beampptx

Convert LaTeX Beamer slides to PowerPoint presentations with flawless vector graphics and embedded video support. Mostly vibe-coded using claude-cli and gemini-cli.

Why beampptx?

Converting Beamer slides to PowerPoint often results in blurry images or lost functionality. beampptx solves this by:

• Vector Fidelity: Every slide is embedded as a full-bleed SVG vector graphic, ensuring perfect sharpness at any zoom level.
• Dynamic Overlays: Supports Beamer transitions (\pause, \alt, <1->, etc.) by expanding them into individual static slides.
• Native Video: Automatically extracts videos included via the movie15 package's \includemovie or the multimedia package's \movie command and embeds them as native PowerPoint video shapes with support for autoplay, looping, and volume.
• Bibliography Support: Handles complex LaTeX compilation passes (including biber and bibtex).

Installation

From GitHub (Recommended)

You can install beampptx directly from the repository without cloning:

pip install git+https://github.com/kocurvik/beampptx.git

Local Development

If you have the repository cloned:

pip install .

System Requirements

• Python: 3.6+
• LaTeX: A working distribution (MiKTeX, TeX Live) with pdflatex (default), xelatex, or lualatex.
• Tools: biber or bibtex if using bibliographies.

Usage

Once installed, use the beampptx command:

Basic Conversion

beampptx presentation.tex

Convert from PDF directly

If you already have a compiled PDF:

beampptx presentation.pdf

Note that for this option, the videos will not be embedded correctly, but the rest of the content should be exported as vector graphics.

Advanced Options

# Specify output filename
beampptx presentation.tex -o final_talk.pptx

# Use a different LaTeX engine
beampptx presentation.tex --latex-engine xelatex

# Keep the temporary build files for debugging
beampptx presentation.tex --keep-build

Examples

The repository includes a test/ folder with several examples demonstrating different features. To try them out, clone the repository and run:

# Basic features (math, lists, etc.)
beampptx test/example.tex

# Overlays and transitions (\pause, \alt, etc.)
beampptx test/example_transitions.tex

# Image inclusion (PNG, JPEG, PDF)
beampptx test/example_images.tex

# Bibliography support (biblatex/biber)
beampptx test/example_bib.tex

# Video with the movie15 package (\includemovie)
beampptx test/example_video.tex

# Multiple videos on a single slide
beampptx test/example_multi_video.tex

# Video with the multimedia package (\movie)
beampptx test/example_movie.tex

# Multiple videos on the same slide with the multimedia package (\movie)
beampptx test/example_multimedia.tex

Features in Detail

Beamer Overlays

beampptx detects frames with multiple slides (e.g., from \pause or <1->) and creates a separate PowerPoint slide for each state. This preserves the feeling of "animations" when clicking through the presentation.

Videos

Two LaTeX packages are supported for video inclusion — pick whichever your source already uses. In both cases beampptx finds the call in your .tex source, locates the corresponding annotation in the compiled PDF, and embeds the video file directly into the .pptx as a native PowerPoint movie shape.

movie15 — \includemovie:

\usepackage{movie15}
...
\includemovie[autoplay, poster=image.png, repeat, volume=0.5]
              {width}{height}{video.mp4}

multimedia — \movie (ships with Beamer):

\usepackage{multimedia}
...
\movie[width=8cm, height=4.5cm, autostart, loop]
      {\includegraphics[width=8cm]{poster.png}}
      {video.mp4}

Recognised options:

Note that currently, using pdfs for poster images is not supported. Likewise, the autoplay option requires activating the "next" slide for the videos to run. The palindrome option will just loop the video normally instead of reversing it for even playtroughs.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.