pptx2svg

Render PowerPoint (.pptx) slides to SVG, and SVG to PNG, in pure Python.

Parsing, layout and SVG generation need nothing beyond the standard library (and the sibling ooxml-common); PNG output delegates to resvg via resvg-py. Shape geometry, chart layout, table styles and font metrics are checked against PowerPoint's own output rather than guessed, and the constants carry the measurement that produced them.

Install

Neither pptx2svg nor ooxml-common is on PyPI yet; install from GitHub:

pip install "ooxml-common @ git+https://github.com/uvrt/ooxml-common@main"
pip install "pptx2svg[png] @ git+https://github.com/uvrt/pptx2svg@main"
pip install "pptx2svg-fonts @ git+https://github.com/uvrt/pptx2svg@main#subdirectory=packages/pptx2svg-fonts"

SVG output needs no extra. png adds the rasteriser. Install pptx2svg-fonts for PNG output (the third line; about 11 MB): it is the fonts the PNG is drawn with --

• Carlito, Arimo, Tinos and Cousine, stand-ins with the advance widths of Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New, so text is drawn at the widths it was laid out at; Caladea for Cambria;
• Noto Sans JP for Japanese and Chinese text (Meiryo, Yu Gothic, MS Gothic, SimSun...);
• Lato and Raleway, two faces template decks name.

All are under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, each with its licence text in the package (pptx2svg_fonts/licenses/); the package's own code is MIT. No Microsoft font is in it. Without it the PNG is drawn with whatever fonts the machine has, and text no installed font can draw -- on a server with no CJK font, every Japanese, Chinese or Korean character -- is left out: pptx2svg then warns (glyphs-missing, a MissingGlyphsWarning), once per face and script. The other extras (metafile, cairo, measure) and how Office's own faces are used on a Mac: docs/usage.md.

Use

from pptx2svg import convert_pptx_to_svg, convert_pptx_to_png, ConvertOptions

svgs = convert_pptx_to_svg("deck.pptx")                               # list[str], one per slide
pngs = convert_pptx_to_png("deck.pptx", ConvertOptions(width=1920))   # list[bytes]

options = ConvertOptions(slide_numbers=[3], width=1280)
svg = convert_pptx_to_svg("deck.pptx", options)[0]
for warning in options.warnings:     # anything unsupported is reported, not silently dropped
    print(warning)                   # [code] (slide N) message

pptx2svg deck.pptx -o out/ -f both -s 1,3-5 --width 1920
pptx2svg fonts --check deck.pptx     # exit 1 if this deck cannot be drawn faithfully

What PowerPoint takes from its machine rather than the file -- a chart's decimal and thousands separators, the language of a date field that names none -- comes from ConvertOptions(locale=...) (an ooxml_common.locales.Locale), en-US unless given and never read from the server. A date field shows ConvertOptions(now=...), else the current time in the server's local time zone: pin it, or pass an aware datetime in the user's zone (docs/usage.md).

Also: the resolved model (convert_pptx_to_model), a compact agent view for a language model to read (convert_pptx_to_agent_svg), and, for a live view people edit, pictures by reference, edit marks with a stable id contract, the slide by shape and no links (images=, edit_marks=, slide_groups, hyperlinks=) -- see docs/usage.md.

What is rendered

• Shapes and text: all 186 ECMA-376 preset geometries plus custom geometry, the full text inheritance cascade, bullets, wrapping (Latin and CJK), autofit, vertical text, tabs and columns; fills, outlines, shadows, glow, soft edges, pictures, groups, hyperlinks.
• Tables with merged cells and all 74 of PowerPoint's built-in table styles.
• Charts: every c:*Chart group ECMA-376 defines, with axes, gridlines, legend and data labels; 3-D scenes where measured, otherwise drawn flat with a warning.
• SmartArt from its cached drawing; EMF/WMF from the embedded preview.
• Embedded fonts (ppt/fonts/*.fntdata), for measurement and drawing, licence permitting.

Not rendered: 3-D effects, bevels and reflections (silently flat); SmartArt with no cached drawing; vector EMF/WMF records; the ChartEx family (treemap, sunburst, waterfall, ...). Each but the first warns. Details: docs/rendering.md; what closing each gap involves: ROADMAP.md.

Status

Version 0.2.0, in active development, not yet released to PyPI. CI runs the suite on Linux, macOS and Windows for Python 3.10 to 3.15. Fidelity against PowerPoint is measured locally on a Mac with Office (docs/fidelity.md); CI checks regressions only. Changes: CHANGELOG.md.

Documentation

• docs/usage.md -- install extras, API, CLI, resolved model, agent view, output format
• docs/rendering.md -- the pipeline, what is and is not rendered
• docs/fonts.md -- font summary, embedded fonts, escape hatches, Linux hosts
• FONTS.md -- "the deck names font X: will it be drawn correctly?", end to end
• docs/fidelity.md -- scoring renders against PowerPoint's PDF export
• docs/development.md -- running the tests, snapshots, generated tables
• ROADMAP.md -- what is next and the measurements behind it
• CONTRIBUTING.md, CHANGELOG.md, docs/licensing.md

Family

• pptx2svg (this repo) -- renders PowerPoint (.pptx) slides to SVG and PNG.
• docx2svg -- renders Word (.docx) documents to SVG, page by page.
• ooxml-common -- the format-neutral reading, DrawingML, fonts and text metrics both renderers share.
• ooxml-edit -- lossless, undoable editing of OOXML packages, shared by both agent layers.
• pptx-agent -- an AI-editable PowerPoint layer: inspect, edit, re-render.
• docx-agent -- an AI-editable Word layer: inspect, edit (optionally as tracked changes), re-render.

Licence

MIT (LICENSE). Originally ported from pptx-glimpse (MIT, © Hiroki Sakabe); since extended with geometry, charts, tables and text layout checked against PowerPoint's own PDF export, PowerPoint's font-resolution and kerning rules, the shared ooxml-common core, and an agent SVG view. The fonts in pptx2svg-fonts are SIL OFL 1.1; the .pptx files in tests/fixtures/ are third-party documents not covered by the MIT grant; no Microsoft font is committed anywhere. Details: docs/licensing.md.