theme for beamer presentation latex

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How to employ a custom beamer theme, template and includes in a beamer presentation generated with R markdown?

R markdown presentations with output format beamer can make use of

• Classical LaTex beamer themes such as Copenhagen or Madrid or employ custom beamer themes.
• Templates , i.e. a template.tex
• Includes , e.g. in_header: preamble.tex , before_body: before_body.tex and after_body: after_body.tex

which can be implemented in the rmarkdown::beamer_presentation through the YAML-header as follows:

Question I: What are the specific purposes of these files listed above?

I got provided with a custom themes for beamer, containing beamerthemeTHEMENAME.sty , beamercolorthemeTHEMENAME.sty , beamerfontthemeTHEMENAME.sty , beamerinnerthemeTHEMENAME.sty , beamerouterthemeTHEMENAME.sty . Sourcing this template within my YAML header does not lead to the presentation looking too close to any beamer presentation generated straight with LaTex and applying the custom theme.

As an example, in the beamerouterthemeTHEMENAME.sty , a new titleframe is defined, which can then be called at the beginning of the LaTex presentation with \titleframe . I did not succeed in applying this custom frame-type in the rmarkdown::beamer_presentation .

Question II: Applying a LaTex beamer theme in an rmarkdown::beamer_presentation , which contents to modify or enhance the presentation

• would have to be adapted or
• moved from the beamer theme to template.tex and includes

such that they are applied to the presentation in rmarkdown just as in LaTex?

Question III: Can the final files of the custom theme , the template.tex , and the includes be moved to a sub-folder for the neater organization of the presentation folder and still be loaded correctly

MWE & issues remaining

• Can not use the following frame templates defined in beamerouterthemeTHEMENAME.sty : \titleframe , \tocframe , \closingframe
• Succeeded in linking the page numbers to the appendix .
• Would be nice to link the logo to the table of contents slide

beamerthemeTHEMENAME.sty

Beamercolorthemethemename.sty, beamerouterthemethemename.sty.

• Rule of thumb: if you find yourself in a situation to enumerate the multiple questions in a question, this might be a slight hint that it is too broad... –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 13:43
• Q3: sure that's possible. Either add the folder to your TEXINPUTS variable or call it via \usetheme{./somefolder/THEMENAME} (a warning will occur and paths for the subthemes will have to be edited) –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 13:46
• 1 Q1: You just need to make sure that the theme is called somewhere before the start of the document. It does not really matter which of rmarkdows numerous confusing interfaces you use for this. –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 13:50
• 1 No, add the folder with your sty files to your TEXINPUTS environment variable, then latex will find it –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 17:16
• 1 How to set an environment variable will depend on your operating system and/or on what type of shell you use –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 17:45

@Samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz is right. This is a broad question.

The simplest response is yes, you can use the beamercolor...sty and associated files to create your custom beamer deck. I use RStudio as my R IDE and I wrote a "plugin" that allows me to generate a new custom beamer presentation just like you would generate any other new doc: i.e., File -> New file -> R Markdown -> From Template

I keep the .sty files in home directory I call customtex or something, with a tex directory and a beamer dir.

When I use From Template in RStudio, these files get copied into the specific location I determine, along with the new .Rmd file that is created.

When I click the Knit (or otherwise run render() ), the custom .sty files are used as the template.

• 2 Instead of copying, wouldn't it be simpler to keep the sty files either in your texmf directory or add your customtex directory to your TEXINPUTS variable instead of ending up with dozens of unnecessary copies which will be a nightmare to keep up to date? –  samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 14:02
• It definitely would be. My solution was the result of a "do it fast!" process that was developed years ago. I wish I could update it but as we're moving to a different reporting tool, there's not been a need. Yet. I should also admit that I am not a tex expert and a lot of my learning in building out my custom .sty files and associated tex and beamer work was on the fly and could have been much better with a SME available. –  Steven Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 14:16
• @Steven Thank you so much for your suggestion. I am facing the same issue (pressing time). In the long run, having a master file is the way to go. Snapshots of this file could then be stored with the presentation, when it is (really) done, for future reference. This would allow to go back to the presentation at a late stage and assures backward compatibility (since the master likely got updated meanwhile). –  mavericks Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 17:15
• @Steven as requested, the rather broad question is now split into more precise subquestions: Q1 , Q2 , Q3 . Any advice is greatly appreciated! –  mavericks Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 19:12

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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.

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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.

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Changing the Way Things Look

15.1 five flavors of themes ¶.

Themes make it easy to change the appearance of a presentation. The beamer class uses five different kinds of themes:

Conceptually, a presentation theme dictates for every single detail of a presentation what it looks like. Thus, choosing a particular presentation theme will setup for, say, the numbers in enumeration what color they have, what color their background has, what font is used to render them, whether a circle or ball or rectangle or whatever is drawn behind them, and so forth. Thus, when you choose a presentation theme, your presentation will look the way someone (the creator of the theme) thought that a presentation should look like. Presentation themes typically only choose a particular color theme, font theme, inner theme, and outer theme that go well together.

A color theme only dictates which colors are used in a presentation. If you have chosen a particular presentation theme and then choose a color theme, only the colors of your presentation will change. A color theme can specify colors in a very detailed way: For example, a color theme can specifically change the colors used to render, say, the border of a button, the background of a button, and the text on a button.

A font theme dictates which fonts or font attributes are used in a presentation. As for colors, the font of all text elements used in a presentation can be specified independently.

An inner theme specifies how certain elements of a presentation are typeset. This includes all elements that are at the “inside” of the frame, that is, that are not part of the headline, footline, or sidebars. This includes all enumerations, itemize environments, block environments, theorem environments, or the table of contents. For example, an inner theme might specify that in an enumeration the number should be typeset without a dot and that a small circle should be shown behind it. The inner theme would not specify what color should be used for the number or the circle (this is the job of the color theme) nor which font should be used (this is the job of the font theme).

An outer theme specifies what the “outside” or “border” of the presentation slides should look like. It specifies whether there are head- and footlines, what is shown in them, whether there is a sidebar, where the logo goes, where the navigation symbols and bars go, and so on. It also specifies where the frametitle is put and how it is typeset.

The different themes reside in the five subdirectories theme , color , font , inner , and outer of the directory beamer/themes . Internally, a theme is stored as a normal style file. However, to use a theme, the following special commands should be used:

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { ⟨ name list ⟩ }

Installs the presentation theme named ⟨ name ⟩ . Currently, the effect of this command is the same as saying \usepackage for the style file named beamertheme ⟨ name ⟩ .sty for each ⟨ name ⟩ in the ⟨ name list ⟩ .

\usecolortheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { ⟨ name list ⟩ }

Same as \usetheme , only for color themes. Color style files are named beamercolortheme ⟨ name ⟩ .sty .

\usefonttheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { ⟨ name ⟩ }

Same as \usetheme , only for font themes. Font style files are named beamerfonttheme ⟨ name ⟩ .sty .

\useinnertheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { ⟨ name ⟩ }

Same as \usetheme , only for inner themes. Inner style files are named beamerinnertheme ⟨ name ⟩ .sty .

\useoutertheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { ⟨ name ⟩ }

Same as \usetheme , only for outer themes. Outer style files are named beameroutertheme ⟨ name ⟩ .sty .

If you do not use any of these commands, a sober default theme is used for all of them. In the following, the presentation themes that come with the beamer class are described. The element, layout, color, and font themes are presented in the following sections.

15.2 Presentation Themes without Navigation Bars ¶

A presentation theme dictates for every single detail of a presentation what it looks like. Normally, having chosen a particular presentation theme, you do not need to specify anything else having to do with the appearance of your presentation—the creator of the theme should have taken care of that for you. However, you still can change things afterward either by using a different color, font, element, or even layout theme; or by changing specific colors, fonts, or templates directly.

When Till started naming the presentation themes, he soon ran out of ideas on how to call them. Instead of giving them more and more cumbersome names, he decided to switch to a different naming convention: Except for two special cases, all presentation themes are named after cities. These cities happen to be cities in which or near which there was a conference or workshop that he attended or that a co-author of his attended.

All themes listed without author mentioned were developed by Till. If a theme has not been developed by us (that is, if someone else is to blame), this is indicated with the theme. We have sometimes slightly changed or “corrected” submitted themes, but we still list the original authors.

\usetheme{ default }

As the name suggests, this theme is installed by default. It is a sober no-nonsense theme that makes minimal use of color or font variations. This theme is useful for all kinds of talks, except for very long talks.

\usetheme [headheight= ⟨ head height ⟩ ,footheight= ⟨ foot height ⟩ ] { boxes }

For this theme, you can specify an arbitrary number of templates for the boxes in the headline and in the footline. You can add a template for another box by using the following commands.

\addheadbox { ⟨ beamer color ⟩ }{ ⟨ box template ⟩ }

Each time this command is invoked, a new box is added to the head line, with the first added box being shown on the left. All boxes will have the same size.

The ⟨ beamer color ⟩ will be used to setup the foreground and background colors of the box.

A similar effect as the above commands can be achieved by directly installing a head template that contains two beamercolorbox es:

While being more complicated, the above commands offer more flexibility.

\addfootbox { ⟨ beamer color ⟩ }{ ⟨ box template ⟩ }

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Bergen }

A theme based on the inmargin inner theme and the rectangles inner theme. Using this theme is not quite trivial since getting the spacing right can be trickier than with most other themes. Also, this theme goes badly with columns. You may wish to consult the remarks on the inmargin inner theme.

Bergen is a town in Norway. It hosted iwpec 2004.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Boadilla }

A theme giving much information in little space. The following ⟨ options ⟩ may be given:

• secheader causes a headline to be inserted showing the current section and subsection. By default, this headline is not shown.

Theme author: Manuel Carro. Boadilla is a village in the vicinity of Madrid, hosting the University’s Computer Science department.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Madrid }

Like the Boadilla theme, except that stronger colors are used and that the itemize icons are not modified. The same ⟨ options ⟩ as for the Boadilla theme may be given.

Theme author: Manuel Carro. Madrid is the capital of Spain.

\usetheme{ AnnArbor }

Like Boadilla , but using the colors of the University of Michigan.

Theme author: Madhusudan Singh. The University of Michigan is located at Ann Arbor.

\usetheme{ CambridgeUS }

Like Boadilla , but using the colors of MIT.

Theme author: Madhusudan Singh.

\usetheme{ EastLansing }

Like Boadilla , but using the colors of Michigan State University.

Theme author: Alan Munn. Michigan State University is located in East Lansing.

\usetheme{ Pittsburgh }

A sober theme. The right-flushed frame titles creates an interesting “tension” inside each frame.

Pittsburgh is a town in the eastern USA. It hosted the second recomb workshop of snp s and haplotypes, 2004.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Rochester }

A dominant theme without any navigational elements. It can be made less dominant by using a different color theme.

The following ⟨ options ⟩ may be given:

• height= ⟨ dimension ⟩ sets the height of the frame title bar.

Rochester is a town in upstate New York, USA. Till visited Rochester in 2001.

15.3 Presentation Themes with a Tree-Like Navigation Bar ¶

\usetheme{ Antibes }

A dominant theme with a tree-like navigation at the top. The rectangular elements mirror the rectangular navigation at the top. The theme can be made less dominant by using a different color theme.

Antibes is a town in the south of France. It hosted stacs 2002.

\usetheme{ JuanLesPins }

A variation on the Antibes theme that has a much “smoother” appearance. It can be made less dominant by choosing a different color theme.

Juan–Les–Pins is a cozy village near Antibes. It hosted stacs 2002.

\usetheme{ Montpellier }

A sober theme giving basic navigational hints. The headline can be made more dominant by using a different color theme.

Montpellier is in the south of France. It hosted stacs 2004.

15.4 Presentation Themes with a Table of Contents Sidebar ¶

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Berkeley }

A dominant theme. If the navigation bar is on the left, it dominates since it is seen first. The height of the frame title is fixed to two and a half lines, thus you should be careful with overly long titles. A logo will be put in the corner area. Rectangular areas dominate the layout. The theme can be made less dominant by using a different color theme.

By default, the current entry of the table of contents in the sidebar will be highlighted by using a more vibrant color. A good alternative is to highlight the current entry by using a different color for the background of the current point. The color theme sidebartab installs the appropriate colors, so you just have to say

This color theme works with all themes that show a table of contents in the sidebar.

This theme is useful for long talks like lectures that require a table of contents to be visible all the time.

• hideallsubsections causes only sections to be shown in the sidebar. This is useful, if you need to save space.

• hideothersubsections causes only the subsections of the current section to be shown. This is useful, if you need to save space.

• left puts the sidebar on the left (default).

• right puts the sidebar on the right.

• width= ⟨ dimension ⟩ sets the width of the sidebar. If set to zero, no sidebar is created.

Berkeley is on the western coast of the USA, near San Francisco. Till visited Berkeley for a year in 2004.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { PaloAlto }

A variation on the Berkeley theme with less dominance of rectangular areas. The same ⟨ options ⟩ as for the Berkeley theme can be given.

Palo Alto is also near San Francisco. It hosted the Bay Area Theory Workshop 2004.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Goettingen }

A relatively sober theme useful for a longer talk that demands a sidebar with a full table of contents. The same ⟨ options ⟩ as for the Berkeley theme can be given.

Göttingen is a town in Germany. It hosted the 42nd Theorietag.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Marburg }

A very dominant variation of the Goettingen theme. The same ⟨ options ⟩ may be given.

Marburg is a town in Germany. It hosted the 46th Theorietag.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Hannover }

In this theme, the sidebar on the left is balanced by right-flushed frame titles.

• width= ⟨ dimension ⟩ sets the width of the sidebar.

Hannover is a town in Germany. It hosted the 48th Theorietag.

15.5 Presentation Themes with a Mini Frame Navigation ¶

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Berlin }

A dominant theme with strong colors and dominating rectangular areas. The head- and footlines give lots of information and leave little space for the actual slide contents. This theme is useful for conferences where the audience is not likely to know the title of the talk or who is presenting it. The theme can be made less dominant by using a different color theme.

• compress causes the mini frames in the headline to use only a single line. This is useful for saving space.

Berlin is the capital of Germany.

\usetheme [ ⟨ options ⟩ ] { Ilmenau }

A variation on the Berlin theme. The same ⟨ options ⟩ may be given.

Ilmenau is a town in Germany. It hosted the 40th Theorietag.

\usetheme{ Dresden }

A variation on the Berlin theme with a strong separation into navigational stuff at the top/bottom and a sober main text. The same ⟨ options ⟩ may be given.

Dresden is a town in Germany. It hosted STACS 2001.

\usetheme{ Darmstadt }

A theme with a strong separation into a navigational upper part and an informational main part. By using a different color theme, this separation can be lessened.

Darmstadt is a town in Germany.

\usetheme{ Frankfurt }

A variation on the Darmstadt theme that is slightly less cluttered by leaving out the subsection information.

Frankfurt is a town in Germany.

\usetheme{ Singapore }

A not-too-sober theme with navigation that does not dominate.

Singapore is located in south-eastern Asia. It hosted cocoon 2002.

\usetheme{ Szeged }

A sober theme with a strong dominance of horizontal lines.

Szeged is on the south border of Hungary. It hosted dlt 2003.

15.6 Presentation Themes with Section and Subsection Tables ¶

\usetheme{ Copenhagen }

A not-quite-too-dominant theme. This theme gives compressed information about the current section and subsection at the top and about the title and the author at the bottom. No shadows are used, giving the presentation a “flat” look. The theme can be made less dominant by using a different color theme.

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. It is connected to Malmö by the Øresund bridge.

\usetheme{ Luebeck }

A variation on the Copenhagen theme.

Lübeck is a town in northern Germany. It hosted the 41st Theorietag.

\usetheme{ Malmoe }

A more sober variation of the Copenhagen theme.

Malmö is a town in southern Sweden. It hosted fct 2001.

\usetheme{ Warsaw }

A dominant variation of the Copenhagen theme.

Warsaw is the capital of Poland. It hosted mfcs 2002.

15.7 Presentation Themes Included For Compatibility ¶

Earlier versions of beamer included some further themes. These themes are still available for compatibility, though they are now implemented differently (they also mainly install appropriate color, font, inner, and outer themes). However, they may or may not honor color themes and they will not be supported in the future. The following list shows which of the new themes should be used instead of the old themes. (When switching, you may want to use the font theme structurebold with the option onlysmall .)

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Design a custom Beamer theme from scratch

No matter how hard I search, I cannot find any information on creating a Beamer theme from scratch, as opposed to LEGOing it together from the built-in inner, outer and color themes, maybe modifying one or two beamer templates by using cryptic commands without explanation.

The reason I want to do this is that none of the built-in inner, outer and color themes suit my taste. All of them are instantly recognisable as Beamer, and there is very small visual change between them.

and I would also like to port the beautiful powerdot themes (see gallery ), such as the KlopeSpring theme to Beamer, as Powerdot is very inconvenient for having to convert all images to EPS.

So how do I go about all those geometric decorations and placing text above/below/on them? Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I know about the easy solution of "include an empty slide PDF as background image", but that is no fun.

• 1 This question might be helpful to you: tex.stackexchange.com/q/26299/215 –  Seamus Commented Nov 23, 2013 at 13:20
• Have you seen this document? ctan.yazd.ac.ir/macros/latex/contrib/beamer/doc/… –  FilBot3 Commented Apr 27, 2020 at 18:57
• 1 @FilBot3 Yes, but at the time of asking this question, it was not as complete, informational and helpful as Claudio's answer below. I haven't checked if it was expanded lately. –  marczellm Commented Apr 28, 2020 at 10:01

3 Answers 3

Build your own theme: no one forces you to exploit predefined inner, outer, color and font themes. Look at this theme : is it instantly recognisable as Beamer ?

But, let's have a practical example: it is one hour-built theme, thus take it just for demonstration. Lot of improvements can be done. The reference is one of your pictures.

We call this new theme texsx mainly due to the fact that I don't have much fantasy with names. So in a directory we create the following files:

• beamercolorthemetexsx.sty
• beamerinnerthemetexsx.sty
• beamerouterthemetexsx.sty
• beamerthemetexsx.sty
• texsx-example.tex

To build the theme we might exploit TikZ: very likely you can avoid it, but the question has the magic tag, so I felt almost obligated (even if the true reason is: with TikZ was faster ;) ).

So we keep beamerthemetexsx.sty very simple:

we load the themes, remove the navigation symbols and define blocks aspect.

Now, let's start define the title page in the inner theme. As we need to test what we're doing, at first is is better to set up the example document:

Nothing is strange or difficult till now. Time to build the titlepage; I would proceed as follows:

• exploit the background template to set the titlepage background
• define a title page template in which the title, the author and the date are actually set.

The operations described are translated in beamerinnerthemetexsx.sty in the following way:

It is important to notice that we define ourself the bounding box through \useasboundingbox (0,0) rectangle(\the\paperwidth,\the\paperheight); then, thanks to the test on the page number, we apply the background on the title page only.

In the title page template then we actually put the elements mentioned above. We characterize their color aspect passing to beamercolorboxes title page header , author , date so we need these definitions. Let's add them to the beamercolorthemetexsx.sty :

Now, if we compile our example we get:

Let's going on defining the aspect of the frame title. This is done with a template called frametitle in the beamerouterthemetexsx.sty , which looks like:

Basically, we exploit the same concept of the titlepage to draw some boxes; then we check whether the subtitle is present: accordingly we set the position of title and subtitle or we set only the frame title with TikZ nodes.

We need again tests to verify our idea. So let's add something on our example:

As we also have lists, we have to define their aspect and color. So we need to add:

in our beamercolorthemetexsx.sty and:

in beamerinnerthemetexsx.sty . It is not mandatory to put the latter definitions in the inner theme, but I followed the Beamer style.

It seems to me we can compile our document; the result is:

Ok, I agree: the colors are not the ones in the reference picture and the subtitle is not perfectly aligned with the title (this is due to the font size difference), but the new theme is here.

• 11 Basically the reason to not going deeper with it is: launch time. ;) –  Claudio Fiandrino Commented Nov 24, 2013 at 12:16
• 44 ...........Wow. –  marczellm Commented Nov 24, 2013 at 13:01
• I think in this case it is better to use \setbeamertemplate every time instead of \defbeamertemplate* . –  marczellm Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 10:19
• @marczellm: why? If you have to create themes from scratch I believe it is better go with \defbeamertemplate . –  Claudio Fiandrino Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 10:39
• 1 @macmadness86: I use that both for the background and frametitle to be sure not having objects that being large might cause problems to the page. Using a path would not provide cropping facilities. –  Claudio Fiandrino Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 9:24

Using Claudio's answer as a starting point, I developed two themes which I made available here , one based on the PowerPoint Median theme and one based on the Powerdot KlopeSpring theme. There may be more to come.

In addition to the techniques Claudio demonstrated, I used the textpos package to do absolute positioning of text on the page.

In order to achieve different frame backgrounds on section pages and plain frames, I used something like

Note the double curly brackets; the inner pair puts everything in a group and thus keeping the template changes local.

Here are some images:

For those of you trying to use a background image behind the title, you can adapt the great answer of Claudio to obtain something like this:

This is for instance my beamerinnerthemeubuntu.sty (for the page title), where ubuntu-background.jpg is my image.

and my outer theme (for the pages):

and my beamerthemeubuntu.sty

together with my beamercolorthemeubuntu.sty (to configure the colors):

You may also like to use:

to create something like:

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Focus: a minimalist presentation theme for LaTeX Beamer.

pcafrica/focus-beamertheme

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Focus v3.4.0.

A presentation theme for LaTeX Beamer that aims at a clean and minimalist design, so to minimize distractions and put the focus directly on the content.

This package is available through the CTAN in most LaTeX distributions such as MiKTeX and TeX Live .

Requires the packages appendixnumberbeamer , fira and PGF/TikZ to be installed in your LaTeX distribution.

A full demo is available. Refer to focus-demo.tex and focus-demo.pdf .

Download the latest release by following this link.

Instructions

After downloading, copy the files named beamer*themefocus.sty into the same folder as your LaTeX source file.

Then include the theme by writing:

in the preamble of your document.

Customize colors

Focus is based on two colors, namely main and background , that can be customized after including the theme.

For example:

produces the following ice-blue color theme.

Customize the footline

The footline numbering can be customized through the theme option numbering . The standard value is:

that shows an progress bar of increasing length on the footline.

Alternatively, a full footline bar with the frame numbering can be shown with:

The minimal style just prints the frame numbering without any footline background:

In the fullbar and minimal cases, an optional text to be printed on the left side of the footline can be customized with:

For all footline styles the total frame number (shown by default) can be suppressed with:

The footline may also be disabled globally by typing:

Customize fonts

Focus is using the Fira fonts by default.

This can be changed by using the option nofirafonts :

Warning : if XeTeX returns an error about the font not being found, please follow the instructions at the TeX Live Guide, section 3.4.4 .

This software is released under the GNU GPL v3.0 License .

If you are enjoying this theme please share it with your friends or colleagues!

Any suggestions, comments, criticism or appreciation are welcome!

Contact information are available to registered users on my Github profile page.

Contributors

Focus was initially created and designed by Pasquale Africa .

Many other people deserve appreciation and acknowledgment for improving the template with additions and modifications. Please find a detailed list of contributors here .

Releases 21

Contributors 8.

LaTeX Beamer introduction / Quick-start guide

Create structured presentations in LaTeX containing a title page, table of contents, lists, figures, tables, blocks, and much more!

• 1. Minimal code
• 2. Title page
• 4. Table of contents (Outline)
• 5. Unordered and ordered lists

6. Tables and Figures

• 7. Multicolumn frame
• 9. Hyperlinks and buttons

1. Minimal code of a LaTeX presentation

The minimal code of a LaTeX presentation includes: 1) loading the beamer class package, 2) choosing a default presentation theme and a frame.

Here is an example:

• Like every LaTeX document, we should specify document class which corresponds to ’beamer’.
• The Beamer class comes with several slide themes which can be used to change the color and layout of the slides. We will use the default theme throughout this guide. I will do a lesson on themes later in the detailed tutorial , but the theme is not our concern at the moment.
• To create a slide, we use the frame environment and put details inside it. In this example, it is just a one line of text!

Compiling this code yields to a basic slide:

Let’s try now to create a simple title page.

2. Creating a simple title page

To create a title page, the first thing to do is to add the title and subtitle of the presentation , the name of the author , the institute and the date . After that, we create a frame environment and we use \titlepage to print the provided details.

Here is a simple example:

Compiling this code yields:

3. Add a logo in Beamer

Adding a logo to beamer presentations can be done easily using the \logo{Text} command. Between braces, we can add text or an image using \includegraphics[options]{ImageName} command .

Here is an illustrative example:

For more details about adding and positioning a logo in Beamer, check this lesson !

4. Presentation Outline

– table of contents command.

The \ tableofcontents command creates the table of contents as it did in LaTeX. The table automatically gets updated with the addition or removal of sections and subsections. We have to create a frame environment and we add the command in question .

– Hide subsections

This command will display all sections and subsection(if any) in the table of contents . To display only sections titles’ we add the option [hideallsubsections] in squared brackets to the \tableofcontents command as follows:

– Recurring table of contents

It is also possible to create a recurring table of contents before every section. This highlights the current section and fades out the rest. This feature is used to remind the audience of where we are in the presentation. This can be done with the help of \AtBeginSection command and specifying [currentsection] in the \tableofcontents command. Please go through the example below for better understanding:

5. Lists in beamer

Let’s discuss these environments in detail:

– Itemize environment

Itemize is used to create unordered lists . Under this environment, the obtained list will have bullet points . Check the following code:

which yields the following:

There are various templates in beamer to change this itemized list appearance. The command \setbeamertemplate is used on itemize items to change the shape of item markers.

• \setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[default] : the default item marker is a triangle.
• \setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[circle] : sets the item marker to a small filled circle.
• \setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[square] : sets the item marker to a small filled square.
• \setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[circle] : sets the item marker to a ball shape.

– Enumerate environment

This environment is used to create an ordered list . By default, before each item increasing Arabic numbers followed by a dot are printed (eg. “ 1. ” and “ 2. ”).

Similar to itemize items, we can change the enumerate style by placing numbers inside different shapes using \setbeamertemplate and instead of itemize items we use enumerate items :

• \setbeamertemplate{enumerate items}[circle] : place the number inside a small filled circle.
• \setbeamertemplate{enumerate items}[square] : place the number inside a small filled square.
• \setbeamertemplate{enumerate items}[circle] : place the number inside a ball shape.

The list looks like the following:

– Description environment

The description environment is used to define terms or to explain acronyms. We provide terms as an argument to the \item command using squared bracket.

Compiling this piece of code yields:

Tables and figures are created pretty much the same way as it is in LaTeX. Check the following code:

Compiling this code with the minimal code of a LaTeX presentation presented above yields:

Figures can be included in a beamer presentation using the figure environment. The image can be simply inserted using the \includegraphics command, since beamer already includes the graphicx package in it. The size and the label of the image can be set using the scale option and \caption command respectively.

7. Creating columns in beamer

Columns can be created in beamer using the environment named columns . Inside this environment, you can either place several column environments , each of which creates a new column, or use the \column command to create new columns.

Under the columns environment, the column environment is to be entered along with column width to text width ratio specified in curly brackets. This ratio is generally taken as 0.5. However, it can be customized as per the requirements, check this example:

8. Blocks in beamer

Information can be displayed in the form of blocks using block environment. These blocks can be of three types :

• alert block.
• example block.
• and theorem block.

– Standard block

The standard block is used for general text in presentations. It has a blue color and can be created as follows:

– Alert block

The purpose of the alert block is to stand out and draw attention towards the content. This block is used to display warning or prohibitions. The default color of this block is red . To display an alert block the code can be written as:

– Example block

This block is used to highlight examples as the name suggests and it can also be used to highlight definitions. The default color of this block is green and it can be created as follows:

– Theorem Block

The theorem block is used to display mathematical equations , theorems , corollary and proofs . The color of this block is blue . Here is an example:

9. Hyperlinks and Buttons

To create jumps from one slide to another slide in our talk, we can add hyperlinks to our presentation . When the hyperlink is clicked it jumps the presentation to the target slide. This can be achieved in beamer by following these steps:

• Tag the frame that we want to link to by adding \label{targetFrame} or \hypertarget commands.
• Create a hyperlink text using the command: \hyperlink{targetFrame}{click here}
• If you would like to create a button style , put “click here” inside the command \hyperlink{contents}{\beamerbutton{click here}}

We reached the end of this quick guide to LaTeX presentations. If you would like to go into details, check the beamer free course !