Haiku Deck is the simple new way to create inspired presentations. Haiku Deck launched in August 2012 and has developed a passionate global following. Version 2.2 adds iOS 7 support and lays the foundation for exciting new features.

With Haiku Deck, anyone can quickly create stunning, image-rich slideshows. You can use your own images or the built-in keyword search to access millions of beautiful images. Haiku Decks can be easily emailed, shared, or embedded in blogs or websites. It's a powerful way to communicate ideas, articulate a vision, and share expertise.

Read more about our story and our philosophy of simple, beautiful, and fun here: http://www.haikudeck.com/about

Hands-on: Swipe and tap to view a sample deck, or tap the + at bottom center to create a new one. Tap the ? any time for on-screen help.

Most presentation experts recommend focusing on a single idea per slide and keeping text to a minimum. Haiku Deck encourages these best practices--the less text you include, the better a slide looks. The process of simplifying helps clarify your message and prevents the common presentation pitfall of reading dense text aloud.

As with the Japanese poetry form that inspired the app’s name, the constraints are designed to unlock creativity and inspire a deeper level of expression.

Hands-on: Each slide accommodates two lines of text or a short list. Tap the orange Text icon on the left, choose a format, and start typing to see how the font size adjusts automatically. Tap + at bottom right to create a new slide. Tap a slide’s settings wheel to COPY or DELETE it. To reorder, simply drag a slide to the position you’d like.

Images capture our attention in a way that text alone cannot, and Haiku Deck’s unique built-in keyword image search puts millions of Creative Commons-licensed images at your fingertips so you can quickly find the perfect backdrop for your words. Sizing, formatting, and attribution are all handled seamlessly, leaving you plenty of time for creative exploration and inspiration.

Hands-on: Tap the blue Image icon on the left, choose a tag or type a keyword, and explore. Try searching for a landmark, a neighborhood, or a favorite food. You can also search for colors, patterns, or more abstract concepts. Press and hold an image to save it in FAVORITES, and tap HISTORY to backtrack to previous selections. In PLAY mode, tap the CC logo in the lower right corner to view the photo credit.

In our quest to make Haiku Deck even more useful and powerful as a storytelling tool, we have partnered with Getty Images--one of the world’s premier image collections--to make more than 1 million premium images available for seamless, affordable, in-app purchase. This allows us to offer an even wider range of incredibly high-quality images.

Hands-on: In your image search results, you’ll see Getty Images identified with a green $ in the corner. Simply tap and complete your purchase directly through iTunes. You can use a purchased image in any Haiku Decks you create. (If you wish, you can turn off the display of premium images in the main screen settings.)

You can also import your own images from your iPad’s Camera Roll or Photo Stream, or from Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive, and other popular services. This approach is useful for showcasing a product or a property listing, illustrating a process, or creating a portfolio.

Hands-on: Tap the blue Image icon, then IMPORT to connect your account and pull in your favorite images. In the PREVIEW pane, you can use your fingers to resize and crop images (this works for Creative Commons and Getty images, too).

Most presentation tools don’t make it easy to produce beautiful, attention-grabbing slides for those of us without design skills or a big budget. Haiku Deck makes everyone feel like a designer with 19 stunning themes (a mix of free and paid) that offer a cohesive, polished look with minimal formatting time.

Instead of wrestling with master templates, sizing options, and endless font variations, you can choose a look for your deck with a tap, and spend more time bringing your message to life.

Hands-on: Pull down the THEMES handle (top center). To get a sense of the stylistic range, try Picaresque, Cinematic, and Zissou. You can also turn IMAGE FILTERS on or off.

In Haiku Deck you can quickly create flawlessly beautiful pie charts, bar graphs, and stat charts using intuitive touch controls. There’s no need for linked spreadsheets or complicated formulas; just drag each bar or pie piece with your finger to adjust.

Hands-on: Tap the blue Image icon, then the Chart icon. Select the chart type you’d like and tap DONE. Just tap and type to edit labels, swipe to adjust quantities, and tap + to add a new field. Each Haiku Deck theme applies a coordinating chart color palette for a beautifully cohesive look.

Another secret to stunning presentations is to keep formatting consistent. Haiku Deck offers 14 high-impact layout options for optimal text placement and readability. In keeping with the spirit of the app, there’s flexibility to make each slide look sharp without too many choices. As with the themes, each layout is applied with a tap to keep the focus on developing your story instead of fussing with formatting.

Hands-on: Tap the green Layout icon on the left and select the text placement option that works best with your image. You can either go for consistency, using the same layout option for your entire deck, or take a more dynamic approach, tailoring the layout to each individual slide.

You can also adjust the TEXT BACKGROUND toggle to improve readability.

In short, we hear from our users that Haiku Deck makes them feel more creative, more confident, and more excited about their material. It’s not uncommon for people to think that Haiku Deck slides were professionally designed, and many people are blown away at how quickly and easily they can create something that looks amazing.

Hands-on: To use a solid-color background like this one, tap the blue Image icon, then the diagonally divided rectangle to select your preferred color. We like to work solid-color slides into the mix to make words stand out, or to break up and signal sections of a deck, creating a sense of structure and rhythm.

If you’re pitching over coffee or on a plane, swiping through your Haiku Deck right on your iPad in Play mode is one way to feel like a rock star. You can also wow a larger audience by connecting your iPad to a projector or using Apple TV. The Private Notes feature allows you to capture key talking points, or even a full script, that will be visible only to you as you present when you hold your iPad vertically.

Hands-on: Tap the yellow Notes icon, then PRIVATE NOTES to type a few talking points for a slide. Press the PLAY button in the top right corner, then rotate your iPad to portrait mode to try out teleprompter mode.

A mistake that many people make is creating slides that basically replicate what they’re going to say, so they can work as a handout or a detailed record of what was presented. Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame calls this a slideument -- basically a messy mashup between slides and a document that doesn’t serve either purpose very well.

Most experts recommend creating two separate versions of the content, and Haiku Deck makes this easy. With Public Notes you can add talking points, supporting information, and links to accompany your slides online, or to create a crisp PDF handout (like this one).

Hands-on: Tap the yellow Notes icon and add accompanying PUBLIC NOTES for any or all of your slides. To add a link, be sure to use the full http://format, like this: http://blog.haikudeck.com/turn-presentations-into-content-assets/)

We think a lot about mobile productivity, and how to encourage flexible creation, viewing, and sharing. Haiku Decks can be easily accessed from a smartphone, a computer, or any web-connected device. You always control who can view each deck.

You can also post your decks to your favorite social sites, email them, or enliven your blog or website with an attention-grabbing slideshow. We believe that everyone has amazing stories to share, and we make it easy to set those stories free!

Hands-on: Tap the SHARE icon at bottom left to set your deck’s privacy, specify the category, and publish your deck to the web. You can also email it, share it to Facebook or Twitter, export to PowerPoint or Keynote, or embed your deck with a WordPress or HTML code string.

The release of iOS 7 represents an exciting step forward, and we have worked hard to be among the first iPad apps to incorporate the new look and feel. The newest version of iOS, with its focus on simplicity, clarity, and efficiency, now informs the design of Haiku Deck. Powerful new iOS 7 features such as streamlined multitasking and iCloud photo sharing will make creating Haiku Decks faster than ever before.

Hands-on: Open the Haiku Deck main screen and tilt your iPad to experience the new style and feeling of depth that are the signature features of iOS 7. (Note: You’ll need to upgrade to iOS 7 and download version 2.2 of Haiku Deck once both are available in the App Store.)

With a vibrant creative community and hundreds of thousands of decks published, Haiku Deck is increasingly useful for knowledge and inspiration as well as for content creation. The new Haiku Deck Gallery builds on the core design elements of iOS 7, making more content visible in a richer, more dynamic browsing experience. You can explore the Featured and Popular Galleries, and view and share inspiring decks, right from your iPad.

Hands-on: From the Haiku Deck main screen, tap GALLERY to browse the week’s best decks. (Note: To experience the redesigned Gallery, you’ll need to upgrade to iOS 7 and download version 2.2 of Haiku Deck once both are available in the App Store.)

Haiku Deck is more than a presentation tool; it’s a growing global community of creative, inspired communicators. The app has been embraced by everyone from entrepreneurs pitching business ideas to 1st graders collecting animal facts to the CTO of Australia. Haiku Deck has been used for keynote speeches, TED talks, professional development, and even White House briefings.

We invite you to join our vibrant creative community on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Facebook. Find presentation tips, case studies, and user stories on our blog:
http://www.haikdeck.com/blog

If you need more information or would like to arrange a personalized briefing or demo, please don’t hesitate to contact Adam Tratt, our co-founder and CEO, at adam@haikudeck.com. We can't wait to hear your feedback about Haiku Deck!