How do you change the image of a bullet point in LaTeX Beamer

Question

When I use the itemize environment, i.e.

\begin{itemize} 
    \item one
    \item two
    \item three
\end{itemize}

The bullet points are ugly bitmap graphics that have harsh (aliased) edges. I'd like it to be a nice, clean font character or vector graphic

score 61 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

61

You can simply set a symbol of your choice. Let me assume you'd like the \checkmark symbol, just write:

\begin{itemize} 
    \item[\checkmark] one
    \item[\checkmark] two
    \item[\checkmark] three
\end{itemize}

Furthermore, if it's too long to write, you can set a new command:

\newcommand{\myitem}{\item[\checkmark]}

and the whole thing becomes:

\begin{itemize} 
   \myitem one
   \myitem two
   \myitem three
\end{itemize}

Otherwise, you can use the enumitem package as stated in the answer below.

For document classes other than beamer, there are two more ways to do the trick:

In the preamble, write:

\def\labelitemi{\checkmark}

If you want to change the symbol in only one itemize environment, write:

\begin{itemize} 
\newcommand{\labelitemi}{\checkmark}
   \item one
   \item two
   \item three
\end{itemize}

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

1
1

answered May 12 '10 at 20:14

Alessandro Cuttin

3,822
1
30
36

Thanks! I used your "\myitem" solution and it works well. It looks a lot better. I also tried renewing the labelitemi command but I got an error that \labelitemi was not defined. – cheshirekow May 12 '10 at 20:27
just edited to avoid the error you get. \renewcommand should be used inside the environment – Alessandro Cuttin May 12 '10 at 21:37
1

Thanks again. I tried \def\labelitemi{\checkmark} in the preamble, but nothing changed when I used \item (still the default bitmap bullet). I then tried the \newcommand method inside the particular itemize and it did not change anything either. I tried \renewcommand inside the itemize environment and got an error because it was not defined. I also tried \def\labelitemi{\checkmark} in the preamble AND \renewcommand{\labelitemi} and got an error that it was undefined. – cheshirekow May 12 '10 at 22:12
I found your solution again on a website while searching around on the web for "labelitemi". I wonder if the problem is that this is inside beamer. According to this post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2611276/latex-beamer-way-to-change-the-bullet-indentation beamer remaps the {itemize} environment... – cheshirekow May 12 '10 at 22:15
Yes, it's true. the \newcommand and \def cause errors when using beamer (but not in other document classes). Now correcting the answer. – Alessandro Cuttin May 13 '10 at 08:07

score 32 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '12 at 14:47

32

Probably the best way is to use the beamer template:

\setbeamertemplate{itemize items}{\checkmark}

answered Mar 07 '12 at 14:47

Ewan

321
3
2

An alternative that may be of use for somebody: `\let\OldItem\item` `\renewcommand{\item}{\OldItem[\checkmark]}` – gabriel14 Aug 11 '15 at 08:39

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered May 12 '10 at 22:32

So here is the long answer. I found this in the beamer manual. In beamer there are kind of two things you can do. One is to set the "innertheme".

\useinnertheme{circles}

This will have (roughly) the same effect as

\newcommand{\myitem}{\item[\textbullet]}

The other thing you can do is set the template

\setbeamertemplate{itemize item}{\textbullet}

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 08 '11 at 14:15

12

You can also use a nice image with graphicx:

\usepackage{graphicx}
...
\item[\includegraphics{./images/image.png}]{Text}

answered Nov 08 '11 at 14:15

vmassuchetto

1,529
1
20
44

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered May 12 '10 at 23:24

6

If you \usepackage{enumitem} you can then then set the label as a parameter

\begin{itemize}[label=\checkmark]
   \item ....
   \item ...
\end{itemize}

Full documentation is here.

answered May 12 '10 at 23:24

Geoff

7,935
3
35
43

Adobe · Answer 6 · 2014-04-28T04:59:14.243

1

I solved my trobules with Russian and custom beamber symbols using Asana-math:

\setmathfont{Asana-Math.otf}

which implies using XeLaTeX, but the idea is the same for LaTeX -- just set the symbols manually:

\setbeamertemplate{itemize item}{$\blacktriangleright$}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize subitem}{$\QED$}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize subsubitem}{$\smblkcircle$}

edited Apr 28 '14 at 04:59

answered Sep 05 '13 at 11:59

Adobe

12,967
10
85
126

How do you change the image of a bullet point in LaTeX Beamer

6 Answers6