Images and motion
Two capabilities that are easy to miss until you are inside a deck: how images get onto a slide and how a slide behaves when it is presented. This page documents both, including where each one runs and what it does not do.
Everything described here is in the shipping product. Where a capability has a boundary, the boundary is stated rather than left implied.
Slide media
Images are handled on the slide itself, not in a separate asset step. Open the image control on any slide and you can create one, bring your own, adjust how it sits in the frame, and describe it for accessibility.
Create
Describe what the slide needs and generate an image for it without leaving the deck.
Bring your own
Use your own photography, diagrams, or screenshots on any slide.
Refine
Adjust an image after it is placed, with fine-tuning for framing, text and size in Image Studio.
Frame
Control which part of an image stays visible when the slide crops it, and reset the focal point at any time.
Describe
Write the accessible description once and it stays attached to the image for screen readers and search.
Replace
Remove an image and put a different one in its place without rebuilding the slide.
Scope note: image tools operate on the slide you are editing. Lumen does not currently offer a separate browsable asset library shared across decks, and it does not ship a stock photography catalogue. Images come from generation, from your own files, or from the brand assets you attach.
Presentation animation
When a slide is shown in presentation mode, its content animates in rather than appearing flat. The order follows the structure of the slide, so the room reads the headline before the supporting detail.
The slide title enters immediately, so the point of the slide registers before anything else.
A short beat later the secondary heading follows.
Supporting copy arrives after the headline has landed.
Cards, statistics and steps stagger one after another rather than appearing as a block.
Cards, statistics, process steps, timeline entries, comparison columns, agenda items and FAQ entries each receive their own position in the sequence, so a row of four statistics lands one after another instead of together. The effect is a fade with a short upward movement, applied per element.
If the person viewing the deck has asked their operating system to reduce motion, the animation is suppressed and the deck presents without it. That check happens before any animation runs, so the preference is honoured on the viewer's machine rather than configured by whoever built the deck.
Scope note: this animation applies to decks presented in Lumen. Exported PowerPoint files carry slide content and layout, not these entrance effects, because the animation is part of the in-browser presenter rather than the exported file.
Scope
Multimedia presentation is a loose phrase, and it is worth being exact about which parts of it Lumen covers, because the answer changes what you should plan for.
The two media capabilities documented above are the ones that apply to any slide in the deck: an image you either generated or brought yourself, framed and described where it sits, and a per-element entrance sequence that runs when the slide is shown. Together those are what carry the visual weight of most presentation slides — the picture that makes the point land and the pacing that stops a dense slide arriving all at once.
It is tempting to treat imagery as the slide design lever. In practice the layout does more of the work: whether a point is a comparison, a set of statistics, a process or a timeline decides how the eye moves across the slide, and the image supports that rather than replacing it. Choose the layout for the argument first, then decide what the image is doing there. A picture added to a slide that had no structural problem usually makes the slide slower to read, not faster.
A Lumen slide carries text, layout, and imagery. If a deck genuinely needs an embedded video clip or an audio track, that gets added after export, in PowerPoint. This is stated rather than left to be discovered: if a video is central to the presentation, plan the handoff for it rather than expecting it to survive a browser-based build.
Common questions
Either. Every slide has its own image control: describe what the slide needs and generate an image for it, or upload your own photography, diagrams, and screenshots. Images can also come from the brand assets you attach. What Lumen does not ship is a separate browsable asset library shared across decks or a stock photography catalogue — images come from generation, from your files, or from your brand assets.
Yes. In presentation mode each slide's content arrives in sequence rather than appearing flat: the title first, the subtitle a beat later, then lead and body text, then each repeated element — cards, statistics, process steps, timeline entries, comparison columns, agenda items, FAQ entries — staggered one after another. The effect is a fade with a short upward movement, applied per element.
No. The entrance sequence belongs to the in-browser presenter, so exported PowerPoint files carry slide content and layout without those effects. If the deck will be delivered from PowerPoint and the build order matters, plan to add the animation in PowerPoint after export.
The animation is suppressed and the deck presents without it. The check runs before any animation starts, on the viewing machine, so the preference belongs to the person watching rather than to whoever built the deck. Nothing about the slide content changes — only the entrance.
Current public contract
| Aspect | Current behavior | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| active themes | 33 | Derived from the active presentation-theme registry. |
| slide layouts | 26 | Derived from the implemented slide-layout guides. |
| workflow profiles | 7 | Consulting, finance, startup, sales, executive, product, and general business. |
| delivery formats | 4 | PPTX, PDF, HTML, and slide images |
From source material to presentation handoff
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