# Paper White Courseware · Academic STYLE DESIGN SYSTEM

## PART A — Category Baseline (General Minimum)

Create rigorous, formally typeset academic presentations at the standard of top-tier research talks and thesis defenses (NeurIPS/CHI/SIGGRAPH main-stage quality), with clarity of argument taking precedence over decoration. The deck must read as a reproducible scientific claim, not as marketing collateral. Use academic language throughout: standard terminology for research questions, hypotheses, evidence, significance, contributions, and limitations, without marketing or business phrasing. Shift the visual emphasis by discipline: theoretical work should make equations and proof steps the dominant large-scale content; computer science and engineering should be structured around system diagrams, code, execution traces, and performance curves; experimental research should tightly organize equations, charts, and images around the same conclusion; humanities and social sciences should layer archival records, maps, manuscripts, and other textual evidence with narrative depth while preserving academic rigor.

Content and layout:
1. Use a fixed argument structure: research question → gap in related work → data and methods → main results → ablation/analysis → limitations → future work. A short deck may compress this sequence, but must not reorder it.
2. Make every slide evidence-first: results tables must include baseline comparison columns; use comparison charts and architecture/process diagrams; present the core contribution as a formally typeset equation.
3. Maintain medium information density: one claim per slide, with evidence organized around that claim. Slides should be composed, not filled—white space is a legitimate way to separate stages of the argument.

Visual style:
1. Aesthetic: restrained, precise, and scholarly. Do not use promotional copy, decorative photography, or clip-art icons.
2. Typography: use clear sans serif typefaces (render with Liter / Chinese: MiSans) for body text and labels; titles may use serif type when the source style does. Equations must be formally typeset (KaTeX quality), with standard equation numbering and italic variables.
3. Color: use a two-color system for each deck—one primary structural color and one accent color, with gray carrying hierarchy; use a white or near-white background; use only one consistent warning color for negative results or ablation signals.
4. Graphics: draw diagrams with thin, precise vector lines; use minimal horizontal rules in tables; give charts axis labels, units, and sample definitions; do not use 3D effects, shadows, or gradients as decoration.

Structure and discipline (derived from work we consider exemplary):
1. Every content-slide title must state a claim—a finding, not a section label: “Lapses in attention can be predicted 10 seconds in advance,” not “Experimental results.” Support that claim with evidence on the same slide.
2. Align claims with evidence: every quantitative conclusion on a slide must be supported there by a chart, table, or cited result. Never leave a number orphaned.
3. The primary results table must include baseline comparison columns and mark the best value; show relative improvement alongside absolute values.
4. Method slides must provide reproducibility details: dataset size, annotation protocol, inter-annotator agreement, and key hyperparameters. Show only the core idea as an equation; place derivations in appendix slides.
5. Every figure must be self-contained: include axis labels with units, a legend or direct labels, and a caption area stating sample size and confidence convention. A figure must not rely on the legend alone.
6. Ablations and limitations are mandatory, not optional: ablations isolate the contribution of each component; limitations candidly state scope, failure modes, and ethical/anonymization status.
7. Every number must include its unit, time range, dataset, and statistical convention (mean ± variance, sample size). Express uncertainty with a measurable quantity or confidence interval, not vague language.
8. Open with a problem statement and a one-sentence contribution; close with numbered conclusions—claims, not a summary—and an explicit list of open questions.
9. Place citations as compact footnote lines at the bottom of slides where they are used; unless the genre requires it, do not create a dense full-slide wall of references.

Default baseline (derived from the layout skill; PART B may override): organize each slide around one evidence unit (figure/table/equation); give charts complete axis labels, units, and sample definitions; make charts honest—do not truncate the y-axis to exaggerate differences, and distinguish correlation from causation explicitly in the copy; ensure projection readability, with body text on a 960×540 canvas at ≥14pt equivalent and chart labels at ≥10pt equivalent.

**Title read-through test**: reading only the slide titles should tell the complete story; if the sequence does not flow, the structure is not working.

Density anchor: the specific minimum for each style—the number of evidence modules and charts per slide, and annotation conventions—is defined by the 【Density Baseline】 reverse-engineered from that style’s source deck. This baseline does not impose a single universal number.

### Global Prohibitions (Mandatory · Prevent Default AI Patterns)

1. **No cards by default**: unless the user explicitly requests them, do not use rounded rectangles or rectangular cards to create hierarchy or alignment. Containers with a genuine information function—status indicators, hypothesis boxes, quotation frames—do not count as cards. Lines, white space, font size, and weight contrast are better tools.
2. **No equal-split compositions**: unless no other layout is viable, do not default to three equal columns, four equal columns, or a two-by-two matrix. An equal split must be justified by the content structure—three scenarios naturally support three columns; frameworks explicitly named in the content are exempt.
3. **No unjustified AI-default color schemes**: institution-specific palettes stated in the content are exempt. Prohibited defaults are generic, moderate, and unsupported choices such as blue-purple gradients, cyan-purple neon, rainbow flares, glass cards, and glowing borders.
4. **No elements inconsistent with the overall style**: do not introduce forms outside the visual language, such as rounded icons or rounded rectangles in a sharp-edged style.
5. **Keep chart backgrounds transparent**: use transparency or the slide background color, except for reversed charts on dark backgrounds.
6. **No empty regions**: do not leave an entire planned region of the content area blank. Every allocated region must contain real content; an unfilled region is the most serious form of roughness.

## PART B — Signature System (Distinctive Template Signature; This Section Overrides PART A in Case of Conflict)

One-sentence style signature: warm courseware with a paper-editorial sensibility, grounded in creamy paper white; forest green establishes structure, coral orange provides small accents, and moderately high long-form text density coexists with generous breathing room.

【Color Palette】Background #FDFAF5: fill the full slide while retaining the warmth of paper; primary text #56687A: use for all long-form text instead of pure black; title #44712E: use for slide titles, section labels, bold emphasis, and dark result bars; primary accent #F5987E: use only for short divider rules, chapter numbers, step numbers, and key figures; supporting green #D7EBCE: use only as fills for list items, table rows, or title panels; supporting pink #F9DED8: use only for chapter circles, case-study top bands, or alternating rows. Fix the chart series to #44712E, #F5987E, and their light variants #D7EBCE and #F9DED8. Do not create a separate red/green convention for positive and negative values; use #F5987E for both, with ↑/↓ and text indicating direction. Use no more than two hue families per slide (green + coral); never flood an entire slide with the accent color.

【Layout Skeleton】Source-deck facts: 612×792 pt portrait Letter, with a 17:22 aspect ratio and standard margins of approximately 48 pt. Most content slides place a 25 pt claim title at the upper left, followed by a coral rule approximately 50×4 pt; the coral chapter number sits at the upper right, double angle brackets at the lower left, and “Short Document Name｜Page Number” at the lower right. Content typically uses two unequal columns, read left to right and then downward. Cover/chapter slides use only a giant pale-pink circle + a person or botanical illustration + a pale-green title panel at the bottom. For 16:9 adaptation: retain the left margin, short rule, upper-right chapter number, and footer; change the columns to approximately 45:55, use a horizontal photo band across the upper 35%–40%, enlarge the chapter slide’s large circle and shift it left, and convert the pale-green title panel into a wide lower-left band rather than stretching the portrait composition.

【Typography】Source-deck font facts: the PDF embeds the slab-serif family Community Slab (Regular/Semibold/Italic) and the sans serif family Community (Light/Semibold); however, the reference output is entirely sans-serif with extra-bold black titles — the reference image wins: body, titles, numbers, and navigation all use the sans family (render with {latin: Liter, ea: MiSans}, titles and figures bold). Body text 11.5 pt = 1x, slide titles 25 pt ≈ 2.2x, information statements 15–17 pt ≈ 1.3–1.5x, large figures 40–48 pt ≈ 3.5–4.2x, chapter numbers approximately 105 pt ≈ 9x, and footers 8 pt ≈ 0.7x. For 16:9 adaptation: on a 960×540 canvas, use 16–18 pt body text, 34–40 pt slide titles, and 56–72 pt large figures; preserve the scale ratios and the all-sans weight hierarchy. Set English titles in sentence case, never all caps; bold only the conclusion within a sentence, and italicize quotations.

【Chart Language】Elements used in the source: bar charts with few bars, single-diagonal relationship diagrams, funnels, circular-arrow diagrams, proportional icon arrays, comparison matrices/tables, and KPI result bars. ⭐Pair each chart with a one-sentence rule on the same slide: place the chart within a pale-green or pale-pink field, and label the conclusion directly beside the relevant line, bar, or region rather than creating a separate large legend. ⭐All quantified case-study outcomes belong in a dark-green result bar: white explanatory text + a large coral figure, with body content avoiding emphasis at the same level. ⭐Use proportional icon arrays only occasionally, and only when the sample is small enough for a proportion to be read directly from 10 units.

【Signature Components】Coral short rule: use it once beneath the title, at a width approximately 2 times the title’s cap height; pale list panels: use only for parallel steps, comparison rows, or tool items, 3–6 per slide—this is a narrow exception to PART A’s prohibition on default cards; flat person/botanical illustrations: use them to turn abstract claims into situations, no more than one group per slide, positioned against the slide edge or in open space without covering body text; dark-green result bar: use only for “result + key change,” no more than one per slide. Photography is a hard requirement: include at least one real contextual photograph of a person in the deck, used only as a full-width top band or standalone rectangle on an introduction slide or at the opening of a case study. Do not replace it with an abstract gradient or an illustration-only treatment.

【Prohibited】Do not use a photo as a text background or add a mask with overlaid text; do not generalize pale-green/pale-pink panels into a card grid with no information function; do not scatter colored icons—icons must sit inside white circular wells or be bound to list items; do not allow the native colors of embedded interfaces/screenshots to spill into the global palette; do not use coral orange for long passages of body text or as a full-slide background.

【Slide Types and Layouts】Editorial argument slide｜one judgment + explanation + diagram｜title 15% / unequal two-column body 55% / marginal illustration or figure 30%｜3–5 blocks｜short rule, footer, marginal illustration｜not suitable for a multi-metric dashboard.
Data-claim slide｜one large figure or one primary chart supports the conclusion｜title 15% / primary evidence 45% / explanation 30%｜2–4 blocks｜large figure, pale chart field｜not suitable for several small charts side by side.
List/tool slide｜3–6 peer-level steps, benefits, or methods｜title 15% / vertical list or matrix 70%｜3–6 blocks｜pale list panels, icons in circular wells｜not suitable for a long derivation.
Photo-led introduction slide｜human context + one-sentence lead-in｜photo 40%–48% / title and body 40%｜2–3 blocks｜full-width photo band, short rule｜not suitable for data-dense content.
Case-evidence slide｜problem—method—result chain｜pale-pink top band or photo 20% / two-column body 50% / result bar 30%｜4–6 blocks｜device image or photo, dark-green result bar｜not suitable for a story without verifiable outcomes.

【Density Baseline】Portrait argument slides in the source typically contain 3–5 evidence/explanation modules, list slides 3–6, and case-study slides 4–6; most slides contain 0–1 primary chart and never form a multi-chart dashboard. Label values bar by bar only in sparse bar charts with approximately 3 bars; label only the key regions and endpoints in relationship diagrams. For new 16:9 decks, use 2–4 modules per slide; keep each explanation block to roughly 40–90 characters’ worth of content, adjusted to an equivalent length in the working language. If a case study exceeds 4 blocks, split it into separate “Method” and “Results” slides. This overrides PART A’s prohibition on empty regions: continuous paper-white space is allowed beneath the title, around illustrations, and above the footer, but never reserve an empty container.