Create and use a Smart Design

Smart generation applies the visual language of an existing presentation to a new deck. Use an existing Smart Design or create one from a reference PPTX. This workflow crosses two API versions:

List available Smart Designs with Cloud API v3.
Check fonts, upload the PPTX and fonts, generate previews, and create a Smart Design with API v2.
Pass the resulting design ID to Cloud API v3 presentation generation.

Before you begin

Use a user access token that is authorized to create designs. Pass it as a Bearer token on every request in this workflow:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

All endpoints in this workflow require a user access token. Use the same access token for the v2 design-creation and Cloud v3 requests.

1. List Smart Designs with v3

List the Smart Designs available to the authenticated account:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.presenton.ai/api/v3/smart-design/all?page=1&page_size=10" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

The response is paginated. Use the id of a design as smart_design when generating a presentation.

{
  "total_pages": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "page_size": 10,
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "7e49d7f0-3667-4f48-936a-60b0ca97810f",
      "name": "Acme Brand",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://example.com/designs/acme-brand.png",
      "created_at": "2026-08-07T08:30:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-08-07T08:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

See List Smart Designs. If the design you need is already listed, skip to Generate with the Smart Design.

2. Create a Smart Design with v2

Design creation is asynchronous. Check the reference deck’s fonts, upload any required replacements and generate previews, then start design creation and poll its status.

Check fonts in the reference PPTX

Upload the PPTX to identify fonts Presenton can resolve and fonts for which you must provide files:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.presenton.ai/api/v2/ppt/fonts/check \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --form "pptx_file=@./acme-brand.pptx"

{
  "available_fonts": [
    {
      "name": "Inter Regular",
      "url": "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter",
      "original_name": "Inter",
      "variant": "regular"
    }
  ],
  "unavailable_fonts": [
    {
      "name": "Acme Sans Regular",
      "url": null,
      "original_name": "Acme Sans",
      "variant": "regular"
    }
  ]
}

See Check fonts in a PPTX.

Upload fonts and generate previews

Upload the same PPTX. For each font you want to replace, add one font_files field and one matching original_font_names field. Presenton pairs repeated fields by order.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.presenton.ai/api/v2/ppt/fonts/upload-and-preview \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --form "pptx_file=@./acme-brand.pptx" \
  --form "font_files=@./AcmeSans-Regular.ttf" \
  --form "original_font_names=Acme Sans"

If no font files are required, omit font_files and original_font_names.

{
  "slide_image_urls": [
    "https://example.com/previews/acme-brand/slide-1.png",
    "https://example.com/previews/acme-brand/slide-2.png"
  ],
  "pptx_url": "https://example.com/uploads/acme-brand.pptx",
  "modified_pptx_url": "https://example.com/uploads/acme-brand.pptx",
  "fonts": {
    "Inter": "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter",
    "Acme Sans Regular": "https://example.com/fonts/AcmeSans-Regular.ttf"
  }
}

Review every URL in slide_image_urls before creating the design. Then retain pptx_url, slide_image_urls, and fonts for the next request. See Upload fonts and generate slide previews.

Start asynchronous design creation

Pass pptx_url, slide_image_urls, and fonts from the preview response without modifying them:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.presenton.ai/api/v2/ppt/design/create/async \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "name": "Acme Brand",
    "pptx_url": "https://example.com/uploads/acme-brand.pptx",
    "slide_image_urls": [
      "https://example.com/previews/acme-brand/slide-1.png",
      "https://example.com/previews/acme-brand/slide-2.png"
    ],
    "fonts": {
      "Inter": "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter",
      "Acme Sans Regular": "https://example.com/fonts/AcmeSans-Regular.ttf"
    }
  }'

The response contains the task ID used to monitor design creation:

{
  "id": "task-9a827c13f4",
  "status": "pending",
  "message": "Queued for extraction",
  "created_at": "2026-08-07T08:35:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-08-07T08:35:00Z",
  "data": null
}

See Create a Smart Design asynchronously.

Check design creation status

Poll the status endpoint until status is completed or error:

curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.presenton.ai/api/v2/ppt/design/status/task-9a827c13f4 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

While the task runs, status is pending or processing. A completed response contains the new Smart Design ID in data.design_id:

{
  "id": "task-9a827c13f4",
  "status": "completed",
  "message": "Design created",
  "created_at": "2026-08-07T08:35:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-08-07T08:43:00Z",
  "data": {
    "id": "7e49d7f0-3667-4f48-936a-60b0ca97810f",
    "design_id": "7e49d7f0-3667-4f48-936a-60b0ca97810f",
    "slides": 12
  },
  "error": null
}

If status is error, inspect message and error before retrying. See Get Smart Design creation status.

3. Generate with the Smart Design using v3

Set smart_design to an ID returned by the list endpoint or to data.design_id from the completed design-creation task:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.presenton.ai/api/v3/presentation/generate \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "content": "Create an eight-slide Acme quarterly business review.",
    "n_slides": 8,
    "language": "English",
    "smart_design": "7e49d7f0-3667-4f48-936a-60b0ca97810f",
    "export_as": "pptx"
  }'

{
  "presentation_id": "d3000f96-096c-4768-b67b-e99aed029b57",
  "path": "https://example.com/presentations/Acme-quarterly-business-review.pptx",
  "edit_path": "https://presenton.ai/presentation?id=d3000f96-096c-4768-b67b-e99aed029b57",
  "credits_consumed": 8
}

See Generate a presentation synchronously. For background generation, send the same smart_design value to POST /api/v3/presentation/generate/async and follow the asynchronous generation guide.

API guides

API reference

Before you begin

1. List Smart Designs with v3

2. Create a Smart Design with v2

Check fonts in the reference PPTX

Upload fonts and generate previews

Start asynchronous design creation

Check design creation status

3. Generate with the Smart Design using v3

​Before you begin

​1. List Smart Designs with v3

​2. Create a Smart Design with v2

​Check fonts in the reference PPTX

​Upload fonts and generate previews

​Start asynchronous design creation

​Check design creation status

​3. Generate with the Smart Design using v3

Before you begin

1. List Smart Designs with v3

2. Create a Smart Design with v2

Check fonts in the reference PPTX

Upload fonts and generate previews

Start asynchronous design creation

Check design creation status

3. Generate with the Smart Design using v3