Why BibLatex \footcite distorts Beamer columns?

Question

As shown in the following code, a few references are cited in a Beamer presentation with BibLatex \footcite command. The content except the citations is the same across three Beamer pages. It is confusing why both the columns in a page are distored in the second and third pages.

Could you help to comment how to debug and solve this problem ? Many thanks !

shell command to run

rm MWE1.aux MWE1.bbl MWE1.bcf MWE1.blg MWE1.log MWE1.nav MWE1.out MWE1.pdf MWE1.snm MWE1.toc MWE1.run.xml ; xelatex MWE1.tex && biber MWE1 && xelatex MWE1.tex && xelatex MWE1.tex

MWE1.tex

\PassOptionsToPackage{unicode=true}{hyperref} % options for packages loaded elsewhere
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
%
\documentclass[10pt,ignorenonframetext,]{beamer}
\setbeamertemplate{caption}[numbered]
\setbeamertemplate{caption label separator}{: }
\setbeamercolor{caption name}{fg=normal text.fg}
\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amssymb,amsmath}
\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
\usepackage{fixltx2e} % provides \textsubscript
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage{textcomp} % provides euro and other symbols
\else % if luatex or xelatex
  \usepackage{unicode-math}
  \defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures=TeX,Scale=MatchLowercase}
    \setmainfont[]{Times New Roman}
  \ifxetex
    \usepackage{xeCJK}
    \setCJKmainfont[]{FangSong}
  \fi
  \ifluatex
    \usepackage[]{luatexja-fontspec}
    \setmainjfont[]{FangSong}
  \fi
\fi
\usefonttheme{serif} % use mainfont rather than sansfont for slide text
% use upquote if available, for straight quotes in verbatim environments
\IfFileExists{upquote.sty}{\usepackage{upquote}}{}
% use microtype if available
\IfFileExists{microtype.sty}{%
\usepackage[]{microtype}
\UseMicrotypeSet[protrusion]{basicmath} % disable protrusion for tt fonts
}{}
\IfFileExists{parskip.sty}{%
\usepackage{parskip}
}{% else
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{6pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}
}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
            pdftitle={Sample title},
            pdfauthor={Author},
            pdfborder={0 0 0},
            breaklinks=true}
\urlstyle{same}  % don't use monospace font for urls
\newif\ifbibliography
\usepackage{graphicx,grffile}
\makeatletter
\def\maxwidth{\ifdim\Gin@nat@width>\linewidth\linewidth\else\Gin@nat@width\fi}
\def\maxheight{\ifdim\Gin@nat@height>\textheight\textheight\else\Gin@nat@height\fi}
\makeatother
% Scale images if necessary, so that they will not overflow the page
% margins by default, and it is still possible to overwrite the defaults
% using explicit options in \includegraphics[width, height, ...]{}
\setkeys{Gin}{width=\maxwidth,height=\maxheight,keepaspectratio}
% Prevent slide breaks in the middle of a paragraph:
\widowpenalties 1 10000
\raggedbottom
\setbeamertemplate{part page}{
\centering
\begin{beamercolorbox}[sep=16pt,center]{part title}
  \usebeamerfont{part title}\insertpart\par
\end{beamercolorbox}
}
\setbeamertemplate{section page}{
\centering
\begin{beamercolorbox}[sep=12pt,center]{part title}
  \usebeamerfont{section title}\insertsection\par
\end{beamercolorbox}
}
\setbeamertemplate{subsection page}{
\centering
\begin{beamercolorbox}[sep=8pt,center]{part title}
  \usebeamerfont{subsection title}\insertsubsection\par
\end{beamercolorbox}
}
\AtBeginPart{
  \frame{\partpage}
}
\AtBeginSection{
  \ifbibliography
  \else
    \frame{\sectionpage}
  \fi
}
\AtBeginSubsection{
  \frame{\subsectionpage}
}
\setlength{\emergencystretch}{3em}  % prevent overfull lines
\providecommand{\tightlist}{%
  \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}

% set default figure placement to htbp
\makeatletter
\def\fps@figure{htbp}
\makeatother

\usepackage{caption}\captionsetup{labelformat=empty,labelsep=none,singlelinecheck=false,justification=centering}
\settowidth{\leftmargini}{\usebeamertemplate{itemize item}}
\addtolength{\leftmargini}{\labelsep}
\setlength{\leftmarginii}{0.5em}
\makeatletter
\@ifpackageloaded{subfig}{}{\usepackage{subfig}}
\@ifpackageloaded{caption}{}{\usepackage{caption}}
\captionsetup[subfloat]{margin=0.5em}
\AtBeginDocument{%
\renewcommand*\figurename{Figure}
\renewcommand*\tablename{Table}
}
\AtBeginDocument{%
\renewcommand*\listfigurename{List of Figures}
\renewcommand*\listtablename{List of Tables}
}
\@ifpackageloaded{float}{}{\usepackage{float}}
\floatstyle{ruled}
\@ifundefined{c@chapter}{\newfloat{codelisting}{h}{lop}}{\newfloat{codelisting}{h}{lop}[chapter]}
\floatname{codelisting}{Listing}
\newcommand*\listoflistings{\listof{codelisting}{List of Listings}}
\makeatother
\usepackage[backend=biber,bibencoding=utf8,citestyle=authortitle,bibstyle=authortitle]{biblatex}
%\renewcommand{\footnotesize}{\tiny}
\addbibresource{MWE1.bib}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\xpretobibmacro{cite}{\printfield{year}\setunit{\nametitledelim}}{}{}

\title{Sample title}
\author{Author}
\date{}

\begin{document}
{
\setbeamertemplate{footline}{} % no page number here
\frame{
  \titlepage
  % Include a note for the title slide here, because we cannot do so in the 
  % Pandoc markdown file. If you want the title note to contain actual text, 
  % use the titlepage-note field in the YAML header. Otherwise, we use a 
  % non-breaking space so that it is not empty.
  \note{~}
}
}

\begin{frame}{Title of frame 1}
\protect\hypertarget{title-of-frame-1}{}

\begin{columns}[T]
\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{block}{Block title 1 on left}

\begin{itemize}
\item
  \small Sentence 1.
\item
  \small \emph{\textbf{Sentence 2.}}
\end{itemize}

\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=0.8\textheight]{example-image-a}
\caption{\footnotesize \emph{\textbf{Example image}}}
\end{figure}
\end{column}
\end{columns}

\note{NOTES}

\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Title of frame 2}
\protect\hypertarget{title-of-frame-2}{}

\begin{columns}[T]
\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{block}{Block title 1 on left}

\begin{itemize}
\item
  \small Sentence 1. \autocite{dijkstra1959note}
\item
  \small \emph{\textbf{Sentence 2.}}
\end{itemize}

\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=0.8\textheight]{example-image-a}
\caption{\footnotesize \emph{\textbf{Example image}}}
\end{figure}
\end{column}
\end{columns}

\note{NOTES}

\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Title of frame 3}
\protect\hypertarget{title-of-frame-3}{}

\begin{columns}[T]
\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{block}{Block title 1 on left}

\begin{itemize}
\item
  \small Sentence 1. \autocite{dijkstra1959note}
\item
  \small \emph{\textbf{Sentence 2.}}
  \autocites{dijkstra1959note,zipf1946p1}
\end{itemize}

\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.50\textwidth}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=0.8\textheight]{example-image-a}
\caption{\footnotesize \emph{\textbf{Example image}}}
\end{figure}
\end{column}
\end{columns}

\note{NOTES}

\end{frame}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

MWE1.bib

@article{dijkstra1959note,
    Author = {Dijkstra, Edsger W},
    Date-Added = {2014-04-28 19:35:12 +0000},
    Date-Modified = {2014-04-28 19:35:12 +0000},
    Journal = {Numerische mathematik},
    Number = {1},
    Pages = {269--271},
    Publisher = {Springer},
    Title = {A note on two problems in connexion with graphs},
    Volume = {1},
    Year = {1959}}

@article{zipf1946p1,
    Author = {Zipf, George Kingsley},
    Date-Added = {2014-04-28 19:32:00 +0000},
    Date-Modified = {2014-04-28 19:32:00 +0000},
    Journal = {American sociological review},
    Pages = {677--686},
    Publisher = {JSTOR},
    Title = {The P1 P2/D hypothesis: On the intercity movement of persons},
    Year = {1946}}

Update:

In this SE post, lockstep's answer seems to solve this problem of distortion, although the reason is beyond me.

Answer 1

Based on citation at the end of minipage rather than at the end of frame

\documentclass[10pt,ignorenonframetext]{beamer}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{MWE1.bib}
@article{dijkstra1959note,
    Author = {Dijkstra, Edsger W},
    Date-Added = {2014-04-28 19:35:12 +0000},
    Date-Modified = {2014-04-28 19:35:12 +0000},
    Journal = {Numerische mathematik},
    Number = {1},
    Pages = {269--271},
    Publisher = {Springer},
    Title = {A note on two problems in connexion with graphs},
    Volume = {1},
    Year = {1959}}

@article{zipf1946p1,
    Author = {Zipf, George Kingsley},
    Date-Added = {2014-04-28 19:32:00 +0000},
    Date-Modified = {2014-04-28 19:32:00 +0000},
    Journal = {American sociological review},
    Pages = {677--686},
    Publisher = {JSTOR},
    Title = {The P1 P2/D hypothesis: On the intercity movement of persons},
    Year = {1946}}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage[bibencoding=utf8,citestyle=authortitle,bibstyle=authortitle]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{MWE1.bib}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Title of frame 2}

\begin{columns}[T]
\begin{column}{0.45\textwidth}
\begin{block}{Block title 1 on left}

\begin{itemize}
\item Sentence 1.\footnotemark[1] 
\item Sentence 2.\footnotemark[2]
\end{itemize}

\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.45\textwidth}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{example-image-a}
\caption{Example image}
\end{figure}
\end{column}
\end{columns}

\setcounter{footnote}{1}
\footcitetext{dijkstra1959note}
\stepcounter{footnote}
\footcitetext{zipf1946p1}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

---

Some other comments:

• Please do not load the same package multiple times

• you don't need hyperref with beamer

• If your tex installation is reasonable up to date, you don't need fixltx2e

• pdfborder={0 0 0} is unnecessary, beamer already does that

• hard coded values for pdftitle={Sample title}, pdfauthor={Author} are not a good idea. If you remove this, the title and author of your document will be used.

• You don't need \usepackage{graphicx} with beamer

• In a documentclass that does not have floats \def\fps@figure{htbp} does not make much sense

• I don't understand the sense of \@ifpackageloaded{subfig}{}{\usepackage{subfig}} \@ifpackageloaded{caption}{}{\usepackage{caption}}. Why not use \RequirePackage{} instead?

• backend=biber unnecessary as this is the default behaviour

• \protect\hypertarget{title-of-frame-1}{} is strange, better use \begin{frame}[label=title-of-frame-1]

• you should not have two columns of .5\textwidth, as there is some seperation between them. Either make them smaller, say .48\textwidth or at least use \begin{columns}[T,onlytextwidth]

• formatting instructions should be separated from the content, so instead of \item \small text better do \setbeamerfont{itemize\enumerate body}{size=\small}. Same for the caption font.

• only specify either the width or the height in \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=0.8\textheight]{example-image-a}, not both.

In general it would be better if you only load the packages you really need and only do the modifications you need instead of this very chaotic the-whole-kitchen-sink-preamble.