pointer

A Quarto revealjs plugin extension that adds a configurable presenter pointer with optional smooth trail rendering.

Requires Quarto >= 1.2.198.

Installation

quarto add royfrancis/quarto-revealjs-pointer

The extension is installed into the _extensions directory and should be committed to version control for reproducible builds.

Usage

Add the plugin and configure it in document metadata:

title: "My Presentation"
format:
  revealjs:
    pointer:
      key: "q"
      color: "red"
      pointerSize: 16
      trail: false
revealjs-plugins:
  - pointer

When alwaysVisible is false (default), press q to toggle pointer mode.

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
key	string	"q"	Key used to toggle pointer mode. Unsupported values fallback to q.
color	string	"red"	CSS color for pointer and trail.
pointerSize	number	16	Pointer diameter in pixels (number only).
alwaysVisible	boolean	false	Keep the pointer on screen without keyboard toggle.
trail	boolean	false	Draw a smooth tapered trail while moving.
trailDuration	number	150	Trail fade duration in milliseconds.
trailSampling	number	2	Pixel threshold before adding a new trail point.
trailMaxPoints	number	80	Maximum points retained for trail rendering.

For examples, see here.

Acknowledgements

Built on quarto-ext/pointer

---

2026 • Roy Francis