LaTeX beamer presentation-package 16:9 aspect ratio?

Question

I'm programming a presentation in LaTeX using the beamer class.

However, it defaults to 4:3 aspect ratio slides, while everything I use is 16:9. Is there an easy way to change this using a command or two?

Answer 1

It looks like the current version of beamer supports aspectratio option.

\documentclass[aspectratio=169]{beamer}

should do exactly that. Other possible values are: 1610, 149, 54, 43 and 32.

By default, it is to 128mm by 96mm(4:3).

Ensure that you do not also use \geometry{paperwidth=XX,paperheight=YY} into the same tex file, otherwise aspectratio may be ignored.

edited to add: As of the 2022 (so TeXLive users will need to have TeXLive 2022), arbitrary aspect ratios are available. Two-digit numbers after aspectratio= will be interpreted as X:Y, three-digit numbers as XX:Y and four digit as XX:YY.

Answer 2

Alexey's answer is the most correct one.

\documentclass[aspectratio=169]{beamer}

To get this in emacs orgmode, make this line be your #+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS

#+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [aspectratio=169]

I added this to my earlier setting, smaller, like this:

#+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [smaller,aspectratio=169]

Answer 3

According to A Beamer Quickstart, "The size of a Beamer slide is 128mm by 96mm. These dimensions are fixed and should not be changed."

However, there is a beamerposter package which allows a 16:9 ratio.

Answer 4

As already mentioned, the size is fixed to a ratio of 4:3. However, you can decrease the right and left margin like this:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{beamerthemesplit}

\setbeamersize{text margin left=0.1em}  % <- like this
\setbeamersize{text margin right=0.1em} % <- like this

\title{The title of this presentation}
\author{Bart Kiers}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

  \frame{\titlepage}

\end{document}

which will make your slides look like:

instead of:

EDIT:

And as neilfws mentioned, try the beamerposter package.

The following:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{beamerthemesplit}
\usepackage[orientation=landscape,size=custom,width=16,height=9,scale=0.5,debug]{beamerposter} 

\title{The title of this presentation}
\author{Bart Kiers}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

  \frame{\titlepage}

\end{document}

produces:

Answer 5

New Answer in 2022

• The question was asked originally in 2010.
• In the meantime, there are new features in beamer that are relevant to the question.
• Now you can use arbitrary aspectratio = xxxx with xxxx = 1609 or xxxx = 1610 for example.
• New: The option aspectratio is not limited to a fixed list of pre-defined ratios anymore, instead, the ratio is calculated on the fly based on the value of xxxx.
• The feature is available in TeXLive 2022 and after. This means that it is not available on Overleaf as of now (2022-05).

PS: Power-user samcarter made me aware of this new feature on a chat on https://topanswers.xyz/tex. samcarter actually implemented the feature in beamer!

---

\documentclass[aspectratio = 1610]{beamer}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{aspectratio = 1610}
\end{frame}
\end{document}