Beamer Metropolis

What is the Metropolis Beamer template?

Metropolis is a modern, minimalist Beamer theme created by Matthias Vogelgesang in 2015. It rejected the heavy "academic chrome" of the default Beamer themes — boxes, navigation bars, blue gradients — in favor of clean typography, generous whitespace, and dark accents. It became the de facto theme for academic talks at NeurIPS, ICML, USENIX, FOSDEM, and most modern CS/engineering conferences.

The Sarmate template uses the Metropolis theme with sane defaults, ready to compile with pdflatex.

When should you use this template?

• You're giving a research talk at a CS, math, or engineering conference. Metropolis looks current; default Beamer (with its boxed, gradient look) doesn't.
• You're a teacher or PhD student presenting to a technical audience. The clean look reads as "I care about typography" without screaming "I designed this in PowerPoint."
• You want a Beamer theme that doesn't look like Beamer. Metropolis hides most of the default chrome.

Step-by-step: your first Metropolis slides

1. Document setup

\documentclass[aspectratio=169]{beamer}
\usetheme{metropolis}

\usepackage{appendixnumberbeamer}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[scale=2]{ccicons}

\title{Your Talk Title}
\subtitle{An optional subtitle}
\date{\today}
\author{Your Name}
\institute{Your University}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

Always set aspectratio=169 — projectors and screens are 16:9 since 2015. The default 4:3 looks dated.

2. The title slide

The title slide is generated by \maketitle using \title, \subtitle, \author, \institute, \date. Keep the title under 8 words — anything longer crowds the slide.

3. Section dividers

\section{Introduction}

\begin{frame}{Motivation}
  Why this work matters \ldots
\end{frame}

\section{Method}

\begin{frame}{Architecture overview}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item First component
    \item Second component
  \end{itemize}
\end{frame}

Each \section creates a section divider slide automatically — a big section title on its own slide. Use this to give your talk structure (3-5 sections is ideal for a 20-minute talk).

4. Frames (slides)

Each \begin{frame} ... \end{frame} is one slide. The {Frame title} argument is optional but recommended:

\begin{frame}{Slide title}
  Slide content here
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Comparison}
  \begin{columns}
    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
      \textbf{Before:}
      \begin{itemize}
        \item Slow
        \item Imprecise
      \end{itemize}
    \end{column}
    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
      \textbf{After:}
      \begin{itemize}
        \item Fast
        \item Precise
      \end{itemize}
    \end{column}
  \end{columns}
\end{frame}

5. Code, math, alerts

\begin{frame}[fragile]{Code example}
\begin{verbatim}
def my_function(x):
    return x * 2
\end{verbatim}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Mathematics}
  Loss function:
  \begin{equation}
    \mathcal{L}(\theta) = \mathbb{E}_{x \sim \mathcal{D}}[\ell(f_\theta(x), y)]
  \end{equation}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Key insight}
  \alert{This is the most important point.}
\end{frame}

Use [fragile] when a frame contains \verbatim or code listings. \alert{...} highlights text in red (the Metropolis accent color).

6. Final thank-you slide

\begin{frame}[standout]
  Thank you!\\
  \vspace{1em}
  Questions?
\end{frame}

[standout] creates a high-contrast slide (white text on dark background) — perfect for the "Thank you" or a take-home message.

Common errors and how to fix them

"Theme `metropolis' not found"

Install the package: locally tlmgr install beamertheme-metropolis. On Sarmate's compile server it's pre-installed.

Code in slides crashes the compile

Add [fragile] to the frame: \begin{frame}[fragile]{...}. Verbatim content needs special handling that fragile enables.

Equations are too small / too tight

Metropolis uses a smaller base font than other themes. For complex equations use \Large: \Large $\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx$.

Section divider slides don't appear

You need \section{...} outside of \begin{frame} ... \end{frame}. Place section commands between frames, not inside.

Bullet points show as dots instead of arrows / triangles

That's the default Metropolis style. To customize: \setbeamertemplate{itemize item}[triangle] in the preamble.

Compilation fails: fonts not found

Metropolis prefers Fira Sans. With pdflatex, you may need to add \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}. With XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX, the right font is loaded automatically.

Color customization

\definecolor{MyDark}{HTML}{2E2E2E}
\definecolor{MyAccent}{HTML}{E64545}
\setbeamercolor{frametitle}{bg=MyDark}
\setbeamercolor{progress bar}{fg=MyAccent}

Metropolis uses a small palette: dark background for headers, accent color for highlights. Change these to match your university's brand.

FAQ

How long should a Metropolis talk be?

Match the time slot:

• 10-min lightning talk: 6-10 slides
• 20-min conference talk: 15-20 slides
• 45-min seminar: 25-35 slides

Don't overstuff. Empty space is good design.

Can I include videos?

Yes, with the multimedia package: \movie[...]{...}{path/to/video.mp4}. But be careful — videos require Adobe Reader to play (not all PDF viewers support them). Alternative: a screenshot of the video with a "see video at" URL.

How do I show progressive reveals (one bullet at a time)?

Use \pause:

\begin{itemize}
  \item First bullet
  \pause
  \item Second bullet (revealed on click)
\end{itemize>

What's the difference between Metropolis and other modern themes?

Metropolis = minimalist, dark accents, Fira Sans. simple = even more minimal. moloch = a maintained fork of Metropolis (recommended if you hit Metropolis bugs). The focus theme is similar but uses different fonts.

Can I use Metropolis without Beamer?

No — Metropolis is a Beamer theme. For LaTeX-based slides without Beamer, look at powerdot or impressive.

Going further

• Metropolis on GitHub — official source, examples, issues.
• Moloch fork — a maintained successor of Metropolis.
• Overleaf's Beamer tutorial — general Beamer reference (theme-agnostic).