often annoyingly happy, once you get them started!) to tell you about their toolset.
posted by rockindata at 7:19 AM on April 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

I think you should just ask and not be embarassed. I work as a technologist at a university and just because your younger colleagues are using whatever this is does not mean you've somehow been unwittingly been left in the dust, grandpa/ma. PowerPoint is still 99% of the slide decks I see being used academically (and I see a lot of them) amongst all age groups. Keynote is the other 1%. I know exactly one other person who uses Reveal.js besides me. I suspect that one person in your department got wind of some HTML-based framework and hipped a few colleagues that they thought would be able to easily adopt it. There's not, to my knowledge, some brand new piece of presentation software sweeping the nation that you got left out on.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:20 AM on April 18, 2019

Maybe Keynote on the Mac?
posted by jordemort at 7:30 AM on April 18, 2019

Best answer: Is it the Eglamour template by Slides Carnival for Google Slides/PowerPoint?
posted by bcwinters at 7:37 AM on April 18, 2019 [21 favorites]

Response by poster: Yes, bcwinters! That's it! Thank you so much!
posted by lazaruslong at 7:45 AM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I appreciate the reassurances to just ask and not be embarrassed by others, but I'm a super non-traditional student at an Ivy and I'm only there cause I work here (can't afford it) and I deal with about a million micro-shitty things every week and I just don't have the reserves to tack on another. I knew the hivemind could figure it out! Thanks again, everyone.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:47 AM on April 18, 2019 [7 favorites]