Based on an idea by Ingmar Steiner, this package is meant to make creating posters for presentations as simple as writing a basic article in LaTeX. This means the user can focus mainly on the content and is not required to pay a lot of attention to mangling with the layout.
The package uses PGF and TikZ to automatically generate the layout of the poster.
The package is licensed under The LaTeX Project Public License.
See LICENSE.md and mspposter.sty for more details.
Copy the file 'mspposter.sty' to the same folder as your LaTeX file and add the line
\usepackage{mspposter}
to your preamble.
Place the content of the poster inside the poster environment:
\begin{poster}
...
\end{poster}
Use
\begin{posterblock}
CONTENT
\end{posterblock}
to create a block on the poster with CONTENT.
The environment
\begin{posterblockH}{H}
CONTENT
\end{posterblockH}
generates a block with fixed height H on the poster.
Use
\begin{logobox}
CONTENT
\end{logobox}
to create a logo bar at the bottom of the poster with CONTENT.
The poster blocks themselves are arranged automatically on the poster depending on the chosen layout. The default layout is using one block on each row.
Currently, two layouts are available:
Use the environment
\begin{posterrows}[N]
...
\end{posterrows}
to have N columns on each row.
In this layout, the poster blocks first fill the current row. After it is filled, a new row is started automatically.
In this environment, two additional poster block environments are available:
\begin{posterblockW}{W}{H}
...
\end{posterblockW}
creates a block with width W and height H.
Note: Columns created by this environment are not counted, which means that the row has to be ended with the following environment:
\begin{posterblockWFill}{H}
...
\end{posterblockWFill}
creates a block with height H that uses the remaining space on the row as width.
The environment
\begin{postercolumns}[N]
...
\end{postercolumns}
also creates a layout with N columns on each row. This time, however, the columns are filled first.
Note: The column is not ended automatically.
Use the command
\posternextcolumn
to return to the first row of the current layout and move to the next column.
The command
\setblockpadding{X}
sets the inner padding in each block to X.
Use
\setblockspacing{Y}
to change the spacing between two blocks to Y. This command also adjusts the text width to center the poster on the page.
Change the margin to the top boundary of the page with
\settopmargin{Z}
to Z.
Important: All provided values have to be dimensionless - they are interpreted in terms of pt.
The background can be changed with
\shadebackground{bottomColor}{topColor}
This creates a color gradient from top to bottom with the chosen colors. Both colors should be in a format that is accepted by TikZ.
To place content on the background, use
\setbackground{CONTENT}
Finally, the posterblock, posterblockH, posterblockW, posterblockWFill, and logobox environments accept an optional argument that refers to a user-defined TikZ style for the block:
\tikzset{%
myblock/.style={
draw,
fill=blue
},
mylogobox/.style={
draw,
fill=white
}
}
...
\begin{document}
...
\begin{posterblock}[myblock]
...
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblockH}[myblock]{100}
...
\end{posterblockH}
...
\begin{logobox}[mylogobox]
...
\end{logobox}
-
Floating environments like figure and table are not supported inside a poster block.
-
TikZ pictures inside a poster block inherit the chosen style for the block. This issue is related to TikZ, see for example TeX Stackexchange.
Workarounds:
- Like proposed on TeX Stackexchange, typeset the TikZ picture in a savebox and use it later on.
- Create a PDF of the TikZ picture and use \includegraphics in the posterblock environment.
- Use the Standalone package for including the TikZ picture.
Example poster file:
\documentclass[a4paper, 11pt]{article}
\usepackage{mspposter}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[compact, center]{titlesec}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat*{\section}{\large\bf\center}
\titlespacing*{\section}{0pt}{0pt}{0.5\baselineskip}
% reduce the vertical space generated by a section
\let \oldsection \section
\renewcommand{\section}{\vspace{-10pt}\oldsection}
% create custom styles
\tikzset{
mysmallbox/.style={
ultra thick,
decoration=random steps,
decorate,
draw,
fill=white,
opacity=0.5,
text opacity=1.0
},
mylogobox/.style={
minimum width=\paperwidth + 10pt,
text width=\textwidth,
fill=white,
draw=black,
ultra thick,
decoration=random steps,
decorate,
inner sep=5
}
}
\begin{document}
\begin{poster}
% tweak layout
\settopmargin{15}
\setblockpadding{20}
\setblockspacing{15}
\shadebackground{red!40}{blue!30}
\begin{posterrows}[4]
\begin{posterblock}[mysmallbox]
\centering
I am a poster block with a fancy style!
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}[mysmallbox]
\centering
I am a poster block with a fancy style!
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}[mysmallbox]
\centering
I am a poster block with a fancy style!
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}[mysmallbox]
\centering
I am a poster block with a fancy style!
\end{posterblock}
\end{posterrows}
\begin{postercolumns}[2]
\begin{posterblock}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node [fill=red!70, circle, text width=20pt] {};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node [fill=black!70, circle, text width=30pt] {};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{posterblock}
\posternextcolumn
\begin{posterblock}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node [fill=blue!70, circle, text width=40pt] {};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node [fill=orange!70, circle, text width=10pt] {};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{posterblock}
\end{postercolumns}
\begin{posterrows}[3]
\begin{posterblockW}{150}{45}
\section{Left Box}
This poster block has a fixed height and width.
\end{posterblockW}
\begin{posterblockWFill}{25}
\section{Right Box}
Here, the poster block uses the remaining space that is available on the current row.
Like the left block, it has a fixed height.
\end{posterblockWFill}
\begin{posterblock}
{\bf posterblockWFill} automatically ends the row.
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
Blocks in this row are aligned to the largest block in the above row.
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblockH}{30}
This poster block has a fixed height and uses the precomputed width.
\end{posterblockH}
\end{posterrows}
\begin{postercolumns}[5]
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Left}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Left}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Left}
\end{posterblock}
\posternextcolumn
\posternextcolumn
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Center}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Center}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Center}
\end{posterblock}
\posternextcolumn
\posternextcolumn
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Right}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Right}
\end{posterblock}
\begin{posterblock}
\section{Right}
\end{posterblock}
\end{postercolumns}
\begin{logobox}[mylogobox]
\centering
\fbox{\huge \bfseries LOGO 1}
\hfill
\fbox{\huge \bfseries LOGO 2}
\hfill
\fbox{\huge \bfseries LOGO 3}
\hfill
\fbox{\huge \bfseries LOGO 4}
\end{logobox}
\end{poster}
\end{document}
Resulting poster:
