Parallax — one Markdown file becomes a zoomable presentation
Can a single editable Markdown file turn into a zoom-and-drill-down presentation — where the heading hierarchy itself defines the camera levels — without a framework or a proprietary tool like Prezi?
The document outline is already a camera map. A # is the widest shot, a ## zooms in one level, a ### deeper still — so the structure you'd write anyway becomes the navigation, for free. And the golden-ratio type and spacing system I built for GOLDEN·GRID dropped straight in: one design language, reused instead of reinvented.
It's an early MVP. The engine runs and the concept holds, but I haven't visually polished or stress-tested it yet. Parked while two things mature: a shared set of design tokens across my sites, and a 'bake' step that exports a finished deck so it can be published here in the hub.
What it is
Parallax is a small, framework-free ("vanilla") engine. You write one Markdown file, and it renders as a presentation you navigate by zooming — pulling back to see the whole structure at once, pushing in to read the detail. There are no slides to lay out by hand.
The core idea
The trick is that the heading hierarchy is the zoom hierarchy:
#— the widest view (the whole talk)##— zoom into a section###— zoom one level deeper, into a single point
You write a normal outline; the camera levels come from it automatically. The interaction is inspired by the zoom interface of multiverse.school.
What it supports
- Images and YouTube embeds placed inside the zoomable space.
- The φ / LiftKit golden-ratio system from my GOLDEN·GRID tool — modular type scale, golden-ratio frames, and an "optical box" for padding and corner radius. The same design language as the rest of my work, reused rather than rebuilt.
Where it stands
Early. The MVP works as a proof of concept, but it isn't visually verified or polished. The next steps are clear: unify the design tokens across my sites so Parallax pulls from the same source, and add a "bake" step — a way to export a finished presentation as a standalone piece that can live here in the hub.