BarXiv

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Beamer arXiv citations aged with Matplotlib colormaps

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Install and use

BarXiv is a very simple LaTeX2e package for the beamer class. It enables audience-friendly citations of papers which may or may not be on the arXiv. These are highlighted according to the age of the reference, according to the ubiquitous colormaps of Matplotlib. BarXiv does not need Python.

1. Download barxiv.tar.gz and unzip to your .tex and .bib working directory:

tar -C <working_directory_name>/ -xvf barxiv.tar.gz

2. Load the package into your preamble:

\usepackage[bib file = <bib_file_name>.bib, cmap = rainbow, saturation = 40]{barxiv}

3. Try putting \barxiv{<bibtex_label>} in place of \cite{<bibtex_label>} and twiddling the options:
   • bib file or bibfile: self-explanatory
   • cmap: your favorite Matplotlib colormap such as viridis (default), cubehelix or spring -- a full list can be found here
   • saturation: a percentage value, since many colormaps are rather dark

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Demonstration

Here is a simple beamer frame to illustrate barxiv in use for some cmap choices.
For hsv and spring:

For summer and winter:

For binary and inferno:

For Wistia:

This frame was generated with presentation.tex as follows (note I don't include presentation.bib). The preamble explicitly contains all current barxiv options:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[bib file = presentation.bib, cmap = rainbow, saturation = 40]{barxiv}

The body is much as you would expect:

\begin{document}
\tiny
\begin{frame}
  \frametitle{A \texttt{beamer} frame to demonstrate \texttt{barxiv}}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You can recycle the \texttt{.bib} from your latest paper in your \texttt{beamer} talk, and use \texttt{\symbol{92}barxiv} just as you would use \texttt{\symbol{92}cite}.
    \item Today, all the \textbf{best} papers are on the \textbf{arXiv}, such as \barxiv{2019JMP....60e2504B,2017CQGra..34t5006B,2017CQGra..34p7001B}.
    \item In a talk, the audience might just have time to note an arXiv telephone number.
    \item The \textbf{arXiv} contains more than one eprint \textbf{class}, e.g. \barxiv{2019arXiv190800993Y,2016IJMPS..4060010N}.
    \item Long ago, books such as \barxiv{1984ucp..book.....W}, or very important papers such as \barxiv{Ashtekar_1991}, had no \textbf{arXiv} on which to appear\footnote{Because the \texttt{barxiv} command is \textbf{robust}, \barxiv{2019JMP....60e2504B,1984ucp..book.....W} should appear well in \textbf{footnotes} and \textbf{captions}.}.
    \item The \textbf{colours} reflect the \textbf{age} of the reference: a decent literature review such as \barxiv{PhysRev.101.1597,1961JMP.....2..212K,1975NCimB..28..127K,1985AmJPh..53..510H,lasenby-doran-heineke-2005,2019arXiv190800993Y,2013CQGra..30t5010C,2015arXiv151201202H,2011CQGra..28u5017B,1972PhLA...39..219K,2011JPhCS.330a2005H,2011PhRvD..83b4001B,1984CQGra...1..651G,2009PhRvD..79b7301L,1979PhLA...75...27T,2008PhRvD..78b3522S,2005NewAR..49...59P,1980PhRvD..21.3269S,1980PhLA...80..232M,RevModPhys.36.463} is thus very \textbf{colourful}.
    \item Bibliographies are not so common in \texttt{beamer} talks, but the \texttt{bibtex} backend supports them if you so choose: this is compatible with \texttt{barxiv}, though slightly against its spirit!
    \item {\large Citations \barxiv{1998RSPTA.356..487L} should scale with font \textbf{size} or font \textsc{style \barxiv{Ashtekar_1991}} }
  \end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

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Tasks

Things I want to do

• Auto update of current year
• wrap it up and leave it on CTAN