Quickstart#

Get started with lantern in minutes.

Installation#

Currently, you'll need to build from source:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lantern.git
cd lantern
cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/lantern.

Creating Your First Deck#

Create a new markdown file called presentation.md:

---
theme: default
author: Your Name
---

# Welcome to Slides

A modern terminal-based presentation tool

---

## Features

- Parse markdown into slides
- Interactive TUI navigation with full keyboard support
- Speaker notes with toggle visibility
- Live presentation timer
- Status bar with slide count and navigation hints
- Print to stdout
- Syntax highlighting (coming soon)

---

## Code Example

```rust
fn main() {
    println!("Hello, lantern!");
}
```

Supports multiple languages with syntax highlighting.

---

## Lists and Formatting

- Unordered lists with bullets
- **Bold text** for emphasis
- *Italic text* for style
- `inline code` for commands

---

# Thank You

Questions?

Presenting Your Slides#

Run the interactive TUI presenter:

lantern present presentation.md

→, j, Space, n - Next slide
←, k, p - Previous slide
Shift+N - Toggle speaker notes
q, Ctrl+C, Esc - Quit presentation

Printing to Stdout#

Print all slides to stdout with formatting:

lantern print presentation.md

Adjust output width:

lantern print presentation.md --width 100

Use a specific theme:

lantern print presentation.md --theme nord

Slide Separators#

Slides are separated by three dashes on a line by themselves:

# Slide 1

Content here

---

# Slide 2

More content

Front Matter#

Optional metadata at the start of your file:

YAML format:

---
theme: dark
author: Jane Doe
---

TOML format:

+++
theme = "monokai"
author = "John Smith"
+++

Supported Markdown#

Currently supported:

Headings (H1-H6)
Paragraphs with inline formatting (bold, italic, strikethrough, code)
Code blocks with language tags
Lists (ordered and unordered with nesting)
Horizontal rules
Blockquotes
Tables with automatic column width calculation and proper Unicode borders

Speaker Notes#

Add speaker notes to any slide using the ::: notes directive:

# Your Slide Title

Main content visible to the audience.

::: notes
These are your speaker notes.
Press Shift+N to toggle their visibility.
They appear in a separate panel during presentation.
:::

Status Bar#

The status bar at the bottom displays:

Filename of the current presentation
Current slide number / Total slides
Active theme name
Navigation hints
Notes visibility indicator (✓ when shown)
Elapsed presentation time (HH:MM:SS)

Environment Variables#

Customize defaults with environment variables:

# Set default theme
export LANTERN_THEME=nord

# Set default author (used if not in frontmatter)
export USER=YourName

Themes#

See the Themes reference for details on all available themes and customization options.