For highest-quality playback, your slide size should match the screen resolution of the display on which the slideshow will appear. Most projectors work best with slides at 800 x 600. Newer projectors may display slides at a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher.

If your presentation includes movies, you might want to use a higher resolution. In this case, choose a high-definition (HD) theme with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (not all themes offer the higher resolution). Higher resolution requires more memory and a faster processor.

You can change the slide size of a Keynote document in the Document pane of the Document inspector. If you’re not sure of the best slide size or you don’t want to change the original slide size in your document, Keynote plays the slideshow at its original size, centered on your display and surrounded by a black border. If a slide is too large to fit the display, Keynote automatically scales it down to fit the screen.

You can also have Keynote scale the slideshow up to fit your screen when the slideshow plays.

To scale a slideshow up during playback:

  1. Choose Keynote > Preferences.

  2. Click Slideshow.

  3. Select “Scale slides up to fit display.”

    This option does not actually change the slide size of your Keynote document; it scales the document to fit the display. Some video quality may be lost during playback with this option.

  4. If you use the Cube or Flip transition, you may want to select “Reduce Flip transitions to avoid clipping” or “Reduce Cube transitions to avoid clipping.” Otherwise, part of the transition may not be visible.

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