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latexr-markdownbeamer

How to customize the title page of beamer presentation?

It is very often one needs to customize the title page of presenation.

For example, we want to :

  • remove title page number;
  • add logo or banner;
  • move title, subtitle etc.;
  • add a label;
  • etc.

Base look:

---
title: "My beautiful presentation"
author: "John Doe"
institute: "New Town University"

output: 
  beamer_presentation:
     latex_engine: lualatex

keep_tex: true
header-includes: |
  \usepackage{tikz}
  \usepackage[absolute,overlay]{textpos}       
  \usetheme{metropolis}       
---

enter image description here

Then comes the strange, when I want to add something via (title: etc. were removed):

  \setbeamertemplate{title page}{
    \insertsubtitle{My new presentation}
  }

... my title page disappears (now toc is the 1st page).

enter image description here

Same situation when I try to add new label via \begin{textblock*} ... \end{textblock*} or \includegraphics[trim= ...]{pic.png}

When title etc. were retained - we see only subtitle/textblock/pic:

enter image description here

Where is a problem?

An update.

Under label I supposed a text in the desired position. Sorry for the mispresentation.

Look to this pic, how to do this?

enter image description here

Also I want to ask, how to combine this solution with rmarkdown? Adding frame by frame in header-includes is ok, but how to add frames with R-code via #, ## etc.?

Solution

  • If you use

    \setbeamertemplate{title page}{
  ...
}

    you instruct latex to throw away the existing title page and replace it with whatever code you write inside this template.

    Furthermore the syntax \insertsubtitle{My new presentation} is wrong. To set the subtitle, you should use \subtitle{...} (not inside the title page!) and if you'd like to insert the subtitle in a custom title page, you can use \insertsubtitle (this macro does not have any arguments!)

    • remove title page number;

    use a plain frame

    • add logo or banner;

    use \titlegraphic{...}

    • move title, subtitle etc.;

    Start with the definition from the metropolis theme and modify it to whatever layout you like

    • add a label;

    like in any other frame with the label=... option

    \documentclass{beamer}

\title{text}
\author{names}

\usetheme{metropolis}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{title page}{
  \begin{minipage}[b][\paperheight]{\textwidth}
    \ifx\inserttitlegraphic\@empty\else{\centering some text here\\[-1.2cm] \usebeamertemplate*{title graphic}}\fi
    \vfill%
    \ifx\inserttitle\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{title}\fi
    \ifx\insertsubtitle\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{subtitle}\fi
    \usebeamertemplate*{title separator}
    \ifx\beamer@shortauthor\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{author}\fi
    \ifx\insertdate\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{date}\fi
    \ifx\insertinstitute\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{institute}\fi
    \vfill
    \vspace*{1mm}
  \end{minipage}
}
\makeatother

\titlegraphic{\includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-duck}}

\begin{document}
    
\begin{frame}[plain,label=whatever]
    \titlepage
\end{frame} 
    
\end{document}

    ---
output: 
  beamer_presentation:
     latex_engine: lualatex

keep_tex: true
header-includes: |
  \usepackage{tikz}
  \usepackage[absolute,overlay]{textpos}       
  \usetheme{metropolis}  
  \AfterBeginDocument{
  \title{My beautiful presentation}
  \author{John Doe}
  \date{\today}
  \institute{New Town University}}   
  \makeatletter
  \setbeamertemplate{title page}{
  \begin{minipage}[b][\paperheight]{\textwidth}
    \ifx\inserttitlegraphic\@empty\else{\centering some text here\\[-1cm] \usebeamertemplate*{title graphic}}\fi
    \vfill%
    \ifx\inserttitle\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{title}\fi
    \ifx\insertsubtitle\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{subtitle}\fi
    \usebeamertemplate*{title separator}
    \ifx\beamer@shortauthor\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{author}\fi
    \ifx\insertdate\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{date}\fi
    \ifx\insertinstitute\@empty\else\usebeamertemplate*{institute}\fi
    \vfill
    \vspace*{1mm}
  \end{minipage}
  }
  \makeatother
  \titlegraphic{\includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-duck}}  
---

##  {.plain}
\titlepage

##

\tableofcontents

# a new section

## next frame