LaTeX2Video Flask Apps

What Is Beamer?

Beamer is a LaTeX document class used to create presentation slides (.tex files) instead of PowerPoint files. It is popular in academic and technical work because slides are text-based, version-control friendly, and easy to automate.

This project helps bridge Beamer workflows with presentation/video outputs by converting Beamer sources into formats that are easier to share, edit, and narrate.

This repository includes two Flask apps:

1. app.py (port 8000): Upload a Beamer .zip and convert it to:

• Editable .pptx
• Image-based .pptx (with notes from \narration{...})
• Narrated .mp4 video

2. pptx_video_app.py (port 8001): Upload a .pptx, read speaker notes, and generate a narrated .mp4.

Screenshots and Flow

App 1 (app.py) - Beamer ZIP Converter

App 2 (pptx_video_app.py) - PPTX Notes to Video

Combined Architecture / Flow

Setup

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run App 1: Beamer ZIP Converter

python app.py

Open http://localhost:8000

Use this when your source is LaTeX Beamer files packaged as a .zip.

Run App 2: PPTX Notes to Video

python pptx_video_app.py

Open http://localhost:8001

Use this when you already have a .pptx and want a narrated video from slide notes.

Demo Files

• demo/basic_demo.tex: Basic 4-slide academic Beamer demo with narration tags and an image.
• demo/basic_demo_upload.zip: Ready-to-upload zip for app.py.
• demo/latex_to_pptx_to_video_demo.tex: Demo for the full two-app pipeline (LaTeX -> PPTX -> narrated MP4) with an image.
• demo/latex_to_pptx_to_video_demo_upload.zip: Ready-to-upload zip for app.py.
• demo/assets/: Image assets used by the demo slides.
• demo/README.md: Step-by-step instructions for running the demos.

Requirements Notes

• Beamer ZIP app expects a .zip containing the main .tex and referenced assets.
• If Beamer conversion script location varies, set BEAMER_TO_PPTX_SCRIPT=/full/path/to/beamer_to_pptx.py.
• If multiple .tex files exist, the app prefers a Beamer class file.
• Beamer image/video paths need latexmk and pdftoppm.
• Video generation needs ffmpeg.
• PPTX app uses LibreOffice (soffice) + pdftoppm for full rendering when available.
• Without LibreOffice, the PPTX app falls back to extracting embedded slide images.