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?
[Tex/LaTex] LaTeX beamer presentation-package 16:9 aspect ratio
beamerpaper-size
Related Solutions
A wrapper class beamer16x9.cls can be easily written:
\ProvidesClass{beamer16x9}
\DeclareOption*{\PassOptionsToClass{\CurrentOption}{beamer}}
\ProcessOptions\relax
\LoadClass[aspectratio=169]{beamer}
\endinput
Then starting a document with
\documentclass[<options>]{beamer16x9}
is equivalent to saying
\documentclass[aspectratio=169,<options>]{beamer}
The beamer16x9.cls file should be in one of the canonical places where TeX engines look for input.
The aspectratio option doesn't set any useful flag, apart from the page dimensions. One could check for these dimension pairs or else doing a direct check from the options list; here are two macros defined with the help of expl3 according to the latter strategy.
\documentclass[aspectratio=1610]{beamer}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\ifaspectratio}{mmm}
{
% Recover the option from those passed to the class
\keys_set:nf { zunbeltz/beameroptions } { \use:c { opt@beamer.cls } }
\str_if_eq:nVTF { #1 } \l_zunbeltz_aspectratio_tl { #2 } { #3 }
}
\NewDocumentCommand{\xifaspectratio}{mO{}}
{
% Recover the option from those passed to the class
\keys_set:nf { zunbeltz/beameroptions } { \use:c { opt@beamer.cls } }
\str_case:Vnn \l_zunbeltz_aspectratio_tl { #1 } { #2 }
}
% We need to define only one key, the other are treated as `unknown'
\keys_define:nn { zunbeltz/beameroptions }
{
aspectratio .tl_set:N = \l_zunbeltz_aspectratio_tl,
aspectratio .initial:n = 43,
unknown .code:n = {},
}
% Generate the variants we need
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \keys_set:nn { nf }
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \str_if_eq:nnTF { nV }
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \str_case:nnn { V }
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\ifaspectratio{1610}{We're on 16:10}{We're not on 16:10}
\xifaspectratio{
{169}{We're on 16:9}
{43}{We're on 4:3}
}[None of the above]
\end{frame}
\end{document}
The macro \ifaspectratio takes three arguments, the ratio which we want to test, the true text and the false text.
The macro \xifaspectratio is more flexible: it takes one mandatory argument, which is a list of pairs {<ratio>}{<text>} and an optional argument for a "none of the above" case.
By adding to \keys_define:nn { zunbeltz/beameroptions } one could define similar macros for checking other options.
Best Answer
It looks like the current version of
beamersupportsaspectratiooption.should do exactly that. Other possible values are: 1610, 149, 54, 43 and 32.
By default, it is to 128mm by 96mm(4:3).
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.