scientific-slides by K-Dense-AI

---
name: scientific-slides
description: Build slide decks and presentations for research talks. Use this for making PowerPoint slides, conference presentations, seminar talks, research presentations, thesis defense slides, or any scientific talk. Provides slide structure, design templates, timing guidance, and visual validation. Works with PowerPoint and LaTeX Beamer.
allowed-tools: Read Write Edit Bash
license: MIT license
metadata:
  version: "1.5"
  skill-author: K-Dense Inc.
  openclaw:
    primaryEnv: OPENROUTER_API_KEY
    envVars:
    - name: OPENROUTER_API_KEY
      required: false
      description: OpenRouter API key for the skill's LLM-powered steps.
---

# Scientific Slides

## Overview

Scientific presentations are a critical medium for communicating research, sharing findings, and engaging with academic and professional audiences. This skill provides comprehensive guidance for creating effective scientific presentations, from structure and content development to visual design and delivery preparation.

**Key Focus**: Oral presentations for conferences, seminars, defenses, and professional talks.

**CRITICAL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY**: Scientific presentations should be VISUALLY ENGAGING and RESEARCH-BACKED. Avoid dry, text-heavy slides at all costs. Great scientific presentations combine:
- **Compelling visuals**: High-quality figures, images, diagrams (not just bullet points)
- **Research context**: Proper citations from research-lookup establishing credibility
- **Minimal text**: Bullet points as prompts, YOU provide the explanation verbally
- **Professional design**: Modern color schemes, strong visual hierarchy, generous white space
- **Story-driven**: Clear narrative arc, not just data dumps

**Remember**: Boring presentations = forgotten science. Make your slides visually memorable while maintaining scientific rigor through proper citations.

## When to Use This Skill

This skill should be used when:
- Preparing conference presentations (5-20 minutes)
- Developing academic seminars (45-60 minutes)
- Creating thesis or dissertation defense presentations
- Designing grant pitch presentations
- Preparing journal club presentations
- Giving research talks at institutions or companies
- Teaching or tutorial presentations on scientific topics

## Slide Generation with Nano Banana Pro

**This skill uses Nano Banana Pro AI to generate stunning presentation slides automatically.**

There are two workflows depending on output format:

### Default Workflow: PDF Slides (Recommended)

Generate each slide as a complete image using Nano Banana Pro, then combine into a PDF. This produces the most visually stunning results.

**How it works:**
1. **Plan the deck**: Create a detailed plan for each slide (title, key points, visual elements)
2. **Generate slides**: Call Nano Banana Pro for each slide to create complete slide images
3. **Combine to PDF**: Assemble slide images into a single PDF presentation

**Step 1: Plan Each Slide**

Before generating, create a detailed plan for your presentation:

```markdown
# Presentation Plan: Introduction to Machine Learning

## Slide 1: Title Slide
- Title: "Machine Learning: From Theory to Practice"
- Subtitle: "AI Conference 2025"
- Speaker: Dr. Jane Smith, University of XYZ
- Visual: Modern abstract neural network background

## Slide 2: Introduction
- Title: "Why Machine Learning Matters"
- Key points: Industry adoption, breakthrough applications, future potential
- Visual: Icons showing different ML applications (healthcare, finance, robotics)

## Slide 3: Core Concepts
- Title: "The Three Types of Learning"
- Content: Supervised, Unsupervised, Reinforcement
- Visual: Three-part diagram showing each type with examples

... (continue for all slides)
```

**Step 2: Generate Each Slide**

Use the `generate_slide_image.py` script to create each slide.

**CRITICAL: Formatting Consistency Protocol**

To ensure unified formatting across all slides in a presentation:

1. **Define a Formatting Goal** at the start of your presentation and include it in EVERY prompt:
   - Color scheme (e.g., "dark blue background, white text, gold accents")
   - Typography style (e.g., "bold sans-serif titles, clean body text")
   - Visual style (e.g., "minimal, professional, corporate aesthetic")
   - Layout approach (e.g., "generous white space, left-aligned content")

2. **Always attach the previous slide** when generating subsequent slides using `--attach`:
   - This allows Nano Banana Pro to see and match the existing style
   - Creates visual continuity throughout the deck
   - Ensures consistent colors, fonts, and design language

3. **Default author is "K-Dense"** unless another name is specified

4. **Include citations directly in the prompt** for slides that reference research:
   - Add citations in the prompt text so they appear on the generated slide
   - Use format: "Include citation: (Author et al., Year)" or "Show reference: Author et al., Year"
   - For multiple citations, list them all in the prompt
   - Citations should appear in small text at the bottom of the slide or near relevant content

5. **Attach existing figures/data for results slides** (CRITICAL for data-driven presentations):
   - When creating slides about results, ALWAYS check for existing figures in:
     - The working directory (e.g., `figures/`, `results/`, `plots/`, `images/`)
     - User-provided input files or directories
     - Any data visualizations, charts, or graphs relevant to the presentation
   - Use `--attach` to include these figures so Nano Banana Pro can incorporate them:
     - Attach the actual data figure/chart for results slides
     - Attach relevant diagrams for methodology slides
     - Attach logos or institutional images for title slides
   - When attaching data figures, describe what you want in the prompt:
     - "Create a slide presenting the attached results chart with key findings highlighted"
     - "Build a slide around this attached figure, add title and bullet points explaining the data"
     - "Incorporate the attached graph into a results slide with interpretation"
   - **Before generating results slides**: List files in the working directory to find relevant figures
   - Multiple figures can be attached: `--attach fig1.png --attach fig2.png`

**Example with formatting consistency, citations, and figure attachments:**

```bash
# Title slide (first slide - establishes the style)
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Title slide for presentation: 'Machine Learning: From Theory to Practice'. Subtitle: 'AI Conference 2025'. Speaker: K-Dense. FORMATTING GOAL: Dark blue background (#1a237e), white text, gold accents (#ffc107), minimal design, sans-serif fonts, generous margins, no decorative elements." -o slides/01_title.png

# Content slide with citations (attach previous slide for consistency)
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Why Machine Learning Matters'. Three key points with simple icons: 1) Industry adoption, 2) Breakthrough applications, 3) Future potential. CITATIONS: Include at bottom in small text: (LeCun et al., 2015; Goodfellow et al., 2016). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style - dark blue background, white text, gold accents, minimal professional design, no visual clutter." -o slides/02_intro.png --attach slides/01_title.png

# Background slide with multiple citations
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Deep Learning Revolution'. Key milestones: ImageNet breakthrough (2012), transformer architecture (2017), GPT models (2018-present). CITATIONS: Show references at bottom: (Krizhevsky et al., 2012; Vaswani et al., 2017; Brown et al., 2020). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly - same colors, fonts, minimal design." -o slides/03_background.png --attach slides/02_intro.png

# RESULTS SLIDE - Attach actual data figure from working directory
# First, check what figures exist: ls figures/ or ls results/
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Model Performance Results'. Create a slide presenting the attached accuracy chart. Key findings to highlight: 1) 95% accuracy achieved, 2) Outperforms baseline by 12%, 3) Consistent across test sets. CITATIONS: Include at bottom: (Our results, 2025). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/04_results.png --attach slides/03_background.png --attach figures/accuracy_chart.png

# RESULTS SLIDE - Multiple figures comparison
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'Before vs After Comparison'. Build a side-by-side comparison slide using the two attached figures. Left: baseline results, Right: our improved results. Add brief labels explaining the improvement. FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/05_comparison.png --attach slides/04_results.png --attach figures/baseline.png --attach figures/improved.png

# METHODOLOGY SLIDE - Attach existing diagram
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Presentation slide titled 'System Architecture'. Present the attached architecture diagram with brief explanatory bullet points: 1) Input processing, 2) Model inference, 3) Output generation. FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/06_architecture.png --attach slides/05_comparison.png --attach diagrams/system_architecture.png
```

**IMPORTANT: Before creating results slides, always:**
1. List files in working directory: `ls -la figures/` or `ls -la results/`
2. Check user-provided directories for relevant figures
3. Attach ALL relevant figures that should appear on the slide
4. Describe how Nano Banana Pro should incorporate the attached figures

**Prompt Template:**

Include these elements in every prompt (customize as needed):
```
[Slide content description]
CITATIONS: Include at bottom: (Author1 et al., Year; Author2 et al., Year)
FORMATTING GOAL: [Background color], [text color], [accent color], minimal professional design, no decorative elements, consistent with attached slide style.
```

**Step 3: Combine to PDF**

```bash
# Combine all slides into a PDF presentation
python scripts/slides_to_pdf.py slides/*.png -o presentation.pdf
```

### PPT Workflow: PowerPoint with Generated Visuals

When creating PowerPoint presentations, use Nano Banana Pro to generate images and figures for each slide, then add text separately using the PPTX skill.

**How it works:**
1. **Plan the deck**: Create content plan for each slide
2. **Generate visuals**: Use Nano Banana Pro with `--visual-only` flag to create images for slides
3. **Build PPTX**: Use the PPTX skill (html2pptx or template-based) to create slides with generated visuals and separate text

**Step 1: Generate Visuals for Each Slide**

```bash
# Generate a figure for the introduction slide
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Professional illustration showing machine learning applications: healthcare diagnosis, financial analysis, autonomous vehicles, and robotics. Modern flat design, colorful icons on white background." -o figures/ml_applications.png --visual-only

# Generate a diagram for the methods slide
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Neural network architecture diagram showing input layer, three hidden layers, and output layer. Clean, technical style with node connections. Blue and gray color scheme." -o figures/neural_network.png --visual-only

# Generate a conceptual graphic for results
python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Before and after comparison showing improvement: left side shows cluttered data, right side shows organized insights. Arrow connecting them. Professional business style." -o figures/results_visual.png --visual-only
```

**Step 2: Build PowerPoint with PPTX Skill**

Use the PPTX skill's html2pptx workflow to create slides that include:
- Generated images from step 1
- Title and body text added separately
- Professional layout and formatting

See `skills/pptx/SKILL.md` for complete PPTX creation documentation.

---

## Visual Enhancement with Scientific Schematics

In addition to slide generation, use the **scientific-schematics** skill for technical diagrams:

**When to use scientific-schematics instead:**
- Complex technical diagrams (circuit diagrams, chemical structures)
- Publication-quality figures for papers (higher quality threshold)
- Diagrams requiring scientific accuracy review

**How to generate schematics:**
```bash
python scripts/generate_schematic.py "your diagram description" -o figures/output.png
```

For detailed guidance on creating schematics, refer to the scientific-schematics skill documentation.

---

## Core Capabilities

Presentation structure and organization, slide design principles, data visualization for
slides, talk-specific guidance, implementation options (Beamer / PowerPoint / generated
PDF), visual review and iteration, timing and pacing, and validation are all documented
in [references/slide_capabilities.md](references/slide_capabilities.md).

The staged development process — planning, design and creation, content development,
visual validation, practice and refinement, and final preparation — is in
[references/presentation_workflow.md](references/presentation_workflow.md).

Prompt-writing guidance for both full-slide and visual-only generation is in
[references/prompt_writing.md](references/prompt_writing.md). Every bundled script's
arguments and options are in
[references/script_reference.md](references/script_reference.md). The mistakes that most
often sink a talk are catalogued in
[references/common_pitfalls.md](references/common_pitfalls.md).

## Integration with Other Skills

**Research Lookup** (Critical for Scientific Presentations):
- **Background development**: Search literature to build introduction context
- **Citation gathering**: Find key papers to cite in your talk
- **Gap identification**: Identify what's unknown to motivate research
- **Prior work comparison**: Find papers to compare your results against
- **Supporting evidence**: Locate literature supporting your interpretations
- **Question preparation**: Find papers that might inform Q&A responses
- **Always use research-lookup** when developing any scientific presentation to ensure proper context and citations

**Scientific Writing**:
- Convert paper content to presentation format
- Extract key findings and simplify
- Use same figures (but redesigned for slides)
- Maintain consistent terminology

**PPTX Skill**:
- Use for PowerPoint creation and editing
- Leverage scripts for template workflows
- Use thumbnail generation for validation
- Reference html2pptx for programmatic creation

**Data Visualization**:
- Create presentation-appropriate figures
- Simplify complex visualizations
- Ensure readability from distance
- Use progressive disclosure

## Reference Files

Comprehensive guides for specific aspects:

- **`references/presentation_structure.md`**: Detailed structure for all talk types, timing allocation, opening/closing strategies, transition techniques
- **`references/slide_design_principles.md`**: Typography, color theory, layout, accessibility, visual hierarchy, design workflow
- **`references/data_visualization_slides.md`**: Simplifying figures, chart types, progressive disclosure, common mistakes, recreation workflow
- **`references/talk_types_guide.md`**: Specific guidance for conferences, seminars, defenses, grants, journal clubs, with examples
- **`references/beamer_guide.md`**: Complete LaTeX Beamer documentation, themes, customization, advanced features, compilation
- **`references/visual_review_workflow.md`**: PDF to images conversion, systematic inspection, issue documentation, iterative improvement

- **`references/slide_capabilities.md`**: presentation structure, design principles, data visualization, talk types, implementation options, visual review, timing, validation
- **`references/presentation_workflow.md`**: the six development stages from planning to final preparation
- **`references/prompt_writing.md`**: full-slide and visual-only prompt patterns
- **`references/script_reference.md`**: arguments and options for every bundled script
- **`references/common_pitfalls.md`**: content, design, and timing mistakes to avoid

## Assets

### Templates

- **`assets/beamer_template_conference.tex`**: 15-minute conference talk template
- **`assets/beamer_template_seminar.tex`**: 45-minute academic seminar template
- **`assets/beamer_template_defense.tex`**: Dissertation defense template

### Guides

- **`assets/powerpoint_design_guide.md`**: Complete PowerPoint design and implementation guide
- **`assets/timing_guidelines.md`**: Comprehensive timing, pacing, and practice strategies

## Quick Start Guide

### For a 15-Minute Conference Talk (PDF Workflow - Recommended)

1. **Research & Plan** (45 minutes):
   - **Use research-lookup** to find 8-12 relevant papers for citations
   - Build reference list (background, comparison studies)
   - Outline content (intro → methods → 2-3 key results → conclusion)
   - **Create detailed plan for each slide** (title, key points, visual elements)
   - Target 15-18 slides

2. **Generate Slides with Nano Banana Pro** (1-2 hours):
   
   **Important: Use consistent formatting, attach previous slides, and include citations!**
   
   ```bash
   # Title slide (establishes style - default author: K-Dense)
   python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Title slide: 'Your Research Title'. Conference name, K-Dense. FORMATTING GOAL: [your color scheme], minimal professional design, no decorative elements, clean and corporate." -o slides/01_title.png
   
   # Introduction slide with citations (attach previous for consistency)
   python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Slide titled 'Why This Matters'. Three key points with simple icons. CITATIONS: Include at bottom: (Smith et al., 2023; Jones et al., 2024). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/02_intro.png --attach slides/01_title.png
   
   # Continue for each slide (always attach previous, include citations where relevant)
   python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "Slide titled 'Methods'. Key methodology points. CITATIONS: (Based on Chen et al., 2022). FORMATTING GOAL: Match attached slide style exactly." -o slides/03_methods.png --attach slides/02_intro.png
   
   # Combine to PDF
   python scripts/slides_to_pdf.py slides/*.png -o presentation.pdf
   ```

3. **Review & Iterate** (30 minutes):
   - Open the PDF and review each slide
   - Regenerate any slides that need improvement
   - Re-combine to PDF

4. **Practice** (2-3 hours):
   - Practice 3-5 times with timer
   - Aim for 13-14 minutes (leave buffer)
   - Record yourself, watch playback
   - **Prepare for questions** (use research-lookup to anticipate)

5. **Finalize** (30 minutes):
   - Generate backup/appendix slides if needed
   - Save multiple copies
   - Test on presentation computer

Total time: ~5-6 hours for quality AI-generated presentation

### Alternative: PowerPoint Workflow

If you need editable slides (e.g., for company templates):

1. **Plan slides** as above
2. **Generate visuals** with `--visual-only` flag:
   ```bash
   python scripts/generate_slide_image.py "diagram description" -o figures/fig1.png --visual-only
   ```
3. **Build PPTX** using the PPTX skill with generated images
4. **Add text** separately using PPTX workflow

See `skills/pptx/SKILL.md` for complete PowerPoint workflow.

## Summary: Key Principles

1. **Visual-First Design**: Every slide needs strong visual element (figure, image, diagram) - avoid text-only slides
2. **Research-Backed**: Use research-lookup to find 8-15 papers, cite 3-5 in intro, 3-5 in discussion
3. **Modern Aesthetics**: Choose contemporary color palette matching topic, not default themes
4. **Minimal Text**: 3-4 bullets, 4-6 words each (24-28pt font), let visuals tell story
5. **Structure**: Follow story arc, spend 40-50% on results
6. **High Contrast**: 7:1 preferred for professional appearance
7. **Varied Layouts**: Mix full-figure, two-column, visual overlays (not all bullets)
8. **Timing**: Practice 3-5 times, ~1 slide per minute, never skip conclusions
9. **Validation**: Visual review workflow to catch overflow and overlap
10. **White Space**: 40-50% of slide empty for visual breathing room

**Remember**: 
- **Boring = Forgotten**: Dry, text-heavy slides fail to communicate your science
- **Visual + Research = Impact**: Combine compelling visuals with research-backed context
- **You are the presentation, slides are visual support**: They should enhance, not replace your talk