Text layers, not pictures of text
Font, size, color and per-word styles of the original. Translate or rewrite straight in After Effects.
Extension for After Effects 2025+
Your slides, as real After Effects layers.
Drop a PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF or Illustrator file. Get one comp per slide, vectors as shape layers and text you can still edit.
0.8 New: Keynote templates, cloud folders, exact letters for missing fonts →
A real slide after import: every piece is its own layer.
Before / After
Same slide. Now it's made of layers.
Drag to compare PowerPoint's render with the After Effects comp Slide2Comp built. Then show the layers to see what's inside.
Text layerShape layer
Inside a slide
14 layers you can animate, not one flat picture.
Keep scrolling: this is the slide above, taken apart exactly as it lands in your timeline.
How it works
Three steps. No redrawing.
Features
Everything lands ready to animate
Shapes ready to move
Grow the bars, add Trim Paths, Repeater or anything you have in mind.
One comp per slide
Organized in a "Slide2Comp / your file" folder, plus an optional comp with every slide in sequence.
Smart font fallback
Missing font? The closest match keeps the line width. Install it and click "Reapply fonts".
Gradients included
Gradient backgrounds and fills become editable Gradient Fills (After Effects 2026).
Notes and timing
Speaker notes become markers; "Advance after" becomes comp duration.
Never blocks you
Runs in the background with progress and time left. Your original file is never changed.
Or keep the exact letters
Prefer the original look? Text in a missing font can become shapes with the exact letters of the file.
From anywhere
PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and PDFs from Acrobat, Illustrator, Keynote or Office: one panel for all.
Cloud folders welcome
Files in Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud are downloaded when needed; if they can't be, the panel tells you why.
Recovers on its own
If Illustrator quits in the middle, it is reopened and the slide redone. The result comes out complete.
Overview
See it in one minute
Requirements
What you need
- After Effects 2025 (25.0) or newer
- Illustrator 2025 or newer (used in every conversion)
- PowerPoint (Microsoft 365, 2021 or 2024) for presentation files · Keynote (Mac) for .key
- The presentation's fonts installed
- Windows 10/11 or macOS · install with the ZXP Installer
Compatibility
- After Effects
- 20262025
- Illustrator
- 20262025
- PowerPoint
- 36520242021
- System
- Windows 10/11macOS
Coming soon to aescripts + aeplugins
Slide2Comp is in closed beta. Want to try it with your own files before launch?
Frequently asked questions
Do I need PowerPoint installed?
For .pptx, .ppt, .pptm, .ppsx, .pps and .odp files, yes: PowerPoint creates the PDF of each slide. Keynote files need Keynote (Mac). For PDF and .ai files you only need Illustrator.
What happens if a font isn't installed?
Slide2Comp picks the closest font, keeps the width of the line and lists the replaced fonts in the panel, with links to Adobe Fonts and Google Fonts. After you install them, "Reapply fonts" switches the layers back. Or turn on "Text with a missing font becomes shapes" to keep the exact letters (that text is no longer editable).
Do gradients come in?
Yes. In After Effects 2026 gradients become Gradient Fills on shape layers. In After Effects 2025 they stay as Illustrator art with the right colors. Gradients with transparency become shape layers too, with the transparency of each color stop.
What about PowerPoint animations?
Slide animations are not imported in this version: you animate in After Effects, with layers ready for it.
Do list bullets become text?
Yes. PowerPoint bullets ("•", "1.") go into the paragraph text, with their color and a hanging indent. This works in centered and rotated lists too, in Keynote files and in PDFs, also for bullets drawn as small circles, squares or triangles. Only unusual bullet shapes stay as separate layers.
Does it work with password-protected files?
No. Protected PDFs and presentations are refused with a clear message: remove the protection and import again.
After Effects shows a "System Compatibility Report" on start.
That window is from After Effects (low memory or integrated graphics). Click "Continue with known issues": Slide2Comp works, just slower.
Does it work with Keynote and Google Slides?
Yes. On a Mac, drop the .key file: Keynote exports it in the background, with speaker notes and skipped slides. For Google Slides, paste the presentation link in the panel (shared as "Anyone with the link"), or download it as .pptx or PDF and drop the file.
Can I import files from Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud?
Yes. Drop the file from the synced folder: if it is only in the cloud, it is downloaded on the spot. Without a connection (or with the cloud app closed), the panel says the file could not be downloaded, instead of failing with a strange error.
What if Illustrator crashes during a conversion?
Slide2Comp reopens it and redoes that slide, without any dialog to answer, and tells you at the end that the result is complete. Only if it keeps crashing on the same slide does the conversion stop, with tips to try again.
Version history
- 0.8.0 Keynote templates and Office themes come out much closer (spaced titles, picture frames, small caps, justified and multi-column text, pattern fills, double underline); PDFs from Acrobat/Distiller keep condensed and slanted text, outlines and nested clipping; optional: text in a missing font becomes shapes; files in Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud that are only in the cloud are downloaded or explained; Illustrator crashes are recovered automatically and the panel says so; clearer error messages.
- 0.7.1 PDFs saved by Illustrator: lines over separate bars and neighbouring columns stay apart; fixed a freeze in After Effects when a PDF font with long style names was missing.
- 0.7.0 PDFs saved by Illustrator and .ai files: paragraph boxes, tabbed fractions, superscripts and mixed-size text become editable text; groups with transparency, blending modes, shadows and clipping masks become shape layers; each PDF page uses the right artboard; Illustrator list bullets join the text.
- 0.6.9 List bullets join the text also in boxes that mix a centered title with a left-aligned list, and in rotated lists on Windows; drawn square and triangle bullets keep their original height.
- 0.6.8 Gradients with transparency in any shape and in PDFs exported by PowerPoint for Windows become editable shape layers; list bullets join the text also in centered and rotated lists and when drawn as outlines (Keynote).
- 0.6.7 Gradients with transparency in rotated shapes and radial gradients also become editable shape layers.
- 0.6.6 Gradients with transparency in PowerPoint shapes become editable shape layers; shape colors stay exactly as in the original when the project has a working color space.
- 0.6.5 More accurate time estimate: learns this computer's fixed time and time per slide.
- 0.6.4 Mac: when Illustrator crashes, it is reopened and the slide redone without any dialog to answer; the panel says so at the end. Time estimate from the start, Office fonts help on the Mac, version in the panel.
- 0.6.3 Windows: fonts embedded in the .pptx keep their family in footers and slide numbers; a stalled Illustrator is restarted and the slide retried.
- 0.6.2 Illustrator step on Windows up to 2.6x faster, conversion continues if Illustrator quits unexpectedly midway, lookalike fonts for Nunito and Mona Sans.
- 0.6.1 Faster conversion on Windows (Illustrator step up to 5x faster), shadows no longer cover the slide on Windows, gradients under clipped shapes, embedded fonts of Google Slides templates, Keynote that opens without the document.
- 0.6.0 Keynote (.key) on Mac, Google Slides by link, list bullets inside the paragraph, PDF paragraphs as one text layer, faster conversion (up to 1.6x on long PDFs).
- 0.5.2 Closed beta. Slide picker out of beta, clearer messages.
- 0.5.1 Gradients on After Effects 2025 keep their colors.
- 0.5.0 Sequence comp, speaker notes as markers, slide timing, gradient fills, shape names.