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title: Slide deck design applies_to: [presentations, slide-decks, pitch-decks, conference-talks] version: 1.0.0 last_updated: 2026-05 stability: stable

Slide deck design

Slide decks have their own rules. They're built for presentation in front of an audience (not solo reading) — so layout, density, and pacing differ from documents.

If your "deck" is meant to be sent as a PDF and read alone, that's a document, not a deck. See document-typography.md. Many "decks" should be docs.

Three slide-deck archetypes

Type Use Density
Talk deck Presented live, supports the speaker Very low (1 idea per slide)
Sales / pitch deck Sent OR presented; persuasion + reading Medium
Reading deck (deck-as-document) Read solo, structured like slides High — but consider doc instead

Don't mix archetypes in one deck. A talk deck sent as PDF reads as confusingly sparse.

Talk deck rules — the strict ones

One idea per slide

If a slide has 3 different points, it's 3 slides.

Big text

Body text on slides: 24pt minimum. From the back of a room, anything smaller is unreadable. For body content: 32–40pt.

Heading: 60–96pt.

Few words

Maximum 6 lines × 6 words rule (rough). If your slide has more, you're reading slides at the audience — bad presenting.

High contrast

Black on white. Or white on near-black. No gray-on-gray.

No animations except for purpose

Auto-transitions, fade-ins, "flying text" — kill them all. Animations should: - Reveal information progressively (e.g., bullet by bullet during a build-up). - Show physical change (a chart updating). - Create surprise (rare, intentional).

Default: no animation. Only add when justified.

Sales/pitch deck rules

Different: this deck stands alone (sent via email) AND gets presented.

Higher density allowed

Body 18–24pt is fine. Subtitle/caption 14–16pt.

Each slide self-contained

Sender isn't there to explain. Each slide should communicate without the speaker.

Strong visual brand

Colors, fonts, illustrations match brand. The deck IS a brand artifact.

Standard structure (SaaS pitch)

1. Hero — company + tagline
2. Problem — what's broken in the world
3. Solution — what we do
4. Why now — market timing
5. Product / Demo
6. Traction — metrics, customers, growth
7. Business model
8. Competition / market
9. Team
10. Financials / Ask (for fundraising) OR pricing

Variations exist; this is the typical SaaS pitch deck. Keep it ≤ 12 slides for first send.

Anatomy of a great slide

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                              │
│                                                              │
│      Headline — what this slide says                         │  ← center-aligned, bold
│                                                              │
│      [Visual / chart / image — main proof]                   │
│                                                              │
│      Sub-text or caption (optional)                          │
│                                                              │
│                                                              │
│  [logo]                                  [page #] / [N]      │  ← chrome at bottom
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Slot Use
Headline The one thing — prose, not heading
Visual The proof — chart, image, demo screenshot
Sub-text Secondary detail (small, low-priority)
Chrome Logo + page numbers (small, persistent)

Every slide has these elements. Variation comes from layout (visual top vs left vs bottom) — but the slots are consistent.

Title-as-message

Bad title (boring): "Revenue". Good title (the message): "Revenue tripled in Q4."

The title makes the case. The chart proves it.

If audience reads only the titles, they get the deck's argument. That's the goal.

Visual hierarchy

Slide audiences scan in seconds. Hierarchy must be unambiguous:

  1. Largest visual element wins. If your chart is small and the heading is huge, the heading is the message. Verify intent.
  2. Color contrast wins second. A red number on a gray slide draws first.
  3. Position last. Everything else equal, top-left wins (LTR).

Test: glance at slide for 2 seconds. What do you see?

Color in decks

Use Color
Brand primary Headlines, key callouts
Neutral dark Body text
Neutral light Background
Money / status One semantic accent (positive trend, etc.)

Cap palette at 4–6 colors for the whole deck. More is brand chaos.

For chart slides: use the chart palette rules from knowledge/patterns/chart-color-encoding.md.

Typography in decks

Slot Web/screen Print/PDF
Title 60–96pt 36–48pt
Body 24–32pt 14–18pt
Caption 16–20pt 10–12pt
Code (rare) 22–28pt monospace 12–14pt

Pick one font. Maybe two (heading + body if they pair). More is brand inconsistency.

For Korean: Pretendard works at all sizes. Avoid mixing Hangul fonts within one deck.

Layout templates

Title slide

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                       │
│  [Big bold title]                     │
│                                       │
│  Subtitle / tagline                   │
│                                       │
│  Author · Date · Venue                │
│                                       │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Section divider

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                       │
│  Part 02                              │
│  Section name                         │
│                                       │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Used between major parts of the deck. Helps audience reset.

Content slide (one image, one message)

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Title                                  │
│                                       │
│  [Large image / chart]                │
│                                       │
│ Caption                               │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Comparison slide (2-up)

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Title — the comparison itself         │
├─────────────┬───────────────────────┤
│             │                        │
│ Option A    │ Option B               │
│             │                        │
│ ✓ benefit   │ ✓ benefit              │
│ ✓ benefit   │ ✗ drawback             │
│             │                        │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────┘

Two columns; clearly delineated. Avoid 3+ columns (cramped).

Quote slide

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                       │
│  "Quote text, large, italic or         │
│   distinct font."                      │
│                                       │
│  — Attribution                        │
│                                       │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Used for testimonials in sales decks, framing quotes in talks.

Charts on slides

Rule Why
Headline tells the story Audience reads the headline, glances at chart for confirmation
Drop chart noise (gridlines, redundant labels) Slide is glance-only, less is better
Highlight the takeaway Color one bar / line differently to indicate "this is the point"
Single message per chart Don't show 5 series unless the comparison is the point
No 3D charts Always confusing

Cite knowledge/patterns/chart-color-encoding.md.

Demo / screenshot slides

For product walkthroughs: - Screenshot fills most of the slide. - Annotate with arrows / circles / numbered callouts. - For UI demos: cover sensitive data (use placeholder). - Optimize image — slide PDF can balloon to 100MB if uncompressed.

Tools

Tool Best for
Keynote (Mac) Live talks, smooth animations
Google Slides Collaboration, real-time editing
PowerPoint Corporate, advanced layout
Figma Slides Brand-led decks with rich design
Pitch Sales decks, modern collaboration
Markdown → reveal.js / Slidev Engineer-friendly, code-heavy talks

For consistency with design-ai's design system: Figma Slides + tokens (Phase 9 Figma MCP) is the cleanest path.

Deck structure decisions

How long?

Use Slide count
5-min lightning talk 8–10 slides
20-min conference talk 15–25 slides
30-min keynote 30–40 slides
Sales pitch (sent) 10–15 slides
Investor pitch 12 slides (Sequoia-style) or 8–10 (Y Combinator-style)
Internal team review 15–25 slides

More important than count: rhythm. A 30-slide deck with 10 dense slides + 20 simple slides reads better than 30 medium-density slides.

One presenter or several?

Multi-presenter decks need clear handoffs. Add a "next presenter" cue between sections (a slide with the next person's name + topic).

Korean conventions

Korean business decks (보고서/제안서): - Heavier on text than Western (Korean business context expects detail). - Hierarchy via numbered sections (1, 1.1, 1.1.1). - Polite tone (~합니다). - Conservative palette — corporate gray + brand color, less saturation.

Korean talk decks at conferences (PyCon Korea, FEKR, etc.): - Lighter, more Western-style. - English code samples on Korean explanation slides is standard.

For Korean fintech pitch decks: per Toss-style aesthetic — minimal, single primary color, lots of whitespace, big numbers.

Common deck design mistakes

  • Walls of bullets — death by PowerPoint.
  • Reading slides verbatim — "I'll let the slide speak for itself" is the slide's failure.
  • Tiny text at the back of the room.
  • Auto-advance — robs presenter of pacing control.
  • Stock photography of people pointing at laptops — instantly cliché.
  • Pie charts with 8+ slices.
  • 3D anything.
  • Slide numbers in the title — irrelevant during the talk.
  • Same template for every slide type — title slide, section divider, content slide should look distinct.

Cross-reference