[Bug]: HTML-to-PPTX export differs significantly from preview for Chinese decks on Windows PowerPoint
Summary
The official Presenton skill and the public POST /api/v3/export/html-to-any endpoint can generate PPTX files, but the exported PPTX differs significantly from the correct browser preview for a Chinese presentation.
The PDF exported from the exact same validated HTML is visually consistent with the preview. The PPTX is not.
Steps to reproduce
- Create a valid 1280 x 720 presentation HTML with direct slide children under #presentation-slides-wrapper.
- Use Tailwind and import these Google web fonts:
- Noto Sans SC (400/500/700/900)
- ZCOOL KuaiLe
- Validate the HTML with the validator shipped in presenton/skills.
- Export the same HTML separately through /api/v3/export/html-to-any:
- format: pdf
- format: pptx
- Open the PPTX in Microsoft PowerPoint desktop on Windows.
Tested with a 40-slide Chinese middle-school teaching deck.
Expected behavior
The PPTX should remain visually close to the browser preview, including text presence, font selection, line breaks, element sizing, positioning, and image cropping.
If pixel-level fidelity is not supported, the API/skill should clearly report the limitation or offer a flattened image-based PPTX export mode.
Actual behavior
The browser preview renders correctly and the PDF from the same HTML matches it closely, but the PPTX has widespread fidelity problems:
- Web fonts are substituted or rendered with different metrics.
- Chinese text wraps differently and some punctuation moves to a separate line.
- Text boxes and decorative elements change size or position.
- Some slide content can disappear; in our case the cover title was missing while its background card remained.
- Several layouts and image crops differ noticeably from the preview.
This is not limited to LibreOffice, Google Slides, or macOS: it reproduces in Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows.
Additional context
Related to #747, but this is a different failure mode. #747 focuses on missing East Asian font declarations and CJK glyph fallback outside Windows. This report concerns broad HTML-to-PPTX visual fidelity, including missing content and layout changes, in Windows PowerPoint.
No private presentation link or classroom/student imagery is included in this public report. A minimized HTML reproduction can be prepared if needed.
Possible improvements
- Embed or explicitly map imported web fonts during PPTX export.
- Preserve browser-computed text metrics and line breaks more faithfully.
- Add regression tests comparing preview/PDF/PPTX renders for CJK decks.
- Offer an optional flattened 1280 x 720 image-per-slide PPTX mode for presentation fidelity.
- Document the editability-versus-fidelity tradeoff in the official skill.
Source: presenton/presenton