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Making presentations with Pandoc beamer

This is a short guide about how I make PDF slides using beamer format output from the pandoc.

Update: Changes from xelatex to lualatex.

I had issues with PDF creation using xelatex engine which I could not fix. My script worked on my home Manjaro Linux, but did not work on Ubuntu 20.04 with my corporate setup. After some troubleshooting I changed pdf engine to lualatex and things went back to normal. lualatex engine is slower, than xelatex, but it gives better output.

Note: Commands are updated for the latest Pandoc version: 2.10.x and newer.

How-to for docs preparation

Tools

I did not install convert tool, it seems like it is installed by default in Ubuntu or comes with texlive. To avoid possible issues with pdflatex engine I did full installation of texlive packet.

In Debian family (with apt):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pandoc
sudo apt-get install imagemagick

apt will install pretty old version of Pandoc and some features will be missing. If you want latest version of this application, download latest package for your system from the project page: https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases. I use following texlive packages:

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-recommended
sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-extra
sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex

I recommend to use Pandoc of 2.10.x or newer version for the creation of presentation because not all beamer features are supported in the Pandoc 1.x.

Instructions and commands

YAML Block for LaTex template

This YAML block in the beginning of the MarkDown file defines parameters used by the Pandoc engine and relevant LaTex template parameters. This particular example below instructs Pandoc to produce PDF slides file with particular theme, color theme, etc.

title: "My wonderful presentation"
author: "Alexey Gumirov"
institute: "My home office"
topic: "Pandoc how-to"
theme: "Frankfurt"
colortheme: "beaver"
fonttheme: "professionalfonts"
mainfont: "Hack Nerd Font"
fontsize: 10pt
urlcolor: red
linkstyle: bold
aspectratio: 169
titlegraphic: img/aleph0.png
logo: img/aleph0-small.png
date:
lang: en-US
section-titles: false
toc: true

This YAML block is inserted in the beginning of the markdown file.

The font I use for presentation (Hack Nerd Font) you can get on the nerdfonts.com page.

Images preparation

The same way as in my pandoc for PDF project

Pandoc command

All Pandoc commands are for the Pandoc version 2.x.

Since version 2.11 Pandoc warns that source format markdown_github is deprecated. For my formatting following replacement works:

markdown_github ⇒

markdown_strict+pipe_tables+backtick_code_blocks+auto_identifiers+strikeout

Below all scripts are given with the new markdown_strict source format.

#!/usr/bin/sh

DATE_COVER=$(date "+%d %B %Y")

SOURCE_FORMAT="markdown_strict\
+pipe_tables\
+backtick_code_blocks\
+auto_identifiers\
+strikeout\
+yaml_metadata_block\
+implicit_figures\
+all_symbols_escapable\
+link_attributes\
+smart\
+fenced_divs"

pandoc -s --dpi=300 --slide-level 2 --toc --listings --shift-heading-level=0 --columns=50 --template default_mod.latex --pdf-engine lualatex -f "$SOURCE_FORMAT" -M date="$DATE_COVER" -V classoption:aspectratio=169 -V lang=en-US -t beamer presentation.md -o presentation.pdf

--pdf-engine: It is important to mention, that if you want to use True Type fonts in presentation (which you put in the «mainfont»), the «lualatex» engine for PDF generation must be used.

default_mod.latex: This is default template which is modified by me to produce better looking listings. In the default template listings of code are not presented nicely, so I had to improve this part.

Options of the pandoc command mean following:

Additional useful options of the pandoc command are:

Screenshot of the theme modified with preamble.tex

Modified theme

Columns on slides

fenced_divs extension allows to divide slide in columns.

Two columns of equal width

Two equal columns

Code:

## Two columns of equal width

::: columns

:::: column

Left column text.

Another text line.

::::

:::: column

- Item 1.
- Item 2.
- Item 3.

::::

:::

Two columns of with 40:60 split

Two columns of 40:60 split

Code:

## Two columns of with 40:60 split

::: columns

:::: {.column width=40%}

Left column text.

Another text line.

::::

:::: {.column width=60%}

- Item 1.
- Item 2.
- Item 3.

::::

:::

Three columns with equal split

Three equal columns

Code:

## Three columns with equal split

::: columns

:::: column

Left column text.

Another text line.

::::

:::: column

Middle column list:

1. Item 1.
2. Item 2.

::::

:::: column

Right column list:

- Item 1.
- Item 2.

::::

:::

Three columns with 30:40:30 split

Three columns with 30:40:40 split

Code:

## Three columns with 30:40:30 split

::: columns

:::: {.column width=30%}

Left column text.

Another text line.

::::

:::: {.column width=40%}

Middle column list:

1. Item 1.
2. Item 2.

::::

:::: {.column width=30%}

Right column list:

- Item 1.
- Item 2.

::::

:::

Two columns: image and text

Two columns: image and text

Code:

## Two columns: image and text

::: columns

:::: column

![](img/aleph0.png){height=50%}

::::

:::: column

Text in the right column.  

List from the right column:

- Item 1.
- Item 2.
::::

:::

Two columns: image and table

Two columns: image and table

Code:

## Two columns: image and table

::: columns

:::: column

![](img/aleph0.png){height=50%}

::::

:::: column

| **Item** | **Option** |
|:---------|:----------:|
| Item 1   | Option 1   |
| Item 2   | Option 2   |

::::

:::

Fancy layout

Fancy layout

Code:

## Fancy layout

### Proposal

- Point A
- Point B

::: columns

:::: column

### Pros

- Good
- Better
- Best

::::

:::: column

### Cons

- Bad
- Worse
- Worst

::::

:::

### Conclusion

- Let's go for it!
- No way we go for it!

Examples