make presentations with latex

• How to make a presentation with Latex - Introduction to Beamer
• exampleblock
• compilation
• beamergotobutton
• presentation

We shall see in this article how to make a presentation with LaTeX, using the powerful class Beamer. If you want to make an outstanding “stressfree” presentation and bring your ideas or your work under a whole new light, let’s get started!!!

Installing the Beamer class

You will first need to install the package Beamer . Under Debian or Ubuntu, you can type the following command:

Once the latex-class Beamer is installed, you are definitely ready to stat your first presentation!!!

Basic presentation with Beamer

A few explanations:

means that our document is a Beamer presentation

this package enables us to use special letters (with accents, cedillas, etc). You can discard this command when the presentation is in English.

This is our outer theme (color and background). As you can imagine, there are tons of themes. You can refer to Beamer documentation for more details.

this defines the title of the presentation. As you can see, there are two titles:

• the first one, between brackets. [Making a LaTeX presentation with Beamer] is a substitute title which appears at the bottom of the page. This is useful especially if the original title is long. Since this is anoption only, if it is not mentioned, then the original title is the one shown in the bottom of the page.
• the second one, between braces, is the principal title of the presentation. The command

defines Nadir Soualem and Astozzia (us!) as the authors of the presentation.

defines where the presentation was held. Finally, we use

as the date.

To define the document, we use the markers

To define a slide of the presentation, we use the markers

To define a page title (frame), we mention it as follows

Introduction will be the title of the page. To define the first page, which contains details such as the title, the author, the date, etc - we use a frame in which we include the \titlepage command

To define a frame containing the layout of the presentation, we proceed as follows:

The layout is therefore mentioned at every section and subsection. You should insert \section and \subsection throughout the presentation and out of the frames:

Animations – Overlays

A good presentation is one that is dynamic and attracts the audience’s interest. Generally, we resort to a dynamic type of presentations. Alternatively stated, when we speak, we simultaneously show significant points of the talk, or hide others, or keep just the important ones. We shall see in this section how animations function in Beamer.

Item-by-item list view: the \pause command

In order to view several items of a list on the same slide, we type the following commands inside a frame:

We will thus see the items of our list, one by one.

Item-by-item list view: the \item<n-> command

An alternative way to visualize the elements of a list item by item is to use the \item<n-> command, where n is a natural number referring to the slide, beginning from which the item appears.

List item interval and isolated items: the \item<n-> and \item<p> commands

An example is worth a long speech:

\item<n-> means that the list item will appear on slides numbered n to m, whereas \item<p> means that the item will appear on slide p.

Item-by-item long list view: the [<+->] command

Sometimes the lists you want to display are long and it is not practical to use the \item<n-> command. An alternative solution is the use of the [<+->] command

Up to now, we have dealt with lists. We shall now see how to use text and slides.

Displaying and hiding text in slides: the \uncover<n->, \uncover<n-> and \uncover<p> commands

\uncover<n-> will display the text from slide n on; \uncover<n-> means the text element will appear from slide n to m. Finally, \uncover<p> means that the text will appear on slide p. Here is a case in point of a frame containing the \uncover command.

Be careful not to forget the braces after the \uncover command. The syntax is as follows:

Displaying and hiding text in slides: the \only<n->, \only<n-> and \only<p> commands

\only works like \uncover with the exception that the \only command is not as “cumbersome” on slides. Here is an example:

Here is an other example to better grasp the difference between \only and \uncover

Hide text in slides: the \invisible<n> commands

\invisible<n> makes text invisible on slide n

Another alternative: the \alt<n>{…}{…} commands

As an alternative, one can use the \alt<n>{…}{…} command on a slide. The first argument is the value on slide n. The second is for values other than n. Here is an example:

Highlighting text in red: the \alert<n>{…} command

To highlight text in red on slide n, we use the \alert<n>{…} command.

Successively highlighting list items in red: the <+-| alert@+> command

Using colors in a text on a slide: the \color<n->{…}{…}, \color<n->{…}{…} and\color<p>{…}{…} commands.

The first argument is the red, green, yellow, blue, etc … The second is the text to be colored

Creating links: the \hyperlink{…}{\beamergotobutton{…}} commands

To define internal links, we should add the following package in the preamble

Then, we should define a label pointing on the frame:

you define MY_LABEL as you please ! Finally, on the frame where the link is to be created, we proceed as follows:

There we are! We can see a button Refer to this page pointing to the frame labeled MY_LABEL .

Thus, the first argument of \hyperlink{…}{\beamergotobutton{…}} is the name of the label to be pointed at and \beamergotobutton{…} has the name of the button as an argument.

Defining blocks inside frames

For important stuff, we define blocks as follows:

As clear as onion soup !!!

Dynamic display of tables: the \pause and \onslide<n-> commands

First off, we should add the package colortbl to the preamble

To display rows dynamically, we shall use the \pause command as follows:

To display columns dynamically, we shall use the \onslide<n-> command as follows:

Writing on several columns: the \begin{columns}...\end{columns} commands

For two columns, we proceed as follows:

l,r,c refers to the position: left, right, center. The syntax is as follows:

Inserting a figure in a Beamer presentation

To insert an image or a figure, we proceed as in LaTeX by using the \includegraphics command. Here is an example:

In Beamer, we should distinguish between two types of figures:

• PS type: .eps, .ps and pspicture type (LaTeX)
• General type: .pdf, .png, .jpg, .jpeg You will need to compile a Beamer-class file.

Compiling a Beamer presentation

I assume that the your file is called file.tex. . There are ways to compile, depending on the type of figure you inserted. For PS-type figures, we shall use the following commands

We shall obtain the file file.pdf.

For general-type figures, we shall use the command

We shall also obtain the file file.pdf.

It goes without saying that explaining all the possibilities that Beamer offers is way too long. Have look to the official documentation, which is more exhaustive.

Have fun !!!

If you found this post or this website helpful and would like to support our work, please consider making a donation. Thank you!

Articles in the same category

• Useful software to start LaTeX
• Introduction au Latex
• Introduction à  Beamer - Faire une présentation en Latex
• How to install latex package ?
• Comment installer un package Latex ?
• Latex Extra
• Variance Symbol in LaTeX
• Union and Big Union Symbol in LaTeX
• Transpose Symbol in LaTeX
• Transformée de Laplace en LaTeX
• Texte au dessus d'une flèche en LaTeX
• Text above arrow in LaTeX
• Symbole "plus grand que ou similaire à" en LaTeX
• Symbole de Variance en LaTeX
• Symbole de transposée en LaTeX
• Symbole de "non équivalent à" en LaTeX
• Symbole d'union et de grande union en LaTeX
• Symbole d'intersection et de grande intersection en LaTeX
• Strikethrough - strike out text or formula in LaTeX
• Passer en mode mathématique en Latex: $, $$ et displaymath
• Partial Derivatives of Multivariable Functions in LaTeX
• Numéroter les équations en Latex: leqno et fleqn
• Not Equivalent Symbol in LaTeX
• Latex yen symbol
• Latex valeur absolue
• Latex tensor product
• Latex symbole sous-ensemble - inclusion
• Latex symbole racine carrée
• Latex symbole produit
• Latex symbole produit vectoriel
• Latex symbole pourcentage
• Latex symbole plus ou moins
• Latex symbole parallèle
• Latex symbole orthogonal - Latex symbole perpendiculaire
• Latex symbole norme pour un vecteur ou une somme
• Latex symbole n'existe pas
• Latex symbole n'est pas un sous-ensemble - non-inclus
• Latex symbole n'est pas parallèle
• Latex symbole n'appartient pas à
• Latex symbole multiplication
• Latex symbole loi normale
• Latex symbole infini
• Latex symbole il existe
• Latex symbole il existe un seul et unique
• Latex symbole euro
• Latex symbole Est proportionnel à
• Latex symbole espérance mathématiques
• Latex symbole équivalent / équivalence
• Latex symbole dual ou dague
• Latex symbole différent
• Latex symbole dérivée partielle
• Latex symbole degré
• Latex symbole de la moyenne
• Latex symbole de la constante de Planck h
• Latex symbole congruent
• LaTeX symbole complément
• Latex symbole chapeau
• Latex symbole approximativement
• Latex symbole appartient à
• Latex symbol there exists one and only one
• Latex symbol Planck constant h
• LaTex symbol partial derivative
• Latex symbol not in
• Latex symbol not exists
• Latex symbol not equal
• Latex symbol norm for vector and sum
• Latex symbol multiply
• LaTeX symbol Is proportional to
• Latex symbol if and only if / equivalence
• Latex symbol for all x
• Latex symbol exists
• Latex symbol different
• Latex symbol checkmark
• LaTeX symbol characteristic function
• Latex symbol belongs to
• Latex symbol average
• Latex symbol approximately
• Latex subset symbol
• Latex square root symbol
• Latex real part symbol
• Latex real numbers
• Latex rational numbers
• Latex quaternion numbers
• Latex produit tensoriel
• Latex product symbol
• Latex pour tout x
• Latex points de suspension: \ldots,\cdots,\vdots et \ddots
• Latex plus or minus symbol
• Latex piecewise function
• Latex partie réelle
• Latex partie imaginaire
• Latex parallel symbol
• Latex overset and underset
• Latex orthogonal symbol - Latex perpendicular symbol
• Latex numbering equations
• Latex not subset symbol
• Latex not parallel symbol
• Latex normal distribution symbol
• Latex natural numbers
• Latex k parmi n - coefficient binomial
• Latex jacobian symbol
• Latex infinity symbol
• Latex indicator function
• Latex imaginary part symbol
• Latex how to write underscore
• Latex how to write text in math mode
• Latex how to write percent
• Latex how to write bar
• Latex how to write a fraction
• Latex how to insert a blank or empty page with or without numbering \thispagestyle,\newpage,\usepackage{afterpage}
• Latex how to hide page number
• Latex horizontal space: qquad,hspace, thinspace,enspace
• Latex hat symbol - wide hat symbol
• Latex gradient symbol
• Latex fonction plancher - Latex partie entière inférieure
• Latex fonction plafond - Latex partie entière supérieure
• Latex fonction indicatrice
• Latex floor function
• Latex flèche
• Latex expected value symbol - expectation
• Latex euro symbol
• Latex espace horizontal: qquad,hspace, thinspace,enspace
• Latex ensemble vide
• Latex empty set
• Latex écrire du texte dans les équations ou en mode mathématique
• Latex dérivée, limite, somme, produit et intégrale
• LateX Derivatives, Limits, Sums, Products and Integrals
• Latex degree symbol
• Latex dagger symbol or dual symbol
• Latex copyright, trademark, registered symbols
• Latex convolution symbol
• Latex congruent symbol
• Latex complex numbers
• Latex complement symbol
• Latex comment insérer une page blanche,vide avec ou sans numéro, \thispagestyle,\newpage,\usepackage{afterpage}
• Latex comment faire un underscore
• Latex ceiling function
• Latex bra ket notation
• Latex binomial coefficient
• Latex barrer du texte ou une équation
• Latex backslash symbol
• Latex arrows
• Latex accolades horizontales et verticales: \left\{,\right\},\underbrace{} et \overbrace{}
• Latex absolute value
• Laplace Transform in LaTeX
• $L^1$, $L^2$, $L^p$ and $L^\infty$ spaces in Latex
• Intersection and big intersection symbols in LaTeX
• How to write table in Latex ? begin{tabular}...end{tabular}
• How to write number sets N Z D Q R C with Latex: \mathbb, amsfonts and \mathbf
• How to write matrices in Latex ? matrix, pmatrix, bmatrix, vmatrix, Vmatrix
• How to write angle in latex langle, rangle, wedge, angle, measuredangle, sphericalangle
• How to write algorithm and pseudocode in Latex ?\usepackage{algorithm},\usepackage{algorithmic}
• How to write a vector in Latex ? \vec,\overrightarrow
• How to get dots in Latex \ldots,\cdots,\vdots and \ddots
• How to display formulas inside a box or frame in Latex ? \boxed
• Horizontal and vertical curly Latex braces: \left\{,\right\},\underbrace{} and \overbrace{}
• Greater Than or Similar To Symbol in LaTeX
• Fonction caractéristique en LaTeX
• Espaces $L^1$, $L^2$, $L^p$ et $L^\infty$ en Latex
• Écrire les ensembles classiques en Latex: \mathbb, amsfonts et \mathbf
• Dérivées partielles de fonctions à plusieurs variables en LaTeX
• Comment faire un tableau en Latex ? begin{tabular}...end{tabular}
• Comment encadrer des formules en Latex ? \boxed
• Comment écrire un angle en latex langle, rangle, wedge, angle, measuredangle, sphericalangle
• Comment écrire un algorithme en Latex ?\usepackage{algorithm},\usepackage{algorithmic}
• Comment écrire des vecteurs en Latex? \vec,\overrightarrow

10 min read

Share this post, published september 6, 2023 in general, how to use latex for presentations: a comprehensive guide, by scholarly, introduction.

In today's digital age, presentations have become an integral part of communication and knowledge sharing. While there are several tools available for creating presentations, LaTeX stands out as a powerful typesetting system that offers unmatched customization and professional-looking output. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore how to use LaTeX for presentations, covering everything from installation to advanced techniques.

LaTeX, created by Leslie Lamport in the 1980s, is a typesetting system widely used in academia and the scientific community. It was initially developed to simplify the process of creating complex documents, such as research papers and mathematical equations. Over the years, LaTeX has evolved to support presentations, offering a unique combination of elegance and flexibility.

In the past, creating presentations required using tools like Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. While these tools offer user-friendly interfaces, they often lack the fine-grained control and typographical precision that LaTeX provides.

Current State

Today, LaTeX has gained popularity among academics, researchers, and professionals who value the ability to create visually appealing and consistent presentations. With the availability of modern LaTeX packages like Beamer, creating stunning slideshows has become easier than ever.

Future State

As technology continues to advance, we can expect LaTeX to further enhance its capabilities for presentations. With the integration of AI and machine learning, LaTeX may offer intelligent features like automatic slide layout suggestions, content generation, and real-time collaboration.

Professional Appearance : LaTeX presentations have a distinct and polished look, making them suitable for academic conferences, research seminars, and business meetings.

Customization : LaTeX allows users to customize every aspect of their presentations, from fonts and colors to layout and animations.

Mathematical Typesetting : LaTeX excels at typesetting mathematical equations, making it an ideal choice for scientific and technical presentations.

Version Control : LaTeX presentations can be easily managed using version control systems like Git, enabling collaborative work and easy tracking of changes.

Cross-Platform Compatibility : LaTeX presentations can be compiled into various formats, including PDF, making them accessible on different devices and operating systems.

Significance

The significance of using LaTeX for presentations lies in its ability to produce high-quality output and maintain consistency across different slides. Unlike traditional presentation tools, LaTeX ensures that the design elements, such as fonts, colors, and layout, remain consistent throughout the entire presentation.

Moreover, LaTeX's focus on typesetting mathematical equations makes it indispensable for fields like mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering, where precise representation of formulas and symbols is crucial.

Best Practices

To make the most out of LaTeX for presentations, consider the following best practices:

Plan and Structure : Outline your presentation and organize your content into logical sections. This will help you maintain a clear flow of information.

Choose a Suitable Theme : Select a Beamer theme that aligns with the tone and purpose of your presentation. Beamer offers a wide range of pre-defined themes to choose from.

Use Consistent Fonts and Colors : Stick to a consistent set of fonts and colors throughout your presentation to maintain a professional and cohesive look.

Leverage LaTeX Packages : Explore various LaTeX packages that extend the functionality of Beamer, such as TikZ for creating diagrams and animations.

Practice and Rehearse : Familiarize yourself with the LaTeX commands and practice compiling your presentation. Rehearse your presentation to ensure a smooth delivery.

Pros and Cons

Professional and Polished Look : LaTeX presentations have a sophisticated appearance that sets them apart from other tools.

Mathematical Typesetting : LaTeX excels at typesetting mathematical equations, making it a preferred choice for technical presentations.

Customization and Flexibility : LaTeX offers extensive customization options, allowing users to create unique and visually appealing presentations.

Version Control and Collaboration : LaTeX presentations can be easily managed using version control systems, facilitating collaboration and version tracking.

Cross-Platform Compatibility : LaTeX presentations can be compiled into various formats, ensuring compatibility across different devices and operating systems.

Learning Curve : LaTeX has a steeper learning curve compared to traditional presentation tools. It requires familiarity with LaTeX syntax and commands.

Limited WYSIWYG Editing : Unlike WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors, LaTeX requires compiling the code to see the final output.

Time-Consuming : Creating complex presentations in LaTeX can be time-consuming, especially when dealing with intricate layouts and animations.

Less Interactive Features : LaTeX presentations lack some of the interactive features available in other tools, such as embedded videos or live web content.

Dependency on LaTeX Distribution : Using LaTeX for presentations requires installing a LaTeX distribution, which may require additional setup and maintenance.

When considering LaTeX for presentations, it's essential to compare it with other popular tools like Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. While LaTeX offers unparalleled customization and typographical control, PowerPoint and Keynote excel in terms of user-friendliness and interactive features.

Method 1: Installation and Setup

• Install a LaTeX distribution like TeX Live or MiKTeX on your computer.
• Choose a LaTeX editor, such as TeXstudio or Overleaf, to write your presentation code.
• Start a new LaTeX document and include the necessary packages for creating presentations.
• Write your presentation content using LaTeX commands and syntax.
• Compile the LaTeX code to generate the presentation output in PDF format.

Method 2: Using Beamer

• Start a new LaTeX document and load the Beamer class.
• Define the document structure, including the title, author, and date.
• Create slides using the frame environment and add content using LaTeX commands.
• Customize the appearance of your slides using Beamer themes, colors, and fonts.
• Compile the LaTeX code to generate the Beamer presentation.

Method 3: Templates

• Explore the wide range of Beamer templates available online.
• Choose a template that suits your presentation style and content.
• Download the template and customize it with your own content.
• Compile the LaTeX code to generate the presentation output.

Method 4: LaTeX Presentation Editors

• Use online LaTeX editors like Overleaf or ShareLaTeX that provide a user-friendly interface for creating presentations.
• Start a new project and select the presentation template.
• Write your presentation content using the built-in LaTeX editor.
• Customize the appearance of your slides using the provided options.

AI Applications

AI can enhance the presentation creation process by providing intelligent suggestions for slide layouts, content organization, and visual design. It can analyze the presenter's speech patterns and provide real-time feedback for improvement.

AI Techniques

AI techniques like natural language processing (NLP) can be used to automatically generate slide content based on the presenter's input. Image recognition algorithms can assist in selecting relevant images and graphics for the presentation.

AI Benefits

• Time-Saving : AI-powered tools can automate repetitive tasks, such as slide layout design and content generation, saving valuable time for presenters.
• Enhanced Creativity : AI can suggest creative ideas for slide design and content arrangement, helping presenters think outside the box.
• Improved Engagement : AI can analyze audience feedback and adapt the presentation in real-time to maximize engagement and impact.

AI Challenges

• Data Privacy : AI tools may require access to personal or sensitive information, raising concerns about data privacy and security.
• Algorithm Bias : AI algorithms may exhibit bias in their suggestions or recommendations, potentially affecting the objectivity and fairness of the presentation.
• Complexity and Reliability : AI systems can be complex and may require continuous updates and maintenance to ensure reliable performance.

Potential Online Apps

• Overleaf : An online LaTeX editor with collaborative features, perfect for creating presentations.
• ShareLaTeX : Another online LaTeX editor that offers real-time collaboration and a user-friendly interface.
• Beamer Theme Gallery : A collection of Beamer themes that can be used to customize the appearance of your LaTeX presentations.
• LaTeX Beamer Templates : A repository of free LaTeX Beamer templates for various presentation styles.
• Slidebean : An AI-powered presentation tool that offers pre-designed templates and content suggestions.

Using LaTeX for presentations offers numerous advantages in terms of customization, professionalism, and typesetting capabilities. While it may have a steeper learning curve compared to traditional presentation tools, the benefits outweigh the challenges. By following best practices and exploring the vast resources available, you can create visually stunning and impactful presentations using LaTeX. Embrace the power of LaTeX and elevate your presentation game to new heights.

Keep Reading

Posted November 15, 2023 in General

Revolutionize your learning: the impact of ai-powered technology.

Next-Gen Learning: Embrace AI-Powered Education Now

Harnessing AI: Tools and Tips to Accelerate Your AI Learning

AI Education: How to Learn AI With Confidence and Ease

Try scholarly.

It's completely free, simple to use, and easy to get started.

Join thousands of students and educators today.

Are you a school or organization? Contact us

© 2024 Scholarly. All rights reserved.

LaTeX/Presentations

LaTeX can be used for creating presentations. There are several packages for the task, such as- Powerdot , Prosper , Seminar , etc, however, the Beamer package is the most widely used.

It should be noted that Latex produces the presentation as a PDF which can be viewed in fullscreen mode with some pdf reader (e.g. Okular , Evince or Adobe Reader). If you want to navigate in your presentation, you can use the almost invisible links in the bottom right corner without leaving the fullscreen mode.

• 1.1 Title page and author information
• 1.2.1 Sections and subsections
• 1.2.2 References (Beamer)
• 1.3.1 The Built-in solution
• 1.3.2 User-defined themes
• 1.3.3.1 Math Fonts
• 1.4 Frames Options
• 1.5 Hyperlink navigation
• 1.6 Animations
• 1.7 Handout mode
• 1.8 Columns
• 1.10 PDF options
• 1.11 Numbering slides
• 2 The Powerdot package
• 3.1 Beamer based themes/examples
• 3.2 References

The Beamer package [ edit | edit source ]

The beamer package is provided with most LaTeX distributions, but is also available from CTAN . If you use MikTeX, all you have to do is to include the beamer package and let LaTeX download all wanted packages automatically. The documentation explains the features in great detail. You can also have a look at the PracTex article Beamer by Example . [1]

The beamer package also loads many useful packages including xcolors, hyperref , etc. An introductory example and its output are shown below.

In above code, the Beamer package is loaded by the \documentclass{beamer} command in the header. The usual header information may then be specified. In Beamer presentation a frame is an equivalent term for the slide (used in MS office). A frame is defined using the environment \begin{frame} ...... \end{frame} . The \frametitle{} command specifies the title for each slide. The frame title and subtitle can also be passed with the environment as following.

The usual environments ( itemize , enumerate , equation , etc.) may be used. Inside frames, you can use environments like block , theorem , proof , ... Also, \maketitle is possible to create the Title page, if title and author are set.

Title page and author information [ edit | edit source ]

The title page is the first page where one may insert following information

• Title and subtitle (optional)- Use \title and \subtitle commands, or use \title[short title (optional)]{Long title}{subtitle (optional)}
• Author(s) name- Use the \author{} command.
• Institute name- Use the \institute command. Note the use of \inst{1} and \inst{2} commands to associate the authors with their respective institutes.
• Date and Place of presentation- It can be inserted using the \date[short date(optional)]{Long date} command.
• Logo of Institute, etc.

It should be noted that the information within square braces, i.e., [ ] is optional.

It is important to include the \maketitle command in the document (as in above code) to create the title frame. The commands \maketitle and \titlepage are equivalent.

Table of Contents [ edit | edit source ]

The table of contents, with the current section highlighted, is displayed by:

This can be done automatically at the beginning of each section using the following code in the preamble:

Or for subsections:

Sections and subsections [ edit | edit source ]

As in all other LaTeX files, it is possible to structure the document using

Those commands have to be put before and between frames. They will modify the table of contents with the argument in brackets. The optional argument will be shown in the headline navigation on the slide, depending on the theme used. You can use \sectionpage macro to generate a separator slide for a declared section, for example

References (Beamer) [ edit | edit source ]

The following example shows a manually made references slide containing two entries:

As the reference list grows, the reference slide will divide into two slides and so on, through use of the allowframebreaks option. Individual items can be cited after adding an 'optional' label to the relevant bibitem stanza. The citation call is simply \cite . Beamer also supports limited customization of the way references are presented (see the manual).

The different types of referenced work are indicated with a little symbol (e.g. a book, an article, etc.). The symbol is set with the commands beamertemplatebookbibitems and beamertemplatearticlebibitems . It is also possible to use setbeamertemplate directly, like so

Other possible types of bibliography items, besides book and article , include e.g. online , triangle and text . It is also possible to have user defined bibliography items by including a graphic.

If one wants to have full references appear as foot notes, use the \footfullcite from the biblatex package. For example, it is possible to use

Themes [ edit | edit source ]

Beamer offers two ways for define the themes- 1) Use built-in themes, 2) Use user-defined themes.

The Built-in solution [ edit | edit source ]

Beamer has several built-in themes which can be used by specifying their "Name" and their "color" in the preamble. This Theme Matrix contains the various theme and color combinations included with Beamer . For more customizing options, have a look to the official documentation included in your distribution of beamer , particularly the part Change the way it looks .

The full list of themes is:

The full list of color themes is:

User-defined themes [ edit | edit source ]

First you can specify the outertheme , which defines the head and the footline of each slide.

Here is a list of all available outer and inner themes:

You can define the color of every element:

Colors can be defined as usual:

Block styles can also be defined:

You can also suppress the navigation symbols:

Fonts [ edit | edit source ]

You may also change the fonts for particular elements. If you wanted the title of the presentation as rendered by \begin { frame } [plain] \titlepage\end { frame } to occur in a serif font instead of the default sanserif, you would use:

You could take this a step further if you are using OpenType fonts with Xe(La)TeX and specify a serif font with increased size and oldstyle proportional alternate number glyphs:

Math Fonts [ edit | edit source ]

The default settings for beamer use a different set of math fonts than one would expect from creating a simple math article. One quick fix for this is to use

Frames Options [ edit | edit source ]

The options to a frame can be passed as following

Some of the useful options and their description is following.

• plain : This option removes all the formatting from your slide and thus give you extra space to accommodate a large figure or a large table.
• shrink : If you want to include lots of text on a slide use the shrink option.
• allowframebreaks  : option will auto-create new frames if there is too much content to be displayed on one.
• fragile : Before using any verbatim environment (like listings ), you should pass the option fragile to the frame environment, as verbatim environments need to be typeset differently. Usually, the form fragile=singleslide is usable (for details see the manual). Note that the fragile option may not be used with \frame commands since it expects to encounter a \end { frame } , which should be alone on a single line.

Hyperlink navigation [ edit | edit source ]

Internal and external hyperlinks can be used in beamer to assist navigation. Clean looking buttons can also be added.

By default the beamer class adds navigation buttons in the bottom right corner. To remove them one can place

in the preamble.

Animations [ edit | edit source ]

It is possible to make figure and text to appear and disappear using the commands such as \pause, \uncover, \only and \itemize<a-b>. Text or figures after these commands will display after one of the following events (which may vary between PDF viewers): pressing space, return or page down on the keyboard, or using the mouse to scroll down or click the next slide button. A short explanation of each command is as follows and refer to chapter 9 of the Beamer manual for more details..

The \pause statement can be used as following to provide a break. I.e. the text after the command will be displayed on next event (button click/ key press/etc.)

The \uncover command specifies the appearance explicitly; \only works the same but without reserving space when hidden.

The \item command specifies appearance and disappearance of text by using <a-b> where a and b are the numbers of the events the item is to be displayed for (inclusive). For example:

A simpler approach for revealing one item per click is to use \begin { itemize } [<+->] .

In all these cases, pressing page up, scrolling up, or clicking the previous slide button in the navigation bar will backtrack through the sequence.

Above command uncovers the item and they are visible only on/after the specified frame numbers. One may also use the \setbeamercovered{transparent} command to see the uncovered items, which are shown with little opacity. This means if the visible text is in black then the uncovered text will be in gray. One may use \setbeamercovered{invisible} to revert this setting.

Similar option is also available for formatting the text. for example if you want the text to be of specific style then you may use \style<3->{Text} command. For example one may use \alert<3->{Some text.} which will show the specified text in the respective formatting for specified slides. Similarly one may use

\textbf, \textit, \textsl, \textrm, \textsf, \textcolor, \structure etc. commands.

Same is true for theorem, corollary, and proof environments. An example is given below.

For the tables one must add \onslide slide command before placing the new line (i.e., \\) .

Test 1 & repeat & 14.5 & 656 \onslide<3-> \\

Handout mode [ edit | edit source ]

In beamer class, the default mode is presentation which makes the slides. However, you can work in a different mode that is called handout by setting this option when calling the class:

This mode is useful to see each slide only one time with all its stuff on it, making any \itemize [<+->] environments visible all at once (for instance, printable version). Nevertheless, this makes an issue when working with the only command, because its purpose is to have only some text or figures at a time and not all of them together.

If you want to solve this, you can add a statement to specify precisely the behavior when dealing with only commands in handout mode. Suppose you have a code like this

These pictures being completely different, you want them both in the handout, but they cannot be both on the same slide since they are large. The solution is to add the handout statement to have the following:

This will ensure the handout will make a slide for each picture.

Now imagine you still have your two pictures with the only statements, but the second one show the first one plus some other graphs and you don't need the first one to appear in the handout. You can thus precise the handout mode not to include some only commands by:

The command can also be used to hide frames, e.g.

or even, if you have written a frame that you don't want anymore but maybe you will need it later, you can write

and this will hide your slide in both modes.

A last word about the handout mode is about the notes. Actually, the full syntax for a frame is

and you can write your notes about a frame in the field note (many of them if needed). Using this, you can add an option

The first one is useful when you make a presentation to have only the notes you need, while the second one could be given to those who have followed your presentation or those who missed it, for them to have both the slides with what you said.

Columns [ edit | edit source ]

Columns environment divides a slide (vertically) into columns. Example

Blocks [ edit | edit source ]

Enclosing text in the block environment creates a distinct, headed block of text (a blank heading can be used). This allows to visually distinguish parts of a slide easily. There are three basic types of block. Their formatting depends on the theme being used.

PDF options [ edit | edit source ]

You can specify the default options of your PDF. [2]

Numbering slides [ edit | edit source ]

It is possible to number slides using this snippet:

However, this poses two problems for some presentation authors: the title slide is numbered as the first one, and the appendix or so-called "backup" (aka appendix, reserve) slides are included in the total count despite them not being intended to be public until a "hard" question is asked. [3] This is where two features come in:

• Ability to exclude certain frames from being numbered. For instance, this may be used at the title slide to avoid counting it:
• This stuff works around the problem of counting the backup frames:

The Powerdot package [ edit | edit source ]

The powerdot package is an alternative to beamer. It is available from CTAN . The documentation explains the features in great detail.

The powerdot package is loaded by calling the powerdot class:

The usual header information may then be specified.

Inside the usual document environment, multiple slide environments specify the content to be put on each slide.

Simple presentations [ edit | edit source ]

The beamer class is very powerful and provides lots of features. For a very simple presentation, a class based on article can be used.

Beamer based themes/examples [ edit | edit source ]

Some of the nice examples of the presentation are available below

• The Nord beamer theme
• Metropolis theme
• Kenton Hamaluik
• A list of theme maintained at github

References [ edit | edit source ]

• ↑ Andrew Mertz and William Slough, Beamer by Example
• ↑ Other possible values are defined in the hyperref manual
• ↑ Appendix Slides in Beamer: Controlling frame numbers

Links [ edit | edit source ]

• Wikipedia:Beamer (LaTeX)
• Beamer user guide (pdf) from CTAN
• The powerdot class (pdf) from CTAN
• A tutorial for creating presentations using beamer

• Pages using deprecated enclose attributes
• Wikibooks pages with to-do lists

Navigation menu

• Behind the Scenes

How to Make a Presentation in LaTeX

December 7, 2016 Trudy Firestone 5 Comments

When I was tasked with creating a presentation to share with my co-workers at our weekly tech talk, I chose to use LaTeX. While I briefly considered other tools, like Google Slides or PowerPoint, using LaTeX allowed me to easily separate the styling from my content and create my own theme that I could reuse for all future presentations at Lucid.

What? LaTeX for Presentations?

LaTeX is a typesetting and document creation tool that is often used for creating academic articles due to its ability to display mathematical equations. Beyond that, it has many other capabilities due to a large amount of packages, such as Forest, which I used for laying out sentence trees in a college Linguistics class. One such package, Beamer , allows you to create presentations. While Beamer lacks the simple click and drag functionality of a GUI tool in creating presentations, it makes up for it by automating a large portion of the stylistic work—as long as you like the default styles or are willing to write your own—and offering all the mathematical equations, graphs, and other tools available in LaTeX.

A sample Beamer document:

The Beamer commands are straightforward, and the flow of the presentation is easier to follow than it is in a GUI tool. While you could split the styling from the market using html and css, I enjoy using the Beamer package due to its concise creation of slides. Looking at a LaTeX file for a Beamer presentation is almost like looking at an outline which makes it more closely connected to the content the presentation is trying to convey. Unfortunately, I don’t like the default theme…or any of the other themes .

After lots of searching, however, I was able to create my own theme, lucid. Then, just by uncommenting \usetheme{lucid} , I was able to create a presentation I was pleased with. Only a few weeks ago, I was able to reuse the theme and create a new presentation with all the custom styling that I wanted in much less time than a GUI tool would have required to replicate my original theme.

Building Your Own Beamer Theme

While it’s easy to find documentation on creating a presentation using Beamer , it’s more difficult to locate documentation on building a Beamer theme. Therefore, I’m going to walk through creating a simple Beamer theme with its own title page, header and footer, and styled lists.

The first step in creating a Beamer theme is creating the following four files where “lucid” is the name of our new theme:

• beamerinnerthemelucid.sty
• beamerouterthemelucid.sty
• beamercolorthemelucid.sty
• beamerthemelucid.sty

While it’s not necessary to separate these into four files, it follows the pattern of Beamer’s own themes which allow for mixing and matching different parts of the theme. For instance, if we wanted to use the albatross color theme with the default theme we could replace \usetheme{lucid} in the above sample file like this:

And the output pdf would consist of this:

The three parts of a theme are:

• Inner: Defines the appearance of any items that make up the slides central content, e.g., lists or the title on the title page
• Outer: Defines the appearance of the chrome of the slide, e.g., the title and footer of each slide
• Color: Defines the colors used in various parts of the theme, e.g.,the color for frame titles or the background color

The final file, beamerthemelucid.sty, simply exists to combine all the parts of the theme into the main theme so it can be used without specifying each part of the theme.

beamerthemelucid.sty:

The change to presentation mode at the beginning of the file is added so that the .sty file will match the mode of the presentation .tex file. Beamer automatically converts all files with its document class to presentation mode. The rest of the file simply sets all the portions of the theme to the new lucid theme and then returns the file to the normal mode. Each of the .sty files used to create the theme needs to be put in presentation mode in the same way.

Right now, the theme doesn’t actually change anything. Everything is still using the default theme because we haven’t defined any new styles. Let’s start with the title page. Because the title is part of the inner content of the title page, the definition for its style goes into beamerinnerthemelucid.sty.

I want a title page that’s centered vertically and horizontally like the one in the default theme, but with a bigger font, a different color, and no date. So, let’s add the following to beamerinnerthemelucid.sty between the mode changes:

The \defbeamertemplate command creates a new template where the first argument is the mode, * in this case, the second argument is what the template is for, and the third argument is the name of the new template. To access the template elsewhere, the given name is used, in this case “lucid.” The final part of \defbeamertemplate is where the actual template is defined using arbitrary LaTeX code. In this case, we use common commands for centering and accessed the title and subtitle via \inserttitle and \insertsubtitle . To get the correct colors, we use \usebeamercolor which fetches the correct colors from the color theme based on the element name given, i.e., the name of the color. Similarly, \usebeamerfont fetches the correct font from the font theme, so that you can specify the font separately.

However, the color and the font remain unchanged, so we need to edit the color theme file next. I want white text on a dark background, so we need to change the background color first.

After adding these commands in beamercolorthemelucid.sty, the title page looks just about the way I want it. The background is gray, and the title and subtitle are in a new size and color. However, Beamer’s default links are still in the bottom right hand corner. To remove them, we add the following line to beamerouterthemelucid.sty because the footer is part of the outer theme.

Like \defbeamertemplate , \setbeamertemplate can be used to define a new template. The element that uses the template is immediately set to use the new template rather than being set separately. In this case, the navigation symbols element is set to empty.

Now that the title page looks just the way I want it to, we can move on to the content slides. While they already have the correct background color and are correctly lacking the navigation symbols in the footer, the title and subtitle are the wrong color and lack style.

Because the frame title is part of the outer theme, we add the following to beamerouterthemelucid.sty:

In addition to the now familiar Beamer commands, we use an if statement to differentiate between the cases of when there is and isn’t a subtitle, and we make use of a new package, tikz, which allows the user to create drawings in LaTeX. By using it in the template for the frametitle, we’ve added a rectangle to each frame title in the presentation. We set the color of the rectangle with the Beamer color frametitle-left which the command \usebeamercolor[fg]{frametitle-left} adds to the environment.

The colors and fonts are correctly reading from beamercolorthemelucid.sty, but it hasn’t been updated, so that’s the next step.

The content of the slides is still in the default style, so we turn to beamerinnerthemelucid.sty to modify the template for lists.

Just as \setbeamertemplate can be used to define a new template that is immediately applied, it can also be used to set a template defined by \defbeamertemplate earlier. square is defined by default in the beamer package, and it makes the bullets in an unordered list square.

To change the colors of content and the list items, we update beamercolortheme.sty again.

The last thing missing from our theme is a new footer. We need to add a page number and logo to each page.

Adding the above to beamerouterthemelucid.sty splits the footer in half, putting the page number out of the total number of pages on one side and a logo on the other. lucidsoftware-logo.png has to be included in the same directory for it to compile correctly. The if statement removes the page number from the first page.

Finally, we add the color for the page number to beamercolorthemelucid.sty:

Creating your own LaTeX theme allows for complete customizability, something you have to work very hard to achieve in more conventional presentational tools. It also makes it trivial to reuse the theme, avoiding wasted effort.

Additional References:

• Another Theme Example

Related Articles

Time-saving Chrome DevTools Shortcuts

5 smart strategies to increasing productivity in the workplace, agile documentation: keeping your team in sync in an agile world, live editing html and css with chrome devtools.

Was doing just that in the ’80s with DCF and Generalised Markup Language.

Styles were called “profiles”. You could roll your own, tailor an existing style or buy one.

The same base document could be formatted for a book, presentation or display.

Likely still used in producing IBM manuals.

So, have you uploaded your theme on CTAN? That’s the TeX-way to share 🙂

Thanks a lot This article helped me a lot to prepare my communication for this week (Stil working on it) Much thanks <3

Thank you a million times, i had a very very incredible experience with your tutorial. I made my own theme and i love it 🙂 I’m going to make a video on YouTube for this beautiful simplistic tex presentation solution. I’ll definitely link to your great tutorial there.

I do agree with all the ideas you have introduced on your post.

They’re really convincing and wll definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too brief for starters. May you please lengthen them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Presentations

Presentations, otherwise known as seminars, talks or lectures, are given to an audience with the purpose of sharing information with a group of people. This may be at an academic conference, a business meeting or even a project progress update. Since LaTeX produces PDFs, you simply need to open the presentation PDF in full screen mode in your PDF viewer to give the presentation.

Beamer Presentation

This presentation template uses the well-known beamer class and shows how effortless making presentations using LaTeX can be. The template contains extensive commenting which lets you customize your presentation easily, be it to change the layout theme, colors, fonts, font size, text alignment or more. It also features many example slides for virtually any presentation element you may need.

• View Template Information

Focus Presentation

This template creates modern presentation slides using the beamer class. The minimalist design lets you quickly enter your content and spend time honing your message rather than wasting time in presentation software. The template includes examples of many slide types which should cover most use cases as well as different ways of putting in your content no matter what it is and how you want to emphasize it.

Fancyslides Presentation

This presentation template uses the Fancyslides class which builds on top of the well-known beamer class to give it a modern and concise design. The template is very minimalist with large font sizes and little space for text and would thus be suited for popular presentations by confident speakers. It makes extensive use of background images for slides to provide a strong visual counterpart to the verbal presentation. Content within the presentation is housed within translucent colored circles or rectangles. The former are used for main points or section delineations while the latter are used for larger blocks of text or data slides. Several predefined color options are present within the template and you can also define your own.

LaTeX Templates Information

General enquiries [email protected]

Most templates licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

LaTeX Templates is developed in New Zealand

© Creodocs Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Templates — Presentation

Templates tagged Presentation

Show all Templates

Communicating and sharing your work effectively with colleagues, supervisors and the general public often requires the preparation of a suitable presentation, tailored to that audience. These templates make it easy to create such a presentation, and the resulting set of slides is available for distribution in PDF format – perfect for sharing before or after your lecture, seminar or talk.

Related Tags

Have you checked our knowledge base ?

Message sent! Our team will review it and reply by email.