Impress.js lets you create striking, dynamic, prezi-like slideshows in JavaScript and CSS3.

It's a pretty slick framework, so it does greatly simplify in-browser presentation creation. But presentations are sometimes a little more visual than code, and Impress.js's greatest strengths lie in its highly flexible text-transforming powers -- so even with the framework's convenient abstraction, Impress.js presentations are harder to create than a straight-up prezi.

Not for much longer. I blinked in excitement when I learned that Harish Sivaramakrishnan has been hard at work channeling his considerable development energies into Impressionist, a visual tool for creating Impress.js presentations.

Here's how Harish describes his project:

A tool that is simple enough for even a non tech geek to be able to use, yet cover all the goodness that impress brings to the table. Lofty goal, I know. But, the last 2 weeks of coding has resulted in something that shows promise – something that could be a tool that greatly reduces the effort in building impress.js presentations. A tool that I call – Impressionist.

Much work remains, but this screencast shows reams of progress:

And Harish is currently inviting select individuals for private testing. 

If this is tuned just right -- simple enough for non-coders, powerful enough to cover a lot of Impress.js's abilities -- it could become extremely popular, and very helpful for developers and consumers alike. Besides, CSS3 3D transforms are really, really cool. 

So check out Harish's blog announcement, and maybe consider testing and maybe even collaborating with Harish on an exciting new (and high-tech) front-end project.

Update (3/21/12): the project is now on github, whoohoo!