Marp: A Markdown Presentation App That Simplifies Your Tech Talks
Tags: presentation, markdown, opensource
Published: 2024-03-12 16:02:00

In today's fast-paced tech world, giving effective presentations is crucial for conveying complex ideas and engaging audiences. While Markdown has emerged as a popular lightweight markup language for creating rich text documents, its use in creating dynamic, interactive, and visually appealing presentations can be challenging. This is where Marp comes into the picture - an open-source Markdown presentation app that simplifies the process of creating engaging tech talks. In our [earlier post][2], we saw about how Asciidoctor can be used to create stunning presentations, and in this article it is [markdown][3]

## What is Marp?

[Marp (Markdown Presentation Engine)][1] is a lightweight and flexible tool for creating interactive and visually appealing presentations using simple Markdown syntax. It was created based on the idea of combining the benefits of Markdown and Reveal.js, a popular HTML presentation framework. Marp supports the creation of presentations that can be rendered as static HTML, PDF, or PowerPoint

## Features

1. **Simple Markdown syntax:** Marp uses a straightforward Markdown format for creating slides, making it easy for developers and writers who are already familiar with Markdown.
2. **Interactive presentations:** Marp supports the use of JavaScript and HTML to create interactive elements, such as quizzes, forms, and animations, to enhance user engagement.
3. **Live preview:** Marp provides a live preview mode while editing, allowing you to see the changes in real-time and fine-tune your slides without leaving the editor.
4. **Directives and extended syntax:** Marp supports a variety of directives and extended syntax (image syntax, math typesetting, auto-scaling, etc...)  to create beautiful slides, as sometimes, simple text content isn't enough to emphasize or represent the content - mathematical equations for example.
5. **Export to various formats:** Marp supports exporting presentations in multiple formats such as HTML, PDF, and SVG, allowing you to share your content with a broader audience.
6. **Customizable themes:** Marp offers several built-in themes to choose from or the option to create custom themes, enabling you to design presentations that align with your brand and style.
7. **Official Toolset:** Marp provides an official toolset that has the [Visual Studio Code extension][4] and [Marp CLI][5] for command line usage.
8. **Pluggable Architecture:** Marp ecosystem is based on the Marpit framework for creating HTML slides deck and has a pluggable architecture where the features can be extended by developers via plugins

## Getting Started

The recommended and the best option is to use the [Visual Studio Code extension][4] that is provided. The [Marp CLI][5], the command line version, can also be used. However, one has to compile it to the required output everytime.

## Use Cases

Marp is an ideal solution for developers, designers, educators, and anyone who needs to create engaging technical or informational presentations. Some common use cases include:

1. **Software demos:** Marp can be used to create presentations that showcase the features of a software product or application, with interactive elements that allow users to interact and explore the functionality.
2. **Educational materials:** Marp is an excellent tool for creating engaging educational materials such as tutorials, workshop guides, or study resources, with the ability to add code snippets, diagrams, and other multimedia content.
3. **Technical talks:** Marp simplifies the process of creating technical talks and workshops by offering a lightweight and flexible presentation engine that can handle complex content, interactive elements, and customizable styles.
4. **Data visualizations:** Marp supports integrations with libraries like D3.js and Plotly, making it an ideal choice for data scientists and researchers who need to present complex data visualizations in an engaging and accessible format.

## Sample

```markdown

---
theme: gaia
_class: lead
paginate: true
backgroundColor: #fff
backgroundImage: url('https://marp.app/assets/hero-background.svg')
---

![bg left:40% 80%](https://marp.app/assets/marp.svg)

# **Marp**

Markdown Presentation Ecosystem

https://marp.app/

---

# How to write slides

Split pages by horizontal ruler (`---`). It's very simple! :satisfied:

---

# Slide 1

foobar

---

# Slide 2

foobar
```

Marp offers a simple yet powerful solution for creating interactive and visually appealing technical presentations using Markdown syntax. With its live preview mode, customizable themes, and support for various export formats, it provides developers, educators, and presenters with an essential tool for engaging audiences and conveying complex ideas effectively. So, next time you need to create a presentation, consider giving Marp a try!

[1]: https://marp.app/ "Marp"
[2]: https://blog.teamnexus.in/blog/2022/06/07/stunning-presentations-with-asciidoctor-and-revealjs/ "Asciidoctor + RevealJS"
[3]: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ "Markdown Project"
[4]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=marp-team.marp-vscode "VS Code Extension"
[5]: https://github.com/marp-team/marp-cli "Marp CLI"