Web export

The astro-slides export command turns a deck into a shareable artifact. Three web formats are supported — a single PDF, one PNG per slide, or a self-contained offline HTML bundle — all driven by the same command:

astro-slides export --format pdf   # single PDF, one page per slide
astro-slides export --format png   # one image per slide
astro-slides export --format html  # offline SPA bundle (zip)

--format defaults to pdf. The command builds the deck, starts a preview server, and (for PDF/PNG) drives a headless Chromium browser to render each slide.

Playwright is required for PDF and PNG

PDF and PNG export drive headless Chromium through Playwright, which ships as an optional peer dependency of the CLI — it is not installed by default. Before your first PDF/PNG export, install it and download the browser:

pnpm add -D @playwright/test
pnpm exec playwright install chromium

If Playwright is missing, the export fails with:

Export needs Playwright. Install @playwright/test and run playwright install chromium.

HTML export does not need Playwright — it just zips the built site.

PDF

astro-slides export --format pdf

Produces a single PDF with one page per slide. Every click step is revealed, so animated builds appear fully expanded in the output. The default file is <deck>.pdf in the project directory.

Under the hood the PDF is rendered from the deck’s /print/<deck> route (see The /print route below), which stacks all slides as page-sized blocks, then sliced to the requested range with pdf-lib.

Useful PDF-only flags:

• --with-toc — add a PDF outline (bookmarks) built from slide titles.
• --per-slide — write one PDF file per slide instead of a single document. When set, --output is treated as a directory. Note that splitting drops cross-slide links.
• --scale <n> — render scale.

# A5-range PDF with a table of contents
astro-slides export --format pdf --range 1-10 --with-toc --output intro.pdf

# One PDF per slide into ./handout/
astro-slides export --format pdf --per-slide --output handout/

PNG

astro-slides export --format png

Produces one PNG image per slide. Images are captured from each slide’s ?embed=1 page (chrome-free — see ?embed=1). The default output is a <deck>-png/ directory.

Useful PNG-only flags:

• --with-clicks — emit one image per click step, so animated builds export as a frame sequence.
• --scale <n> — device-pixel-ratio for the screenshots (default 2, i.e. 2× resolution).
• --omit-background — transparent background instead of the deck background.

# High-res PNGs of slides 3-5, one frame per click step
astro-slides export --format png --range 3-5 --with-clicks --scale 3 --output frames/

HTML

astro-slides export --format html

Zips the built dist/ into a single offline HTML bundle (default dist.zip). The bundle is a self-contained SPA — open index.html in a browser with no server required. This format does not use Playwright.

astro-slides export --format html --output my-deck.zip

Common flags

These apply across the web formats:

Flag	Applies to	Purpose
--format <fmt>	all	pdf | png | html (default pdf).
--output <path>	all	Output file (pdf / html / single pdf) or directory (png / --per-slide pdf).
--range "1,3-5,8"	pdf, png	Subset of slides to include (see below).
--dark	pdf, png	Force the dark color scheme.
--executable-path <path>	pdf, png	Use your own Chromium binary instead of Playwright’s.

--range

--range accepts a Slidev-style spec: a comma-separated list of slide numbers and inclusive ranges. Slides are 1-indexed. Out-of-bounds and duplicate entries are ignored, and the result is sorted.

astro-slides export --format pdf --range "1,3-5,8"

Exports slides 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8.

The /print route

Every deck exposes a /print/<deck> route that renders all slides stacked as page-sized blocks, one per page, with all click steps revealed. This is the page PDF export renders (once) before slicing to the requested range with pdf-lib. It reuses the deck’s own layouts and components, so the print output matches the live deck. You can open it in a browser and use the browser’s own “Print → Save as PDF” as a manual alternative to the CLI.

Embed mode

Appending ?embed=1 to a slide URL adds an .as-embed class that hides presentation chrome (help overlay, status bar, drawing tools) while keeping the slide navigable. PNG export screenshots these embed pages so exported images are free of UI chrome. ?embed=1 is also handy for embedding a live slide in an <iframe>.

Note

--dark forces data-color-scheme="dark" for the export’s build, overriding the deck’s colorSchema and the OS preference — every bundled theme honors it. Without the flag, a deck that pins colorSchema: dark (or light) exports that scheme; decks on auto export light, since headless Chromium defaults to a light OS scheme.

Source

• packages/cli/src/main.ts — the export command plus parseRange, slideUrl, printUrl, discoverDecks, exportDeckPdf, exportDeckPng, and zipDirectory (web-export pipeline is self-contained in the CLI).
• packages/cli/package.json — @playwright/test declared as an optional peer.
• packages/core/src/routes/print.astro — the stacked /print/<deck> page.
• packages/client/src/styles/print.css — page sizing + reveal-all-clicks.
• packages/core/src/integration.ts — /, /print, and the 404.html build hook.
• docs/built/12-export-web.md — phase notes.
• docs/architecture/cli.md — full CLI flag surface.