TikZ shadings

Keywords for specifying the backgrounds of a box's header and body; and the poster as a whole, are described in the documentation of \posterinit's config argument. These are:

    background style = {color specification},  % poster's background
    box/header style = {color specification},  % box header background
    box/body style   = {color specification},  % box body background

The color specification in each case is a TikZ construct for filling a region with color.

Figure 1 shows the possibilities; the constructs shown there apply equally to all three object types listed above. The text in each swatch is the specification that produced it. Click on the figure to view a more readable PDF version and then read each specification and compare against what you see. That's the easiest way to learn about TikZ shadings and that's the only documentation I am going to provide.

For the meanings of color mixing constrictions such as “blue!40”, see my A Beamer Quickstart web page.

Figure 1: Various ways to shade a region. Click on the image to view the corresponding PDF. Read each specifications and compare against what you see. Please note: The Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 9.1.0 (02/27/2009) for Linux displays this properly but xpdf and evince mess up some of the more complex shadings. I haven't tried viewing this in anything else.

Here is a moderately complex definition illustrating some of the constructs defined in Figure 1. Go back and study the details of Figure 1 if you don't understand what it does; it contains the core of the ideas that lead to the poster of Figure 2:

\newcommand{\mycolor}{brown}
\posterinit{
    background style = {ball color=cyan},
    box/header style = {
        top color=\mycolor!90!black,
        bottom color=\mycolor,
        middle color=\mycolor!20},
    box/body style   = {top color=\mycolor!60, bottom color=white},
}

Figure 2 shows the beginnings of a poster and a variety of box styles. This is only a demo—generally you wouldn't have so many different box styles in a single poster.

Figure 2: Boxes of various styles, illustrating some of the filling/shading constructs described above. Click on the image to view the corresponding PDF. This was produced by the LaTeX file boxes.tex. Please note: On Linux, the Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 9.1.0 (02/27/2009) improperly turns the bluish background to greenish. On the other hand, xpdf shows the colors correctly. Evince also shows the colors correctly but has trouble with handling some of the gradual shadings. I haven't tried viewing this in anything else.

Author: Rouben Rostamian