---
title: Exporting
description: PDF handouts, per-slide screenshots, and the contact sheet. All three run the deck in a browser at canvas scale.
sidebar:
  icon: image-down
---

PDF export and screenshots build the app, serve it on a spare port, and open a browser at canvas scale. The contact-sheet command arranges screenshots that already exist.

## PDF

```bash
pnpm exec playwright install chromium
deckard export pdf
```

One page per slide at the deck's canvas size, captured from the canvas element. `1920x1080` becomes `1440x810pt`, which is the same thing at 96dpi. The page size comes from the `canvas` config in `deck/deck.ts`, the same config the deck renders with.

Output lands at `out/slides.pdf` in the deck's own directory.

| Flag | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `--dark` | off, so the export is **light** | Export the dark deck instead. |
| `--skip-build` | off | Reuse whatever is in `.next`. |
| `--port <n>` | `3410`, or `PDF_EXPORT_PORT` | Move the temporary server off a busy port. |

Pass `--dark` when the PDF is for a screen rather than for print.

In export mode the build runs with `NEXT_PUBLIC_PDF_EXPORT=1`, which:

- disables animations and transitions
- drops the deck controls
- keeps the deck header and footer, exactly as each slide's own modes say

Set `PDF_EXPORT_OUTPUT` to write somewhere other than `out/slides.pdf`. It resolves against the deck directory.

:::note
The export uses its own build profile, separate from the one the screenshot and overflow commands share, because it needs the export environment variables compiled in. Expect a build the first time even after running `deckard screenshots`.
:::

## Screenshots

```bash
deckard screenshots
deckard screenshots --light --max 5
```

One PNG per slide at canvas size, written to `out/screenshots/<id>.png`, plus a `manifest.json` recording the canvas size, the color mode, and every slide's file, id, number, and title.

| Flag | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `--light` | off, so **dark** | Capture light mode. |
| `--max <n>` | all | Stop after n slides. |
| `--skip-build` | off | Reuse whatever is in `.next`. |
| `--port <n>` | `3411` | Move the temporary server off a busy port. |

The directory is wiped and recreated on each run, so the manifest and the PNGs never disagree.

Every capture asserts the applied color mode matches the one requested, and throws naming the slide rather than writing a mislabelled PNG. A theme that pins itself to dark still shoots light when you ask, because the harness seeds the color-mode storage key before the page loads.

## Contact sheet

```bash
deckard screenshots
deckard contact-sheet --columns 5
```

Composes the existing screenshots into `out/contact-sheet.png`, a labelled grid of the whole deck. It does not build or serve anything; it reads `out/screenshots/manifest.json` and fails telling you to run the screenshots first if that file is missing. The color mode comes from the manifest.

`--columns <n>` sets the grid width and defaults to `4`.

Three slides in a row that all end above the halfway line, or the same numbered list twice back to back, are invisible one slide at a time and obvious in a grid.

## Build reuse

The screenshot, overflow, and PDF commands share one harness. It stamps `.next/deckard-build.json` after a build and compares that timestamp against the newest file under `app/`, `assets/`, `components/`, `deck/`, `hooks/`, `lib/`, and `public/`, plus `components.json`, `next.config.*`, `package.json`, `postcss.config.*`, `tsconfig.json`, and the resolved `@thebuilder/deckard-core` and its `src/`. A stale stamp triggers `next build`.

`--skip-build` reuses whatever is there regardless. `--port <n>` moves off the default when something else has the port; the harness refuses to start if anything already answers on it.

## Slide discovery

The harness reads slide ids from the app's own `/sitemap.xml`, which is `app/sitemap.ts` re-exporting `createDeckSitemap(deck)`. Export and screenshots stay aligned with your published slide paths, and an app that dropped that route gets an error naming it.