OPEN SOURCE PDF PRESENTATION PLAYER

Quick Presenter

A lightweight desktop app for presenting prepared PDF slide decks with predictable controls, presenter context, and reliable live playback.

Get Quick Presenter Explore the presenter view

Input: PDF slides
License: GPL-3.0-only
Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux

Quick Presenter showing the current slide, next slide preview, speaker notes, timer, and page position.

AI Integration · CLI & agents

From narration to conversation.

These two examples combine Quick Presenter’s interface with external tools. Use slide text, speaker notes, and presentation controls to build your own workflows.

Interactive AI PresenterAsk an external agent about the deck, see relevant slides, and return when you ask. AutopilotAn external runner reads notes with TTS and advances after playback.

Questions · Deck-grounded answers · User-directed return

Interactive AI Presenter

Codex reads text and speaker notes from the whole deck through qp export --json. Ask a question in natural language: the external agent uses that context to answer and, when useful, selects a relevant slide. Ask it to return to your saved presentation position.

29 seconds · Codex · English screen demo · No audio. Edited to shorten processing waits; this is not a latency benchmark.

The recording asks why Quick Presenter uses Rust instead of Electron. Codex refers to the deck, selects the architecture slide, and answers with its notes. A subsequent request returns the presentation to the saved page.

Try it yourself Sample PDF with notes

Watch the full demo (76 seconds, no audio)

The full recording also covers integration, CLI questions, and ending the interaction.

The external agent interprets the deck, generates answers, and decides which controls to use. Quick Presenter supplies PDF display, accessible text and notes, presentation state, and controls.

Speaker notes · Automatic slide advance

Autopilot

A real PDF. Its original speaker notes. A local voice. Watch the presenter view follow the narration, one slide at a time.

72 seconds · English narration · Recorded on macOS. Press play to hear the demo.

01
Read the notes
The external runner reads speaker notes embedded in a Marp PDF through qp.
02
Speak with TTS
Local speech synthesis (Kokoro) turns each note into audio. The runner waits for playback to finish.
03
Move forward
The CLI advances the slide. The current view, notes, and next-page preview follow along.

This demo reads your words verbatim. Kokoro is an optional external engine; Quick Presenter provides the PDF context and playback controls.

Try the demo yourself

The external Python runner checks rendering and note readiness, waits for audio to finish, and stops on generation or playback failure.

Download the notes-bearing sample PDF

Read the demo transcript

Slide 1. Welcome to this short Quick Presenter demo. Each slide has a speaker note containing the words you are hearing. The demo reads those notes aloud, waits for the speech to finish, and then moves to the next slide.

Slide 2. The audience sees only the key ideas on this slide. The full explanation lives in the speaker notes embedded in the PDF. This demo reads that explanation word for word. It does not invent an explanation or read the bullet points instead.

Slide 3. Notice that this slide stays on screen while the narration is playing. Only after the speech finishes does the demo ask Quick Presenter to move forward. If speech playback fails, the demo stops without sending a page change. Keep presentation control exclusive while the demo runs.

Slide 4. That is the end of the demo. The presentation will stay on this final slide. To make your own version, edit the slide text and the speaker notes in the Markdown source, then export a new PDF with Marp's PDF notes option enabled. Thank you for listening.

The AI agent interface

Read the deck. Control the flow. Observe changes.

A stable CLI gives external tools access to deck information and presentation operations. Conversation and narration are two examples of what you can build.

Read

Give agents the whole deck.

Export text and speaker notes from every page as JSON without changing the displayed slide. Use qp context --full --json for current and next page context. Images, diagrams, and OCR are not included.

qp export --json

Control

Choose the next action.

Open a PDF, select a page, or advance. Pages are one-based; 3 below is a syntax example, not a fixed destination for any question.

qp goto 3 --json
qp next --json

Observe

Follow the presentation.

Check the current page and rendering or note state. Observe changes as NDJSON; use status to check readiness.

qp status --json
qp watch --json

Bring your own agent

Build with your own agent.

Connect a local model, hosted service, or script through the CLI integration you configure. Your agent interprets the deck, generates answers, and decides what to do. Quick Presenter supplies PDF display, accessible source information, state, and controls.

Explore the CLI reference

A workflow through qp

# Open the prepared PDF
qp open talk.pdf --json

# Read all pages and speaker notes
qp export --json

# Select a page (syntax example)
qp goto 3 --json

# Check presentation state
qp status --json

Control Protocol v1, JSON results, typed errors, and documented exit codes support a stable interface for external tools.

Essential workflow

Stay oriented while your workflow runs.

Presenter window

Your presenter view, always in context.

The speaker-facing window keeps the active slide, next slide preview, speaker notes, timer, clock, and page position in one place.

Quick Presenter showing the current slide, next slide, speaker notes, and timer.

Audience slide window showing the Quick Presenter title slide.

Audience output

Keep the projected slide clean.

The audience-facing slide window stays dedicated to the deck, while presenter details remain on the speaker side.

Prepare your PDF

Export the slides. Include the notes.

Quick Presenter also works as a regular PDF presenter without AI. Create slides in your authoring tool, export a PDF, and use the presenter and audience windows. Editing stays in your authoring tool.

1. Export a display-ready PDF.

Use Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Marp, or LaTeX Beamer to prepare the deck. The exported PDF is the input to Quick Presenter.

2. Include accessible speaker notes.

A PDF export does not necessarily contain extractable notes. With Marp, keep notes in Markdown comments and export with --pdf-notes. Check the notes in Quick Presenter before presenting.

marp --no-config --pdf --pdf-notes talk.md --output talk.pdf

Marp notes and Autopilot setup Sample PDF with notes PDF compatibility

Get Quick Presenter 2.5.0

Choose your OS and workflow.

Install Quick Presenter 2.5.0 for your OS. For AI integration, use the GUI and CLI from the same v2.5.0 package.

New in 2.5.0: Mac App Store CLI support, more reliable presenter keys and fullscreen transitions, and improved macOS PDF opening. Read the release notes.

Windows

Quick Presenter v2.5.0 is available from Microsoft Store, with the qp.exe CLI execution alias included.

Microsoft Store

macOS

Quick Presenter v2.5.0 is available from Mac App Store, now with qp CLI control. Requires Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 14.4 or later.

Mac App Store

Linux

Install the v2.5.0 Debian package from GitHub Releases, with the qp CLI included.

Debian package

CLI setup and demo guide

For macOS, an open-source distribution package is also available as a signed and notarized v2.5.0 DMG. It includes the CLI and supports Apple silicon with macOS 13 or later. To install, open the downloaded DMG and copy Quick Presenter.app to your Applications folder.

The Store editions are donation editions: purchasing them supports development.

Open source · Support development

Built in the open for reliable talks.

Public source, release notes, and issue tracking keep development open. Bug reports, ideas, and code contributions help improve reliable PDF playback and CLI integration across platforms.

Source code Report an issue