pptx-shapes

Python library for adding basic geometric shapes directly to PowerPoint (.pptx) slides by editing the XML structure.

Features

• Add basic shapes (ellipse, line, polygon, etc.) to existing slides
• Control position, size, fill, stroke, and other styles
• Simple, expressive API with smart defaults
• Supports minimalistic charts such as donut, bar, scatter charts
• Work directly with slides XML structure
• Save result as .pptx

Installation

pip install pptx-shapes

Quick Start

from pptx_shapes import Presentation
from pptx_shapes.shapes import Ellipse, Rectangle, TextBox
from pptx_shapes.style import FillStyle, FontFormat, FontStyle, StrokeStyle

with Presentation(presentation_path="empty.pptx") as presentation:
    presentation.add(shape=TextBox(
        x=23, y=4, width=12, height=2, angle=45,
        text="Hello from pptx-shapes!",
        style=FontStyle(size=32),
        formatting=FontFormat(bold=True)
    ))

    presentation.add(shape=Ellipse(
        x=20, y=2, width=4, height=4,
        fill=FillStyle(color="#7699d4")
    ))

    presentation.add(shape=Rectangle(
        x=18, y=8, width=4, height=8.5, radius=0.25, angle=30,
        fill=FillStyle(color="#dd7373"),
        stroke=StrokeStyle(color="magenta", thickness=3)
    ))

    presentation.save("result.pptx")

How it works

This library modifies .pptx files by directly editing the underlying XML structure.

A .pptx presentation is essentially a ZIP archive containing XML files that describe slides, layouts, and content. This library works by:

• Unzipping the .pptx file.
• Locating and parsing the target slide file (e.g., ppt/slides/slide1.xml).
• Inserting new shape elements into the slide's XML tree, using tags like <p:sp>, <p:cxnSp>, and <a:prstGeom>.
• Saving the modified XML.
• Repacking all files into a .pptx archive.

This low-level approach is ideal for automated slide generation, data visualizations, and geometric illustrations – especially when you need to create many shapes or apply programmatic styles.

Supported Shapes

Currently, pptx-shapes supports the following geometric shapes:

Shape	Class	Description
Line	Line	Straight line between two points
Arrow	Arrow	Straight arrow between two points
Arc	Arc	Curved segment defined by the bounding box and start/end angles
Arch	Arch	Ring-shaped arc defined by the bounding box, thickness and start/end angles
Ellipse	Ellipse	Ellipse defined by top-left corner, size, and rotation angle
Rectangle	Rectangle	Rectangle defined by top-left corner, size, corner radius and rotation angle
Pie	Pie	Filled sector of a circle, defined by the bounding box and start/end angles
Polygon	Polygon	Arbitrary polygon defined by a list of points and rotation angle
Polyline	Polyline	Arbitrary polyline defined by a list of points and rotation angle
TextBox	TextBox	Text container with position, size, rotation, and font style
Group	Group	A group of multiple shapes

Supported charts

The pptx_shapes.charts module provides classes for adding simple charts to PowerPoint presentations using basic shapes.

Chart	Class	Description
Donut	DonutChart	A donut chart used to visualize proportions of categorical data.
Bar	BarChart	A bar chart used to display values across categories or time series.
Scatter	ScatterPlot	A scatter plot used to visualize a set of points on a coordinate plane.

Documentation

Full documentation and examples are available at pptx-shapes.readthedocs.io

Examples

The following examples illustrate how to generate PowerPoint slides with various geometric shapes using pptx-shapes. All examples include screenshots, downloadable .pptx files, and links to the corresponding source code.

Example 1. Basic shapes

A simple demonstration of how to draw basic geometric elements – lines, ellipses, rectangles, polygons, arrows and text – on a blank slide (examples/basic.py).

Download .pptx: examples/basic.pptx

Example 2. Fractal

This example shows how to render a fractal using lines (examples/fractal.py).

Download .pptx: examples/fractal.pptx

Example 3. Scatter plots

This example shows how to render a scatter plot using ellipses as data points, demonstrating precise positioning and styling (examples/scatter.py).

Download .pptx: examples/scatter.pptx

Example 4. Histograms

Bar-style visualizations built using rectangles – this example illustrates how to construct a histogram layout with custom colors (examples/histogram.py).

Download .pptx: examples/histogram.pptx

Example 5. Polygons split

A more advanced use case – splitting polygonal shapes by lines. Useful for illustrating partitions or segmentations (examples/polygons.py).

Download .pptx: examples/polygons.pptx

Example 6. Font families and text styles

This example demonstrates how to use different font families and styles in TextBox shapes. It shows how to customize font size, alignment, color, and the font family. (examples/text_boxes.py).

Download .pptx: examples/text_boxes.pptx

Example 7. Arrowhead styles

This example demonstrates how to use different arrowhead types for Arrow shapes. It shows how to customize head form, length and width of arrowhead. (examples/arrows.py).

Download .pptx: examples/arrows.pptx

Chart examples

Example 1. Donut charts

This example demonstrates how to use DonutChart from charts.donut module (examples/charts/donut_chart.py).

Download .pptx: examples/charts/donut_chart.pptx

Example 2. Bar chart

This example demonstrates how to use BarChart from charts.bar module (examples/charts/bar_chart.py).

Download .pptx: examples/charts/bar_chart.pptx

Example 3. Line chart

This example demonstrates how to use LineChart from charts.line module (examples/charts/line_chart.py).

Download .pptx: examples/charts/line_chart.pptx

Example 4. Scatter plot

This example demonstrates how to use ScatterPlot from charts.scatter module (examples/charts/scatter_plot.py).

Download .pptx: examples/charts/scatter_plot.pptx

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

License

Licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use it in your projects.

Contributing

Pull requests, issues, and feature ideas are very welcome!