[Tex/LaTex] Which package to use for presentations? Beamer, Prosper, or Other

beamerpowerdotpresentations

I have to prepare my slides in latex. A quick search came up with different packages. Before start preparing, I need your experiences. I do not want to regret after learning one as I did, learning vim (now can not quit) instead of emacs.

EDIT:
After asking this question at that time, I start learning Beamer. Now I'm really happy with that, I created my own template and now it's easier just copying from my .tex files to beamer template. I recommend beamer for powerpoint users who are actively using latex .

Best Answer

I highly recommend the beamer class.

Here are features of presentation classes intended to help you deciding:

  • beamer provides a huge amount of features, a lot of themes and sophisticated ways for customization. It offers an outstanding comprehensive documentation. It can be used with LaTeX and also with pdfLaTeX. So it's capable of using pdfLaTeX microtypographic features, furthermore it supports PNG, JPEG and PDF image formats besides EPS. It uses pgf for graphics.

  • powerdot cannot be used with pdfLaTeX. It uses PSTricks for graphics and supports EPS images. So, it may be a good choice for a PSTricks user who doesn't need direct JPEG, PNG or PDF image support. It also provides templates, further it offers a LyX style file.

  • prosper is older. It's successor is HA-Prosper. powerdot has been built on it, so I would not use prosper any more.

There are further and even older classes, such as seminar and slides, the latter is a standard LaTeX2e class.

See also the answers to: