dais: A Native PDF Presenter Console

CI Crates.io License: MIT

dais is a cross-platform PDF presentation console written in Rust for researchers and academics who build slides in LaTeX/Beamer, Typst, PowerPoint, or Keynote. dais is designed for straightforward installation, reliable operation in real presentation setups, and compatibility with existing slide workflows.

Features

  • Multi-monitor presenter view with an audience display and a presenter console with notes, timer, and navigation.
  • Overlay and build-step support for pdfpc metadata, Beamer \pdfpc, and manual grouping.
  • Presentation tools including laser pointer styles, freehand ink, highlighter, eraser, whiteboard, spotlight, zoom, freeze, blackout, and a slide overview grid.
  • Browser remote at /remote for phone and tablet control, with slide previews, notes editing, annotation, text boxes, timer controls, navigation, pairing URLs, and QR codes.
  • Local remote-control API and dais remote ... subcommands for scripts, Stream Decks, classroom automation, and other external controllers.
  • Per-logical-slide target durations in .dais sidecars, with presenter timer color changes when a slide runs over.
  • Markdown speaker notes from --notes <path>, with edits saved back to the Markdown file.
  • Annotated export with saved ink annotations, Typst text boxes, whiteboard pages, SVG/PNG output, layer selection, and handout export.
  • .pdfpc compatibility and a native .dais sidecar format.
  • Fully remappable keybindings with presenter-console defaults.
  • Single-binary distribution with no runtime dependencies or installers.

Installation

Install from crates.io with Cargo (requires Rust 1.92+):

cargo install dais

Or download a pre-built binary from GitHub Releases.

Quick Start

dais presentation.pdf

Usage

dais <file.pdf>                  # Present with auto-detected display mode
dais --single <file.pdf>         # Single-monitor mode (no audience window)
dais --screen-share <file.pdf>   # Screen-share mode (audience as normal window)
dais --edit <file.pdf>           # Open the slide grouping editor
dais --config <path> <file.pdf>  # Use a specific config file
dais --notes <path> <file.pdf>   # Use a Markdown speaker notes file
dais --portable <file.pdf>       # Skip OS user config for portable/USB use
dais --time-ignore <file.pdf>    # Do not update slide timing data on save
dais --test-input                # Diagnostic mode for clicker/remote setup
dais export <file.pdf> --out <file.pdf> [--handout]
                                  # Export a copy with annotations and text boxes applied
dais --remote <file.pdf>         # Start the local remote-control API and web remote
dais --remote-lan <file.pdf>     # Start the web remote for phone/tablet pairing
dais remote action next_slide    # Control a running presentation

Display Modes

  • Dual: presenter console on the primary monitor, audience fullscreen on a secondary monitor. Press F6 to swap them for the current session.
  • Single: one-window mode. Press F5 to switch between the presenter console and the configured single-monitor presentation surface.
  • Screen-share: the audience view is a normal resizable window for Zoom/Teams sharing.
  • Remote: local HTTP API, browser remote at /remote, presenter QR pairing, and dais remote ... commands for scripts, phone/tablet controls, and external adapters.

With one monitor, dais automatically falls back to single mode.

Grouping Editor

For PDFs without embedded overlay metadata, such as PowerPoint exports, use the built-in editor:

dais --edit slides.pdf

Use the “Split after” buttons beneath each thumbnail to split a group, and the “Merge” buttons between groups to combine them. Save writes the configured sidecar format. When loading, dais checks .dais before .pdfpc.

Building From Source

Requires Rust 1.92+.

To install from the git repository without cloning:

cargo install --git https://github.com/christopherkenny/dais.git --package dais --bin dais

The binary will be at target/release/dais, or dais.exe on Windows.

Documentation

Architecture

dais is organized as an 8-crate Cargo workspace:

Crate Role
dais Binary for CLI parsing and app launch
dais-core Commands, state types, command bus, config, keybindings
dais-engine Presentation engine that processes commands and owns state
dais-document DocumentSource trait, hayro PDF renderer, and page cache
dais-sidecar .dais and .pdfpc sidecar formats
dais-platform Platform-specific monitor enumeration
dais-remote HTTP remote-control server, browser remote, and REST API
dais-ui egui UI for the presenter console, audience window, and grouping editor