I did a beamer presentation recently and was annoyed by
- The increase in file size when the
handout
option is not given. - The increase in time it took to run
pdflatex
I think these two problems are related. While I agree that some increase in both file size and compile time is necessary, the below experiment shows that something is going wrong. Effectively, the resulting pdf files contain the exact same content.
As a demonstration I create n
beamer blocks containing a small picture. This has about the effect of having logos in the heading (they are included on every slide). EDIT: as pointed out, blocks are different in that they require costly rendering options.
What can be done to overcome this inconvenient problem?
handout option, boadilla theme (1 page):
- compile time (user): 1.6s
- file size: 38369 KiB
no handout option, boadilla theme (50 pages)
- compile time (user): 1.183m !!
- file size: 230133 KiB
no handout option, default theme (50 pages)
- compile time (user): 5.6s
- file size: 136877 KiB
no handout option, no blocks (50 pages) (instead using \pause
)
- compile time (user): 3.3s (boadilla, default theme 2.9s)
- file size: 101033 KiB
Additional note:
included image has size 2815 KiB
. This may account for 140750 KiB
or 61.2 % of the no handout file size if included separately. But apprently, this should not be done.
This is the minimal example:
\documentclass[]{beamer} % pdflatex runs longer, resulting in a much larger file
%\documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\usepackage{lmodern}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lm
\usepackage{pgffor}
\mode<presentation>
\usetheme{Boadilla} % this seems to be the main bottle neck. Shadings and rounded corners
\author[se]{sebastian}
\title[atitle]{A title}
\begin{document}
\def\nitems{50}
\begin{frame}
\foreach \i in {1,...,\nitems}
{
\begin{block}{t\i}<\i-> % blocks require a lot of processing time
\includegraphics[height=1mm]{2815-kb.pdf}
\end{block}
}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
Note: The file 2815-kb.pdf
does not contain any bitmap.
5.77s
and136591 KiB
. Can you explain the reason for this? – Sebastian Nov 8 '13 at 15:51handout
mode we end up with just one page, while inbeamer
mode, we ends up with 50 pages (which, of course, is well explainable by the fact thathandout
mode collapses all steps of a frame's animation into a single slide.) – Daniel Nov 8 '13 at 21:29includegraphics
). thanks also for your answer, I'll check tomorrow. – Sebastian Nov 8 '13 at 22:16