How to generate A1 poster with designated boxed content in LaTeX?

Question

I'm quite a novice with using LaTeX. I have only previously used to software to write simplistic reports. I now need to use LaTeX to make an A1 poster. I've made an image in powerpoint as to how I'd like my poster to look. In each of the boxes I want content; and I want the content to remain within its designated box.

I suppose, my question is, is this possible in LaTeX? And what would be the simplest way to do so?

Is there a way I can have this particular image as the background image for the whole document, then type content in its relevant block; with the blocks fixed to the size of the boxes in the background image? (Sort of overlayed ontop of the image.) Or alternatively, can I frame each block; force some blocks to be coloured, give them a border and a background image?

So far I have a document with blocks, framed minitabs in each block. But this way causes big gaps between the frames of the minitabs in each block

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Such a grid of boxes can be easily achieved with tcbraster from tcolorbox, a marvellous package.

Define a tcbraster environment with the relevant data (4 rows, 4 columns), set the height and an eventual spacing)

Define a special \posterbox command for the content, the numbers in the background can be achieved with an underlay and TikZ statement.

The coloured background boxes can be achieved with special styles, predefined.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage[landscape,a1paper,margin=2cm]{geometry}

\usepackage[dvipsnames,x11names, svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}

\tcbset{bluebox/.style={colback=DarkSlateGray1},whitebox/.style={colback=white}}

\newtcbox[auto counter]{\posterbox}[2][]{%
  fontupper={\LARGE\bfseries},
  enhanced jigsaw,
  sharp corners,
  colframe={blue},
  nobeforeafter,
  underlay={\node[scale=10,opacity=0.3] (A) at (interior) {\huge #2}; },
  whitebox,
  #1,
}





\begin{document}
\begin{tcbraster}[raster columns=4, raster equal height,raster column skip=2pt,raster height=\textheight, raster rows=4]
  \posterbox{1}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox[bluebox]{2}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{3}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{4}{\blindtext} 
% 2nd row
  \posterbox{2}{\blindtext[2]} 
  \posterbox{3}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{4}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox[bluebox]{1}{\blindtext} 
% 3rd row
  \posterbox{3}{\blindtext[3]} 
  \posterbox{4}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox[bluebox]{1}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{2}{\blindtext} 
% 4th row
  \posterbox[bluebox]{4}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{3}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{2}{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{1}{\blindtext} 
\end{tcbraster}
\end{document}

Original version

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage[a0paper,margin=2cm]{geometry}

\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}

\newtcbox[auto counter]{\posterbox}[1][]{%
  fontupper={\LARGE\bfseries},
  enhanced jigsaw,
  sharp corners,
  colback={white!90!yellow},
  colframe={blue},
  nobeforeafter,
  underlay={\node[scale=10,opacity=0.3] (A) at (interior) {\huge\thetcbcounter}; },
  #1
}


\begin{document}
\begin{tcbraster}[raster columns=4, raster equal height,raster column skip=2pt,raster height=\textheight, raster rows=4]
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
% 2nd row
  \posterbox[colback=yellow]{\blindtext[2]} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
% 3rd row
  \posterbox{\blindtext[3]} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
% 4th row
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
  \posterbox{\blindtext} 
\end{tcbraster}
\end{document}