Beamer note page: Increase slide size

Question

I'm using the beamer class with note pages. In the upper right corner I see always the slide the notes are referring to. Is it possible to change the size of this preview?

\documentclass{beamer}

\setbeameroption{show notes}

\begin{document}

\section{foo}
\begin{frame}{foo}
Some text.
\end{frame}
\note{Many notes}

\end{document}

Answer 1

Beamer's template note page (in beamerouterthemedefault.sty) defines how are note pages constructed. The slide size in note pages is hard coded in this template. By default, notes title uses .25\paperheight and slide in it and slide in notes is reduced to .25\paperheight x .25\paperwidth.

In next code I've copied note pagetemplate and changed notes title and slide in notes proportions to use .45\paperheight. It's not an elegant solution and it reduces available space for notes. May be someone else will provide a better answer.

\documentclass[notes]{beamer}
\usepackage{mwe}

\makeatletter
\defbeamertemplate*{note page}{mynotes}
{%
  {%
    \scriptsize
    \usebeamerfont{note title}\usebeamercolor[fg]{note title}%
    \ifbeamercolorempty[bg]{note title}{}{%
      \insertvrule{.45\paperheight}{note title.bg}%
      \vskip-.45\paperheight%
      \nointerlineskip%
    }%
    \vbox{
      \hfill\insertslideintonotes{0.45}\hskip-\Gm@rmargin\hskip0pt%
      \vskip-0.45\paperheight%
      \nointerlineskip
      \begin{pgfpicture}{0cm}{0cm}{0cm}{0cm}
        \begin{pgflowlevelscope}{\pgftransformrotate{90}}
          {\pgftransformshift{\pgfpoint{-2cm}{0.2cm}}%
          \pgftext[base,left]{\usebeamerfont{note date}\usebeamercolor[fg]{note date}\the\year-\ifnum\month<10\relax0\fi\the\month-\ifnum\day<10\relax0\fi\the\day}}
        \end{pgflowlevelscope}
      \end{pgfpicture}}
    \nointerlineskip
    \vbox to .45\paperheight{\vskip0.5em
      \hbox{\insertshorttitle[width=8cm]}%
      \setbox\beamer@tempbox=\hbox{\insertsection}%
      \hbox{\ifdim\wd\beamer@tempbox>1pt{\hskip4pt\raise3pt\hbox{\vrule
            width0.4pt height7pt\vrule width 9pt
            height0.4pt}}\hskip1pt\hbox{\begin{minipage}[t]{7.5cm}\def\breakhere{}\insertsection\end{minipage}}\fi%
      }%
      \setbox\beamer@tempbox=\hbox{\insertsubsection}%
      \hbox{\ifdim\wd\beamer@tempbox>1pt{\hskip17.4pt\raise3pt\hbox{\vrule
            width0.4pt height7pt\vrule width 9pt
            height0.4pt}}\hskip1pt\hbox{\begin{minipage}[t]{7.5cm}\def\breakhere{}\insertsubsection\end{minipage}}\fi%
      }%
      \setbox\beamer@tempbox=\hbox{\insertshortframetitle}%
      \hbox{\ifdim\wd\beamer@tempbox>1pt{\hskip30.8pt\raise3pt\hbox{\vrule
            width0.4pt height7pt\vrule width 9pt
            height0.4pt}}\hskip1pt\hbox{\insertshortframetitle[width=7cm]}\fi%
      }%
      \vfil}%
  }%
  \ifbeamercolorempty[bg]{note page}{}{%
    \nointerlineskip%
    \insertvrule{.55\paperheight}{note page.bg}%
    \vskip-.55\paperheight%
  }%
  \vskip.25em
  \nointerlineskip
  \insertnote
}
\makeatother

\setbeameroption{show notes}
\setbeamertemplate{note page}[mynotes]

\begin{document}

 \begin{frame}
   \lipsum[1]
 \end{frame}
\note[itemize]
{\item This is a note
\item A second note}

\end{document}