LaTeX beamer presentation-package 16:9 aspect ratio?

Question

I'm programming a presentation in LaTeX using the beamer package.

However, it defaults to 4:3 aspect ratio slides, while everything I use is 16:9 -- is there an easy way to change this using a command or two?

Thanks!

Answer 1

According to A Beamer Quickstart, "The size of a Beamer slide is 128mm by 96mm. These dimensions are fixed and should not be changed."

However, there is a beamerposter package which allows a 16:9 ratio.

Answer 2

As already mentioned, the size is fixed to a ration of 4:3. However, you can decrease the right and left margin like this:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{beamerthemesplit}

\setbeamersize{text margin left=0.1em}  % <- like this
\setbeamersize{text margin right=0.1em} % <- like this

\title{The title of this presentation}
\author{Bart Kiers}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

  \frame{\titlepage}

\end{document}

which will make your slides look like:

instead of:

EDIT:

And as neilfws mentioned, try the beamerposter package.

The following:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{beamerthemesplit}
\usepackage[orientation=landscape,size=custom,width=16,height=9,scale=0.5,debug]{beamerposter} 

\title{The title of this presentation}
\author{Bart Kiers}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

  \frame{\titlepage}

\end{document}

produces: