How to make a tikz picture appear on every page of document

Question

I am relatively new to Latex and I am struggeling with the use of the tikzpicture package.

What I want to do is to create a coloured column on the left side of every page in my document. Curently I am using the following code for this.

    \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
    \node [rectangle, fill=sidecolor, anchor=north, minimum width=9cm, minimum height=\paperheight+1cm] (box) at (-5cm,0.5cm){};
    \end{tikzpicture}

The problem is that this code only produces a coloured bar on the first page of my document and does not extend it to multiple pages.

My question is therefore, how do i implement this tikzpicture to multiple pages in my document?. Does anyone have any insights on how to tackle this problem.

Note: I am not trying to make a header or footer.

Kind regards.

Thanks!

Hello, No I am not aware of that package. However I will look into it now that you mention it. Thank you — Balraj Boyal, Feb 15 '18 at 14:32
Or perhaps easier, the background package or the tikzpagenodes package. See e.g. Getting a particular kind of page border using background package — Alan Munn, Feb 15 '18 at 14:33
Welcome! Please, always provide a Minimal Working Example (↗MWE). — AlexG, Feb 15 '18 at 14:44

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 15 '18 at 14:50

Package atbegshi is an option for inserting material on every page at an absolute position.
Package xsavebox helps reducing the final PDF size when repeatedly inserting the same content.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{xsavebox} %save content for repeated use
\usepackage{atbegshi} %insert material on every page

\usepackage{kantlipsum} %bla, bla

\xsavebox{PageBGPicture}{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
  \node [rectangle, fill=yellow, minimum width=9cm, minimum height=\paperheight] (box) {};
  \end{tikzpicture}
}

%position background picture absolutely (w.r.t. upper left page corner) on every page
\AtBeginShipout{
  \AtBeginShipoutUpperLeft{\raisebox{-\height}{\xusebox{PageBGPicture}}}
}

\begin{document}
\kant[1-10]
\end{document}

Thank you, it works. I would also need to change then the picture on every page. I mean, for the first chapter I want to use a certain picture. For the 2nd chapter another picture, and so on. Do you know how to do it? — nicolass, Sep 04 '22 at 12:13

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '18 at 14:53

Just for fun, something using eso-pic. Node that I made your node names unique by adding the page number.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikzpagenodes}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{eso-pic}
\begin{document}
 \AddToShipoutPicture{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
 \node [rectangle, fill=blue, anchor=west, minimum width=9cm, minimum height=\paperheight+1cm] 
 (box\thepage) at 
 (current page text area.west){};
\end{tikzpicture}}
\lipsum[1-8]
\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 15 '21 at 15:23

Use the atbegshi package.

\usepackage{atbegshi}
\AtBeginShipout
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
    \node [rectangle, fill=sidecolor, anchor=north, minimum width=9cm, minimum height=\paperheight+1cm] (box) at (-5cm,0.5cm){};
    \end{tikzpicture}
}

How to make a tikz picture appear on every page of document

3 Answers3

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