Configuration Guide

Setting Up Your Presentation

At the very top of your slides.md file, add a configuration section:

---
theme: scholarly
lang: en  # or 'zh' for Chinese
footerMiddle: Conference Name 2025
authors:
  - name: Jane Smith
    institution: MIT
    email: [email protected]
  - name: John Doe
    institution: Stanford
    email: [email protected]
---

Configuration Options

Basic Settings

Option	What it does	Example
theme	Tells Slidev to use this theme	scholarly
lang	Language for theorems	en or zh
aspectRatio	Slide dimensions	16/9 or 4/3

Author Information

Single author:

author: Jane Smith

Multiple authors (recommended):

authors:
  - name: Jane Smith
    institution: MIT
    email: [email protected]
  - name: John Doe
    institution: Stanford

Footer Configuration

Option	What it controls	Example
footerLeft	Left side of footer	Custom text
footerMiddle	Middle of footer	Conference 2025
footerRight	Right side (auto)	Page numbers

Default behavior (if not specified):

• Left: Shows author name(s)
• Middle: Empty (or your custom text)
• Right: Page numbers (automatic)

Theme Configuration

Use themeConfig for theme-level behavior:

themeConfig:
  beamerNav: false  # hide footer navigation buttons
  outlineToc: true
  outlineTocOpen: false

Option	What it controls	Default
themeConfig.beamerNav	Show beamer-style footer navigation buttons in live play mode	true
themeConfig.outlineToc	Show a compact TOC button in the footer that opens an outline panel	false
themeConfig.outlineTocOpen	Start with the outline panel expanded	false

Notes:

• The buttons appear only in the live slide player.
• They are automatically hidden in overview, embedded, and print/export views.
• The TOC panel is grouped by layout: section and lists jump targets inside each section.
• In desktop play mode, if the device supports hover and the viewport is wide enough, hovering or keyboard-focusing a TOC item shows a slide preview card to the left of the panel.
• When the TOC opens, it previews the current slide by default. If the current slide is hidden with hideInToc: true, it falls back to the first visible TOC item.
• Slides with hideInToc: true are hidden automatically.
• The legacy outlineSidebar / outlineSidebarOpen keys still work, but outlineToc / outlineTocOpen are the preferred names now.

Theorem Number Format

Customize how theorem numbers appear:

theoremNumberFormat: '{number}'      # 1, 2, 3 (default)
theoremNumberFormat: '({number})'    # (1), (2), (3)
theoremNumberFormat: '[{number}]'    # [1], [2], [3]
theoremNumberFormat: '{number}.'     # 1., 2., 3.

Font Size Configuration

You can customize font sizes globally or per-slide for the body text and headings (h1, h2, h3).

Global font size (applies to all slides):

---
theme: scholarly
fontsize:
  body: 18px    # Base font size for body text
  h1: 48px      # Font size for h1 headings
  h2: 36px      # Font size for h2 headings
  h3: 28px      # Font size for h3 headings
---

Per-slide font size override:

You can override font sizes for individual slides by adding the fontsize configuration to that slide's frontmatter:

---
fontsize:
  body: 20px
  h1: 50px
  h2: 40px
  h3: 30px
---

# This slide has custom font sizes

## Subtitle with custom h2 size

### Sub-subtitle with custom h3 size

Body text will be 20px on this slide.

Changing font size for the cover slide only:

Since the first slide automatically uses the cover layout and settings in the global frontmatter apply to all slides, the best way to customize only the cover slide's font size is to use inline CSS styles.

Add a <style> tag in the cover slide's comment section:

---
theme: scholarly
authors:
  - name: Your Name
    institution: Your University
---

# Your Presentation Title
Subtitle text

<style>
.slidev-layout.cover h1 {
  font-size: 64px;
}

.slidev-layout.cover h2 {
  font-size: 40px;
}
</style>

---

# Introduction

This slide uses default font sizes.

You can customize any CSS property for the cover slide this way:

<style>
.slidev-layout.cover h1 {
  font-size: 72px;
  color: #5d8392;
  font-weight: bold;
}

.slidev-layout.cover .author-name {
  font-size: 24px;
}

.slidev-layout.cover .author-institution {
  font-size: 20px;
}
</style>

Alternative: Use fontsize for content slides:

If you want most slides to have custom font sizes but keep the cover at default size, set fontsize on each content slide:

---
theme: scholarly
---

# Cover Slide (Default large fonts)

---
fontsize:
  body: 16px
  h1: 36px
---

# Slide 2 (Custom fonts)

---
fontsize:
  body: 16px
  h1: 36px
---

# Slide 3 (Custom fonts)

Flexible format:

Font sizes accept multiple formats:

fontsize:
  body: 18px      # pixels
  h1: 3rem        # rem units
  h2: 2.5em       # em units
  h3: 32          # number (treated as pixels)

Font size notes:

• All font size options are optional - you can set any combination
• Per-slide settings override global settings
• If not specified, the theme uses default font sizes optimized for each layout
• Font sizes are applied using CSS variables for maximum compatibility

Footnote Display Configuration

You can set a global footnote display mode in the headmatter, and override it for individual slides when needed.

Global footnote display (applies to all slides by default):

---
theme: scholarly
footnoteDisplay: hover-only
---

Per-slide footnote display override:

---
footnoteDisplay: notes-only
---

Priority order:

• Per-slide footnoteDisplay
• Global headmatter footnoteDisplay
• Legacy themeConfig.footnoteDisplay
• Default both

Available values:

• both: keep the bottom footnotes and the inline hover/click preview
• hover-only: hide the bottom footnotes and keep only the inline preview
• notes-only: keep the bottom footnotes and disable the hover/click popover

Per-Slide Settings

You can override settings for individual slides:

---
title: Special Slide
subtitle: With custom header
---

# Content here