mdp(1)

Input Control

FILE

The input file from which the presentation is read. If no file is specified, or if the file name is -, the presentation is read from standard input.

Output Control

-c, --nocodebg

Don't change the background color of code blocks.

-e, --expand

Enable character entity expansion (e.g. '>' becomes '>').

-f, --nofade

Disable color fading in 256 color mode.

-i, --invert

Swap black and white color.

-j N, --jump N

Jump to slide number N.

-L N, --left-indent N

Shift slide content by N columns to the right.

-s, --noslidenum

Do not show slide number at the bottom.

-T N, --top-indent N

Shift slide content by N rows down.

-t, --notrans

Disable transparency in transparent terminal.

-x, --noslidemax

Show slide number, but not total number of slides.

Miscellaneous Options

-d, --debug

Enable debug messages on STDERR. Add multiple times to increases debug level.

-h, --help

Display usage message and exit.

-v, --version

Display version and license information.

Output Control

MDP_LIST_HEAD[1-3], MDP_LIST_OPEN[1-3]

Controls the list characters of unordered lists.

The default is equivalent to:
MDP_LIST_OPEN1=' | '
MDP_LIST_OPEN2=' | '
MDP_LIST_OPEN3=' | '
MDP_LIST_HEAD1=' +- '
MDP_LIST_HEAD2=' +- '
MDP_LIST_HEAD3=' +- '

Slides

The input FILE is split into multiple slides by horizontal rules. Each consisting of at least 3 --- or *** characters on a single line. This line must be prefixed by an completely empty line. It can also contain spaces but no other characters.

If any slide is too large to fit into your current screen, an error message will be displayed at the moment the presentation is launched.

Line-by-Line Mode

Block-by-Block Mode

A single <br>, <BR> or ^ on an otherwise empty line signals mdp to stop output of the current slide (stop point) and wait for a key-press by the user.

This enables the user to display bullet points or list items one by one (line by line) or block by block.

Headers

mdp supports metadata lines at the top of the input file in the form [KEY]:[VALUE]. The first metadata entry is used as the title, and repeated footer: entries are used for the lower bar. If only one footer value is given, it is centered when slide numbers are hidden. For example:

<!--
title: Example Presentation
footer: Someone
footer: 2026-01-01
-->

Legacy metadata is also accepted as %title:,%author:,%date: lines at the top of the input file. The old %author: and %date: labels are treated as the first and second footer values respectively. HTML comments may be used to hide those metadata lines from the slide deck, and the comment metadata does not require % prefixes.

Headers are only recognized at the top of the input FILE.

Line spanning markup

Supported are headlines, code blocks, quotes and unordered lists.

In-line markup

As well as bold text, underlined text and in-line code.