How to overlap images in a beamer slide?

Question

I'm creating a beamer presentation. I want to make one frame that has a couple of images overlapped, like a stack of photos. Actually, I want something like this:

.-----.
| AAA |
| AAA |
'-----'

Then, the next slide shows:

.-----.
| AAA |
| AA.-----.
'---| BBB |
    | BBB |
    '-----'

And then, the next one shows:

.-----.
| AAA |
| AA.-----.
'.-----.B |
 | CCC |B |
 | CCC |--'
 '-----'

The idea is to control the position of each image and allow them to overlap. I have no idea about how to do this in beamer.

I think the best solution is to have all images inside the same frame, but put a \pause command between them.

score 56 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '11 at 14:55

56

A TikZ example:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}   
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node (img1) {\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img1}};
  \pause
  \node (img2) at (img1.south east) {\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img2}};
  \pause
  \node (img3) at (img2.south west) [yshift=1cm] {\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img3}};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

The second and third images are placed on a corner of the previous image, the third also shifted a little upward, the reason being that with the images I used there was some whitespace between them. You could of course place the images at specific coordinates, and not relative to each other like here.

answered Nov 15 '11 at 14:55

Torbjørn T.

206,688

I'm trying this, but adding \pause inside tikzpicture will prevent beamer from adding the slide footer. Any idea about how to fix it? – Denilson Sá Maia Nov 15 '11 at 16:15
Two solutions: use \uncover or \onslide - http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/9094/beamer-vs-tikz-uncover-nodes-step-by-step - http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/21512/pause-in-tikzpicture-breaks-footline – Denilson Sá Maia Nov 15 '11 at 16:23
All answers here are great, but I'm marking this one as accepted because that's the one I've actually used. – Denilson Sá Maia Nov 15 '11 at 16:45

score 53 · Answer 2 · 2015-11-21T09:06:21.067

53

Can be done with the simple LaTeX command \put without any additional package. The units are in pt, but if you prefer other units then you can set it by for example: \unitlength=1cm. The values are always measured from the current point. In my example from the beginning of the line

\PassOptionsToPackage{demo}{graphicx}%% Only for demo here
\documentclass{beamer}
\def\Put(#1,#2)#3{\leavevmode\makebox(0,0){\put(#1,#2){#3}}}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img1}\pause

\Put(10,50){\color{blue}\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img2}}\pause

\Put(100,30){\color{red}\includegraphics[height=3cm]{img3}}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Nov 21 '15 at 09:06

answered Nov 15 '11 at 15:07

4

Those coordinates (10,50) and (100,30) are measured in what unit? – Denilson Sá Maia Nov 15 '11 at 15:10
2

in pt, but if you prefer other units then you can set it by for example: \unitlength=1cm. The values are always measured from the current point. In my example from the beginning of the line – Nov 15 '11 at 15:19
2

Herbert, thanks for providing a simple solution that avoids the mysterious complexity of tikz. – Mars Nov 21 '15 at 05:01
I tried to use this solution to put two images exactly one over the other. So I used two calls to "\Put(0,0)", but, the second image was pushed slightly to the right. I had to change the second call to "\Put(-9,0)" to aligh them. – Erel Segal-Halevi Dec 01 '16 at 10:12
3

I suppose that you had a trailing space. At the end of the first \put... you need a % – Dec 01 '16 at 10:31
Amazing solution. Thanks! It really spared me a huge headache to figure out Tikz positioning hassle – maurizio Jun 05 '20 at 09:54
Could please suggest what if I want red one as tilted form (diagonal sort of) overlapping both images. – user3582228 Aug 07 '23 at 16:12

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

5

You can place all three images at absolute positions using the textpos package (see also Absolute positioning in beamer). A further method would be to use TikZ to place the three images in own coordinate system inside a tikzpicture. Both pacakges should work very well with beamer. The animation can be added using \pause or another overlay macro of beamer.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

1

answered Nov 15 '11 at 14:34

Martin Scharrer

262,582

How to overlap images in a beamer slide?

3 Answers3

Linked