Visual Audit of Slide Deck

Perform a thorough visual layout audit of a slide deck, on the source and on the rendered pixels.

Steps

1. Resolve the deck named in $ARGUMENTS and load its premises:

   python3 scripts/deckpath.py $ARGUMENTS --field qmd            # the source
   python3 scripts/deckprofile.py $ARGUMENTS                     # resolved profile JSON
   cat "$(python3 scripts/deckpath.py $ARGUMENTS --field config)"  # <deck>.deck.yml
   

   The density numbers below come from the profile JSON (bullets_max, bullets_max_with_figure, bullets_max_two_line, box_density, max_nesting); quote the deck's own budget in every density finding.

2. Determine the ruleset:

   • Main theme (clean-academic.scss) -> full design-principles audit (.claude/rules/slide-design-principles.md)
   • Legacy theme (clean-academic-legacy.scss) or SUNY's own theme -> legacy audit only (overflow, spacing); skip density limits

3. Screenshot every slide:

   python3 scripts/shoot_slides.py $ARGUMENTS --out /tmp/$ARGUMENTS-shots
   

   This renders the html first when it is missing or older than the qmd, then writes one 1280x720 PNG per slide in reading order (vertical stacks included). Read every PNG - the pixels catch what the source hides: real overflow, wrapped bullets, a figure that failed to load, a video slide stuck on a black frame. (bash scripts/preview.sh <name> still opens the deck in a browser when you need to interact with a slide.)

4. Audit every slide for:

   DENSITY (new decks, budgets from the profile JSON): >1 core message, more bullets than bullets_max (bullets_max_with_figure with a figure; one less again if any bullet wraps to two lines), more wrapped bullets than bullets_max_two_line, any three-line bullet, more colored boxes than box_density, nesting deeper than max_nesting OVERFLOW: Content exceeding slide boundaries - confirm on the PNGs FONT CONSISTENCY: Any .smaller/.smallest in a new deck (forbidden), inline font-size overrides below 1em CENTERING (new decks): ad-hoc positioning fighting the theme, unjustified {.top-align} or {.left}, a deck that re-enables auto-stretch over the Quarto/_quarto.yml project default of false (or a _fixtures/ qmd that fails to repeat it - fixtures sit outside the project defaults) BOX FATIGUE: more boxes on one slide than the budget, wrong box types LAYOUT: Missing transitions, missing framing sentences, semantic colors

5. Produce a report organized by slide with severity and recommendations, its header stating the profile, the audience (from deck.yml, else the profile), and the budget applied

6. Follow the split-first principle:

   1. Split into two slides (the default answer)
   2. Cut content (move to speaker notes)
   3. Two columns (only for genuinely side-by-side pairings)
   4. Reduce image/SVG size
   5. Font size reduction - never recommend it