iA Presenter: A different way to build a slide deck
iA Presenter is a new tool for building presentations or slide decks. It launches today. For now it is Mac-only.
It is in the same space as PowerPoint1, Keynote and Google Slides, but distinct from its rivals.
As you might expect from the company behind iA Writer, the software is elegant and, when compared with other presentation creation tools, minimalist.
You write out your thoughts using Markdown. This means working in text.
iA Presenter removes clutter, gives you focus
The idea is that it keeps all the unnecessary elements out of the way and lets you create your slides without being distracted by other parts of the process. iA’s marketing pitch says this lets you concentrate on telling your story, not building fancy slides.
If you are familiar with iA Writer, that app does much the same thing letting you focus on your writing.
iA has an interesting price model for Presenter. The company discusses pricing for iA Presenter at length on its blog. You can pay US$4.952 for a month, $49.50 for a year or $99 to purchase the software outright. There are discounts for students and bulk prices for companies buying multiple licences.
A compatibility mode lets you export to PowerPoint. That format will work as easily with Keynote and Google Slides. ↩︎
If iA took its minimalist approach to pricing that would be a no-nonsense $5 a month, $50 a year or a $100 purchase. ↩︎