Update 20160514: Moved the source file to GitHub. This will allow other people to easily create extensions/Pull Requests.

Update 20091104: Added “1 on 1 with notes landscape”, based on work of Edson Valle. Also added “2 on 1 with notes” and “3 on 1 with notes” layouts.

Update 20091108: Added “2 on 1 with notes landscape”, based on work of Edson Valle.

Update 20091202: Added “1 on 1 with notes”, based on work of Harald Welte.

For all my presentations I have been using LaTeX-Beamer package. One of the things I missed was the possibility of having handouts of my slides with some lines for notes besides the slides. After some searching I found that in the mailing lists of latex-beamer somebody had already come up with a solution.

If you put the file handoutWithNotes.sty (which you can obtain fromGitHub either in your local texmf directory or in the same directory as your presentation you can include it with the following command

\usepackage{handoutWithNotes}

After that, to get 4 sheets on the left side of the page with on the right side of the page some lines for people to write notes you can use the following command

\pgfpagesuselayout{4 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

The resulting PDF file will contain pages like:

Updated 20091104. I received a note from Edson Valle that he created an addition to the notes files, namely one that allows you to print your sheets 1 per page, but with notes on the side. Made a some small alteration to his original contribution to allow for easier usage.

Again, make sure that you include the style file with:

\usepackage{handoutWithNotes}

after which you can now use the “1 on 1 landscape” layout with the following command:

\pgfpagesuselayout{1 on 1 with notes landscape}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

The resulting files will look something like:

While I was at it, right away I also created two additional styles “2 on 1 with notes” and “3 on 1 with notes”. The first of these two was already requested once by kc853. Hopefully this new style will be sufficient for his needs. If not, I hope that it will serve as a good starter for modifications.

The “2 on 1 with notes” layout can be used with the command

\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

with the following result:

Finally, the “3 on 1 with notes” pages was created because I think that the “2 on 1 with notes” seemed a bit empty ;) You can use this “3 on 1 with notes” layout with
the command

\pgfpagesuselayout{3 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

with the following result:

Update 20091108 : Based on the above updated styles, Edson Valle provided me with another addition, the “2 on 1 with notes landscape” layout. You can use it with the command

\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1 with notes landscape}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

and the output you will get will be something like:

Update 20091202 : Based on the above updated styles, Harald Welte provided me with yet another addition, the “1 on 1 with notes” layout. You can use it with the command

\pgfpagesuselayout{1 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]

and the output you will get will be something like:

All of the above layouts can be used by downloading the handoutWithNotes.sty from my GitHub repository.

Just drop me a note in case you like this or find it useful or in case you have any questions :)

When I was a PhD student I had to give some presentations. I think I tried once to use Powerpoint to give a presentation filled with mathematical equations before I decided that this was not going to work ;)

After some other packages, I finally found LaTeX-Beamer. For the majority of the presentations the default styles provided with LaTeX-Beamer were sufficient, but every now and then I wanted to have a bit more, do I dare to say it, powerpoint like theme :)

I wanted to have background image over which an white transparent layer would be put, on which the text would appear. I created a latex-beamer style for this and a sample output of this diepen style is given in the two pictures below:

The picture that is on the background can be changed into any picture you choose, although I found that in most cases the result is the best when the used image is not too bright.

To use the style, you must first download the source from my GitHub repository, and copy it into the texmf directory (or your local texmf directory) and make sure that you have run the texhash command under linux or the windows equivalent such that pdflatex is able to find the style files.

After you have done this, you can use it by placing the following command in the preamble of your beamer file:

\usetheme diepen

The following options are available:

• backgroundimagefile. The filename (without extension) of the image to use as background (e.g. \usetheme[backgroundimagefile=schiphol-tower]{diepen} to use schiphol-tower image as background)
• opacity. A float value denoting the opacity of the white overlay on all sheets except the title page \usetheme[opacity=0.78]{diepen} to have opacity of 78%).
• useblacktitletext. Is a boolean and if present the color of the text on the titlepage will be black instead of white \usetheme[useblacktitletext]{diepen}. This option sometimes is useful for background images that are rather light in color

If you have any questions about this diepen style, please let me know.