Beamer LaTeX class
Ranked 3 of 3 LaTeX packages by recommenders
Free LaTeX class that produces professional, customisable, git-friendly slides and is widely used for scientific presentations. Critics say adding graphics and animations is hard.
Free LaTeX class that produces professional, customisable, git-friendly slides and is widely used for scientific presentations. Critics say adding graphics and animations is hard.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Widely used for scientific presentations
“Both beamer and tikz are very important contributions to science communication.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX” “At least in my field, 90% of presentations are Beamer.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” Easy to add formulas
“In Beamer is too easy to add formulas and difficult to add graphics”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you use for scientific presentations?” “Good for math heavy presentation, but adding an animation is hard.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you use for scientific presentations?” Superior typesetting and presentations
“the better AI models can effortlessly generate Latex/Beamer, a far superior solution for typesetting and presentations”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Codex for Almost Everything” “Use the beamer template and get a much more professional, customisable, git-commitable and transferable presentation”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Tiny Little Office”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to add graphics or animations
“In Beamer is too easy to add formulas and difficult to add graphics”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you use for scientific presentations?” “Good for math heavy presentation, but adding an animation is hard.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you use for scientific presentations?”
Other LaTeX packages people recommend
The two most recommended other LaTeX packages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florilegium | 14 | 1 | 93% | 1 | — | — |
| TikZ | 13 | 4 | 76% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Beamer LaTeX classThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Use the beamer template and get a much more professional, customisable, git-commitable and transferable presentation”
“I wanted a scalable, reliable way to run website capture”
“Both beamer and tikz are very important contributions to science communication.”
“In Beamer is too easy to add formulas and difficult to add graphics”
“Good for math heavy presentation, but adding an animation is hard.”
“the better AI models can effortlessly generate Latex/Beamer, a far superior solution for typesetting and presentations”
“At least in my field, 90% of presentations are Beamer.”
“I naturally proceeded to make all of my presentations with it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.