Background image for minipage

Question

I'd like to put a background image into a minipage, stretching exactly to the surrounding fbox. What's the best option to do that? (Searching the web, I only found solutions for backgrounding the whole page)

Answer 1

You basically need to store the minipage content in a box register, measure it and overlay it with the graphic. The following environment awaits the image file name as first argument and then accepts any minipage arguments:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\newsavebox\mysavebox
\newenvironment{imgminipage}[2][]{%
   \def\imgcmd{\includegraphics[width=\wd\mysavebox,height=\dimexpr\ht\mysavebox+\dp\mysavebox\relax,#1]{#2}}%
   \begin{lrbox}{\mysavebox}%
   \begin{minipage}%
}{%
   \end{minipage}
   \end{lrbox}%
   \sbox\mysavebox{\fbox{\usebox\mysavebox}}%
   \mbox{\rlap{\raisebox{-\dp\mysavebox}{\imgcmd}}\usebox\mysavebox}%
}

\begin{document}

\begin{imgminipage}{imagefilename}{5cm}
    Some text\\
    Hello world!
\end{imgminipage}

\end{document}

---

I added now a bgimage key to adjustbox (develop version) which allows you to add a background image. To have also a \fbox use either:

\begin{adjustbox}{minipage=<width>,fbox,bgimage=<image>}
    <text>
\end{adjustbox}

which adds the \fbox first and then places the background image behind it, so that the frame covers some small part of the image, or

\begin{adjustbox}{minipage=<width>,margin=\fboxsep,bgimage=<image>,frame}
    <text>
\end{adjustbox}

which adds the same margin manually, places the background image and then draws a tight frame around it, so that the image is fully shown (and a little bit smaller than before).

Answer 2

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\newsavebox\MBox
\newenvironment{Minipage}[1]
  {\par\smallskip\begin{lrbox}{\MBox}\begin{minipage}{#1}}
  {\end{minipage}\end{lrbox}%
   \makebox(0,0){\put(0,0){%
     \includegraphics[width=\wd\MBox,height=2\ht\MBox]{tiger}}}%
   \usebox\MBox\par%
  }
\begin{document}
Some text before

\begin{Minipage}{0.5\textwidth} 
\blindtext
\end{Minipage}

Some text behind    
\end{document}

Answer 3

EDIT:

Here a modification of the package mdframed. So you can use all the settings which are provided by mdframed according to the background image:

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{graphicx,tikz}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage[backgroundcolor=yellow!10,style=0]{mdframed}
\makeatletter
\newrobustcmd*\mdf@backgroundimage{%
      \rlap{\hspace*{0.5\mdfboundingboxwidth}%
             \makebox[0pt][c]{%
               \tikz[remember picture]%
                  \node (0,0) [opacity=0.4] {%
                  \includegraphics[width=\mdfboundingboxwidth,%
                                height=\mdfboundingboxheight,%
                                keepaspectratio]%
                                {\backgroundimage}%
                              };
             }%
           }%
}
\newenvironment{Minipage}[2][]
  {\def\backgroundimage{#2}%
   \appto\md@frame@background@single\mdf@backgroundimage%
   \appto\md@frame@background@first\mdf@backgroundimage%
   \appto\md@frame@background@middle\mdf@backgroundimage%
   \appto\md@frame@background@second\mdf@backgroundimage%
   \begin{mdframed}[#1]%
   }
  {\end{mdframed}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
Some text before

\begin{Minipage}{tiger} 
\blindtext
\end{Minipage}

Some text behind    

\begin{Minipage}{tiger} 
\blindtext[10]
\end{Minipage}
\end{document}

EDIT 2 Thanks to xport -- I added the option opacity by using tikz.

A possibility is to combine minipage with includegraphics. I tried it with the following configuration (option demo and color{red}. So I can compile without any image :-)

\documentclass[demo]{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newlength{\widthofminipage}
\newsavebox{\MyMinBackBox}
% minipageback{<width>}{<backgroundimage>}
\newenvironment{minipageback}[2]{%
      \setlength{\widthofminipage}{#1}%
      \def\pictureminback{#2}%
      \begin{lrbox}{\MyMinBackBox}%
      \begin{minipage}[b]{\widthofminipage}\color{red}%
    }{%
     \end{minipage}\end{lrbox}%
     \includegraphics[width=\wd\MyMinBackBox,height=\dimexpr\ht\MyMinBackBox+\dp\MyMinBackBox\relax]{\pictureminback}%
    \llap{\usebox{\MyMinBackBox}}%
}

\begin{document}
Text 


\begin{minipageback}{.5\textwidth}{logo}
\lipsum[1]
\end{minipageback}
\end{document}

Answer 4

This shows a solution with tcolorbox. blankest skin doesn't draws any frame or changes margins, so text formatting is similar to minipage. But tcolorbox offers watermark text|graphics options to introduce a background text or image behind box contents. This watermark can be forced to use the whole box with option watermark stretch=1 which won't keep image aspect ratio. If aspect ratio must be conserved, watermark zoom=1 will enlarge image to maximum width or height but without distorting image proportions.

Ah! With breakable option, it's possible to break minipages across pages and repeat the image behind every fragment.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newtcolorbox{myminipage}[3][]{
    breakable,
    blankest, 
    watermark graphics=#3, 
    watermark stretch=1,
    width=#2,
    #1
}

\begin{document}

\begin{myminipage}{\linewidth}{example-image}
\lipsum[2]
\end{myminipage}

\begin{myminipage}{.5\linewidth}{example-image}
\lipsum[2]
\end{myminipage}

\begin{myminipage}{.75\linewidth}{example-image}
\lipsum[2-6]
\end{myminipage}

\end{document}

Answer 5

Features: The opacity can be adjusted such that it does not distract the foreground texts.

Compile the following with either xelatex or latex-dvips-ps2pdf.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a4paper,margin=2cm,showframe=false]{geometry}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{pst-node}
\newsavebox\IBox
\newenvironment{TinyPage}[2][1]
    {\def\scale{#1}\begin{lrbox}{\IBox}\begin{minipage}{\dimexpr#2\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}\ignorespaces}
    {%
        \end{minipage}\end{lrbox}%              
        \rput(\dimexpr0.5\wd\IBox+\fboxsep+\fboxrule\relax,0){%
                \special{ps: 0.2 .setopacityalpha}%
                \scalebox{\scale}[1]{\includegraphics[width=\wd\IBox]{Images/hen}}%
                \special{ps: 1 .setopacityalpha}}%
        {\color{gray}\fbox{\usebox\IBox}}%
        \ignorespacesafterend}

\parindent=0pt
\fboxsep=10pt
\fboxrule=10pt
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]

\vspace{3mm}

\begin{TinyPage}[-1]{0.49}
\lipsum[1]
\end{TinyPage}\hfill
\begin{TinyPage}{0.49}
\lipsum[1]
\end{TinyPage}

\vspace{3mm}

\lipsum[1]
\end{document}