Making slides in LATEX

with Prosper
Frédéric Goualard Peter Møller Neergaard
IRIN, Université de Nantes Boston University
Nantes, France Boston, USA

Abstract
The prosper class permits producing high quality slides; it is also easily
extendable. This documentation is meant to be a user manual as well as a technical
note describing how to create your own styles.

1 Using the class

LATEX files using the prosper class may be eventually translated into two different
formats:
• the Adobe® PostScriptTM format for printing transparencies;
• the Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) for displaying slides on computers
with Acrobat® Reader in full-screen mode.
When translated into PDF files, prosper slides benefit from additional possibil-
ities such as transition effects between slides and incremental display of a slide with
several animation effects. The currently supported transitions are:
• Split: two lines sweep across the screen revealing the new slide;
• Blinds: multiple lines, evenly distributed across the screen, appear and syn-
chronously sweep in the same direction to reveal the new slide;
• Box: a box sweeps from the center, revealing the new slide;
• Wipe: a single line sweeps across the screen from one edge to the other, reveal-
ing the new slide;
• Dissolve: the old page image dissolves to reveal the new slide;
• Glitter: similar to Dissolve, except the effect sweeps across the image in
a wide band moving from one side of the screen to the other;
• Replace: the effect is simply to replace the old page with the new page.
Figure 1 presents a bird’s-eye view of the structure of a LATEX file using the prosper
class.

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2 Options of the class
The prosper class supports the following options (default options are preceded by a
black triangle I, while the others are preceded by a black square ):

\documentclass[ Options ]{prosper} Options:

final
\title{ Title of the presentation } draft
\subtitle{ subtitle } total
\author{ Names of the authors } nototal
\institution{ Affiliation } slideBW
\slideCaption{ caption text } slideColor

colorBG
\begin{document} nocolorBG
\maketitle ps
pdf
\begin{slide} [transition] { slide title } noaccumulate
Material for the slide accumulate
\end{slide} noFooter
... distiller
YandY
ps2pdf
\overlays{n }{ vtex
\begin{slide} [transition] { slide title }
Material for the slide
\end{slide}
}

\end{document}

Legend
Mandatory or default choice
Optional

Figure 1: Structure of a LATEX file using prosper

 draft. The file is compiled in draft mode: figures are replaced by bounding boxes;
the caption at the bottom of every slide displays the date and time of the compil-
ing together with the file name;
I final. The file is compiled in final mode: figures are inserted at their position; the
caption on every slide contains the text given (optionally) by the user with the
macro \slideCaption, except if the macro \displayVersion appears in
the preamble (in that case, the same caption as in the draft mode is used);
I slideColor. Slides will use many colors. To be used with caution when the
slides are to be printed on a black & white device;
 slideBW. Slides will use a restricted set of colors. Should be used whenever the
presentation is meant to be printed in black & white;

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 total. The caption at the bottom of every slide displays the number of the current
slide along with the total number of slides;

I nototal. Only the number of the current slide appears in the caption;

 nocolorBG. The background of the slide is white whatever the style may be. It is
a good idea to use this option for printing slides in black & white;

I colorBG. The color of the background depends on the current style;

 ps. The LATEX file is compiled to produce a PostScriptTM file for printing;

I pdf. The LATEX file is compiled to produce a PDF file for a presentation with a
video projector;
 accumulate. Macros \onlySlide, \untilSlide and \fromSlide inter-
pret their argument in ps mode. Note that it is possible to locally modify the op-
tion setting by using macros \Accumulatetrue and \Accumulatefalse;

I noaccumulate. Macros \onlySlide, \untilSlide and \fromSlide do

not interpret their argument in ps mode;

 distiller. The PostScript® file is to be translated into a PDF file using Adobe®
Distiller;

 YandY. The LATEX file is to be processed with YandY LATEX;

I ps2pdf. The PostScript® file is to be translated into a PDF file using AFPL ps2pdf;
 vtex. The LATEX file is to be processed with MicroPress Visual TEX;

 noFooter. Do not add any caption at the bottom of the slides.

3 Predefined macros and environments

3.1 Macros to appear in the preamble
The prosper class (re-)defines some standard macros. Those given hereunder are to
be put in the preamble (that is, before \begin{document}):

\title. Title of the presentation;

\subtitle. Subtitle of the presentation;

\author. Author(s) of the presentation;

\email. E-mail address of the author(s);

\institution. Name of the institute/company the author(s) come(s) from;

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 \slideCaption{c}. Caption to be put at the bottom of every slide (name of the
event/conference. . . ). The title of the presentation is used as the default caption
whenever the author do not override it by providing his own caption by using
this macro;

\Logo(x,y){mylogo} or \Logo{mylogo}. The logo given by mylogo will be

put at the position (x,y) on each slide (resp. at a default position defined by
each slide style). The reference point is bottom left. An example of use is:
\Logo(2,5){\includegraphics[width=1cm]{irinLOGO.eps}})

\displayVersion. Displays a draft caption (with the name of the file, the title of
the presentation, the name of the author(s), and the date/time of the last LATEX
compiling) instead of the caption defined by the user even when in final mode;
\DefaultTransition{trans}: definition of the default transition mode be-
tween slides. By default, the Replace mode is used;

\NoFrenchBabelItemize. To be used when loading the babel style with the

“french” option in order to have the ability to choose ones own items. The french
itemize glue is preserved;

\collapsedBookmarksfalse. Since v. 2.0, all overlays have a bookmark. If

you call this macro in the preamble, the tree of bookmarks is expanded, otherwise
it is collapsed and only the bookmarks for the first slide of each overlay are
visible.

3.2 The slide environment

Figure 1 describes the slide environment. An optional argument is the transition
effect for displaying the slide. The default transition is R (Replace).

3.3 Some itemize environments

The Itemize environment corresponds to the LATEX itemize environment where
the text is justified. In prosper, the itemize environment has been redefined such
that text is not justified in it (a better choice for slides).
There also exists an itemstep environment where each item is displayed incre-
mentally (in PDF mode). This environment only offers a facility to add overlays and is
quite limited in use. In particular, no nesting of itemstep environment is allowed. It
accepts an optional argument corresponding to the overlay level to start from.

3.4 Macros to be used out of any slide environment

\part[transition]{xx}. Creates a slide only containing the text xx vertically
and horizontally centered in the font title. The transition transition—if
given—will be used for this slide.

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3.5 Macros that may appear in a slide environment
\FontTitle{C}{BW}. Use this macro to change the font/color to be used for slide
titles. The first argument is for color slides, the second for black and white ones;
\FontText{C}{BW}. Use this macro to change the font/color to be used for slide
text. The first argument is for color slides, the second for black and white ones;
\fontTitle{xx}. Writes its argument using the title font and color;
\fontText{xx}. Writes its argument using the text font and color;
\ColorFoot{col}. The footer is to be written with color col;
\PDFtransition{tr}. Uses tr as the transition effect from the previous slide to
the current slide;
\myitem{lvl}{def}. Defines the item of level lvl (where lvl may be 1, 2 or
3) to be def. By default, it is a green lozenge for all levels. The following code
define the items to be 3D bullets of different size and color (the corresponding
PostScriptTM files are provided in the img/ directory of the prosper distribu-
tion):

\myitem{1}{\includegraphics[width=.4cm]{red-bullet-on-blue.ps}}
\myitem{2}{\includegraphics[width=.3cm]{green-bullet-on-blue.ps}}
\myitem{3}{\includegraphics[width=.3cm]{yellow-bullet-on-blue.ps}}

3.6 Overlays
Overlays add animated effects to slides in PDF mode. They may be used to display a
slide incrementally (in several steps), for making appear and disappear some elements
on a slide. . . To use overlays, one has to embed the corresponding slide environment
into an \overlays macro as follows:

\overlays{n}{
\begin{slide}{...}
...
\end{slide}}

The first argument (n) of the overlays macro stands for the number of steps
composing the animation.
The following macros may be used to control what should appear on each slide
composing a n slides overlay:
• \fromSlide{p}{mat}. Puts mat on slides p through n;
• \onlySlide{p}{mat}. Puts mat on slide p only;
• \untilSlide{p}{mat}. Puts mat on slides 1 through p;
• \FromSlide{p}. All the material after the occurrence of the macro will be put
on slides p through n;

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 • \OnlySlide{p}. All the material after the occurrence of the macro will be put
on slide p only;
• \UntilSlide{p}. All the material after the occurrence of the macro will be
put on slides 1 through p.
All those macros are only really meaningful in pdf mode; in ps mode, they
do nothing or interpret their argument, depending on the option no/accumulate.
Macros \fromSlide, \onlySlide, and \untilSlide accept stared versions
which typeset the mat material in a zero dimension box (i.e. the position pointer is not
moved). The stared versions should be used for replacement purposes. For example,
the piece of code:
\onlySlide*{1}{\includegraphics{example-1.eps}}%
\onlySlide*{2}{\includegraphics{example-2.eps}}%
\onlySlide*{3}{\includegraphics{example-3.eps}}%
would put image example-1.eps on the first slide; this image would then be re-
placed by example-2.eps on the second slide, and by example-3.eps on the
third slide. Note the % comment sign at the end of each line: it prevents LATEX from
inserting some space—due to the carriage return—which would induce a slight dis-
placement between each image on the slides.
Important note: keep in mind that \FromSlide, \OnlySlide, \UntilSlide,
and the un-stared versions of \fromSlide, \onlySlide, and \untilSlide in-
terpret the argument mat for each slide composing the overlay even if it is not dis-
played (this is mandatory in order to know the size of the box that needs be reserved
for the un-displayed material).
The following macros permit choosing the material to put on a slide depending on
the chosen mode (ps or pdf):
• \PDForPS{ifpdf}{ifps}. Interprets material ifpdf if the chosen mode is
pdf, otherwise interprets ifps;
• \onlyInPS{mat}. Interprets material mat only if the mode is ps;
• \onlyInPDF{mat}. Interprets material mat only if the mode is pdf.
These macros may be used as follows:
\overlays{3}{%
\begin{slide}{Example}
\onlySlide*{1}{\includegraphics{example-1.eps}}%
\onlySlide*{2}{\includegraphics{example-2.eps}}%
\onlySlide*{3}{\includegraphics{example-3.eps}}%
\onlyInPS{\includegraphics{example.eps}}%
\end{slide}}
This slide will be displayed in three steps with three different figures in pdf mode; in
ps mode, there will be only one slide containing figure example.eps.

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4 Warning
The prosper slide styles are not bound to provide the same display area. Conse-
quently, using different styles may require some adjustment in the text and graphics
positioning.

5 The Compilation Process

The compilation process slightly differs depending on the intended use of the slides. It
is sketched in Fig. 2. If you plan to print slides on transparencies, you should select
the ps option and create a PostScriptTM file, while if you want to display them with
a computer and an overhead projector, you should select the pdf option and create a
PDF file from the PostScriptTM file. Translation of a PostScriptTM file into a PDF file is
done by the program ps2pdf included in the GhostScript distribution.

dvips
dvipsone
...
LaTeX DVI PostScript Transparencies
latex
ps2pdf
Adobe distiller

PDF On−screen display

Figure 2: Compilation process

Important note: PDF file should be made resolution independent by using vectorial
fonts only (no TEX bitmap fonts). To do so, you have to use a GhostScript version at
least equal to 6.0. You also need to create a .dvipsrc file in your home directory
with the following lines:

p +psfonts.cmz
p +psfonts.amz

Last, prosper styles have been devised to be used with A4 European paper format.
Consequently, you will have to instruct GhostScript to use the appropriate format by
defining the GS OPTIONS environment variable to "-sPAPERSIZE=a4". If you
use bash as your main shell, this is done by adding the line

export GS_OPTIONS="-sPAPERSIZE=a4"

in your .bash_profile file.

You will need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader (acroread) to display PDF files. It is
available for free on the Adobe® web site. Acrobat® Reader provides a full-screen
mode that is particularly handy for presentations.

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6 Devising new slide styles
Devising new prosper styles is an easy task provided you know the basics of Van
Zandt’s PSTricks package (refer to PSTricks: PostScriptTM macros for Generic TEX,
User’s Guide, Timothy Van Zandt). In order to devise your own style named foo,
you first have to create a file PPRfoo.sty which will contain its definition. Refer to
predefined styles for some examples and to Section 6.4.
A word of caution: you are free to create a new style by modifying an existing one.
In that case, it is MANDATORY renaming your file; do NEVER EVER modify a
style without renaming it (is that clear enough?). You should also write your name and
email address in any of your styles such that users know who to get in touch with when
they use the style. Please choose a name for your style that is unique in the prosper
distribution (with respect to both predefined and contributed styles so far).
Please send slide styles you are proud of. I will add them to the distribution in
the contrib/ directory. Note that I will only consider for addition styles that are
indeed original. Modifying the colors or the fonts of an existing one is definitely not
sufficient since this can be done by users in their LATEX file by using the provided hooks
for customization.

6.1 Predefined tests

The following tests may be used in your style file in order to modify its behaviour
according to the active options. The general scheme is:

\ifxxxx%
% The ‘‘then’’ part
\else%
% The ‘‘else’’ part
\fi

\ifDVItoPS. True when the DVI file will be eventually translated into a PostScript TM
file, false when the final target is the PDF format;

\ifisDraft. True when the file is compiled in draft mode;

\ifinColor. True when the option slideColor has been chosen;

\ifallPages. True when the option total has been chosen;

\ifcolorBG. True when the option colorBG has been chosen;

\ifshowVersion. True whenever the macro \displayVersion appears in the

preamble;

\ifInOverlays. True if the current slide environment is embedded into an

overlays macro.

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6.2 Macros to customize or create a style
\slideCaption{cap}. Definition of a caption to appear on every slide;

\PDFCroppingBox{lx ly ux uy}. Definition of a PostScript TM bounding box

to crop slides for enhancing their appearance on 4/3 devices such as monitors
(only used in PDF mode);

\NewSlideStyle[width]{anchor}{pos}{defin}. Defines a new slide style

whose definition is given by the macro \defin and whose contents area has
width width and is put at position (pos) with anchor anchor. If no width is
given, a default width of 11 cm is used;

\LogoPosition{pos}. Default position for a logo if none is given by the user;

\PutLogo. A macro to be put at the end of the macro that defines your own style.

6.3 Lengths
\slideWidth. Defines the width of the text area in the slide. Should not be modi-
fied by the user. Corresponds to the first argument of macro NewSlideStyle.

6.4 Example: the troispoints style

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1995/12/01]
\ProvidesPackage{PPRtroispoints}[2000/04/17]
\typeout{‘Trois points’ style for Prosper ---}
\typeout{(c) 2000 Frederic Goualard, CWI, The Netherlands}
\typeout{CVSId: $Id: prosper-doc.tex,v 1.13 2001/10/24 15:11:25 exupery Exp $}
\typeout{ }

\RequirePackage{amssymb}
% Loading packages necessary to define this slide style.
\IfFileExists{pst-grad}{\RequirePackage{pst-grad}}{\RequirePackage{gradient}}

\newgray{mygrey}{.5}
\newrgbcolor{mellow}{.847 .72 .525}
\newrgbcolor{orange}{1.00 0.65 0.00}

\FontTitle{%
\usefont{T1}{ptm}{m}{sl}\fontsize{22pt}{20pt}\selectfont\orange}{%
\usefont{T1}{ptm}{m}{sl}\fontsize{22pt}{20pt}\selectfont\blue}
\FontText{%
\mellow\usefont{T1}{phv}{m}{n}\fontsize{14.4pt}{14pt}\selectfont}{%
\black\usefont{T1}{phv}{m}{n}\fontsize{14.4pt}{14pt}\selectfont}

\ColorFoot{\mellow}

% Positionning of the title of a slide.

\newcommand{\slidetitle}[1]{%

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 \rput[l](-0.4,3.7){\parbox{10cm}{\fontTitle{#1}}}
}

% Positionning for a logo

\LogoPosition{-1,-1.1}

% Definition of this style for slides.

\newcommand{\TPFrame}[1]{%
\ifinColor
\ifcolorBG
\psframe[linestyle=none,fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=black](-2,-1.4)(12.5,9)
\fi
\fi
\psframe[linestyle=dotted,dotsep=5pt,linewidth=2pt,linecolor=mellow]%
(-1,-.5)(11.6,8.3)
\pspolygon[linestyle=none,fillstyle=solid,%
fillcolor=mygrey](8.4,8.4)(9.6,8.4)(9,7.4)
\pspolygon[linestyle=none,fillstyle=solid,%
fillcolor=red](8.2,8.5)(9.4,8.5)(8.8,7.5)
\pspolygon[linestyle=none,fillstyle=solid,%
fillcolor=mygrey](1.4,-1.1)(2.6,-1.1)(2,-.1)
\pspolygon[linestyle=none,fillstyle=solid,%
fillcolor=red](1.1,-.9)(2.3,-.9)(1.7,.1)
\PutLogo % Mandatory
{#1}}

\NewSlideStyle{t}{5.3,2.9}{TPFrame}
\PDFCroppingBox{10 40 594 800}
\RequirePackage{semhelv}

\endinput

7 Copyright information
Copyright © 2000-2003 by Frédéric Goualard and Peter Mller Neergaard, all rights
reserved.
This program may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions of the LaTeX
Project Public License, either version 1.2 of this license or (at your option) any later
version. The latest version of this license is in http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt and
version 1.2 or later is part of all distributions of LaTeX version 1999/12/01 or later.

8 The Prosper homepage

The official Prosper homepage is located at Source Forge (tm):

http://prosper.sourceforge.net/

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 You will find there additional information, CVS tarballs, news, up to date distribu-
tions of Prosper. . . If you plan using Prosper on a regular basis, you should consider
subscribing to the lists prosper-users and prosper-announce. Directions to
subscribe to them are available on the homepage.

9 Troubleshootings
If you experience some problem when installing or using Prosper, please go first to
the Prosper homepage to check whether there is some hint on how to solve it in one
of the list archives. If you do not find any answer to your problem, send a mail to the
prosper-users list.
Mails asking for help sent directly to the authors will not be taken into considera-
tion.
There is also a file TROUBLESHOOTINGS in the distribution listing solutions to
commonly encountered problems.
Prosper relies on some recent versions of some packages and software (mainly
hyperref and Aladdin GhostScript). Check the homepage to find links to the re-
quired versions.

10 Bugs reports
Bugs are to be reported by filling the appropriate forms available at the Prosper home-
page.

11 Contributors
AVK provided the patchs to support MicroPress VTeX.

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