How to set a small default font size with beamer?

Question

I use beamer class with newcent package for the font. I set

\documentclass[8pt]{beamer}

at the top of my tex file. But I think the font is still too large.

In my beamer theme, I tried to set :

\setbeamerfont{normal text}{size=\small}

But it does not work and I think that it is not the correct way to do that.

How can I globally reduce the font size ?

Thanks

possible duplicate of How to specify font size less than 10pt — Thorsten, May 21 '12 at 12:57
The other question's accepted answer is about extsizes and KOMA-Script classes, but not about scrextend. — lockstep, May 21 '12 at 17:05

lockstep · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-21T17:01:11.417

25

According to section 18.2.1 of the beamer manual, a default font size of 8pt is already "way too small". beamer uses the extsizes packages for non-standard font sizes, and extsizes doesn't offer anything smaller than 8pt. If you really must fit more text on each frame, I suggest to enlarge beamer's paper size from 128mm*96mm to, say, 140mm*105mm.

\documentclass[8pt]{beamer}

\geometry{paperwidth=140mm,paperheight=105mm}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\lipsum[1]
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

EDIT: Another option is to load the scrextend package (part of KOMA-Script) which allows to choose arbitrary font sizes like 7.5pt -- be sure to use a vector font like Latin Modern.

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{lmodern}

\usepackage{scrextend}
\changefontsizes{7.5pt}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\lipsum[1]
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

edited May 21 '12 at 17:01

answered May 21 '12 at 13:11

lockstep

250,273

1

Thank you. I prefer your first trick. I think it is easier to use it. – Ger May 21 '12 at 18:38
Change fontsize inside float in KOMA class – Johannes_B Jan 17 '15 at 13:28
This works well for me. Then only issue is that "em" does not recognize the adjusted font size, so I need to change all specified spaces. – RandomBear May 31 '21 at 14:53
scrextend works like a charm. Thanks a lot! – user2820579 May 26 '23 at 08:41

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 21 '22 at 14:17

3

If you only want to change the size of the normal text, you could very well use the \setbeamerfont{normal text}{size=\small} macro from your question, you'll just have to also make beamer use it:

\documentclass{beamer}
\setbeamerfont{normal text}{size=\small}
\AtBeginDocument{\usebeamerfont{normal text}}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
    abc
\end{frame}
\end{document}

answered Sep 21 '22 at 14:17

samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz

158,329

+1: Why is the AtBeginDocument needed in this case? – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Mar 08 '23 at 06:17
1

@Dr.ManuelKuehner Beamer does not use it automatically, one needs to nudge it a little bit. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 08 '23 at 08:56

How to set a small default font size with beamer?

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