Adding Background color to Columns

Question

I am using a two column article and I want to have a background color for only the columns instead of the entire page. How can I do that ? I am using the following template. I would also like to have a separate background color for the abstract part as well. enter image description here

Code:From this link

\documentclass[twoside]{article}
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\linespread{1.05} % Palatino needs more space between lines
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage[hmarginratio=1:1,top=32mm,columnsep=20pt]{geometry}
\usepackage[font=it]{caption}
\usepackage{paralist}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{lipsum}


\usepackage{abstract}
    \renewcommand{\abstractnamefont}{\normalfont\bfseries}
\renewcommand{\abstracttextfont}{\normalfont\small\itshape}

\usepackage{titlesec}
    \renewcommand\thesection{\Roman{section}}
    \titleformat{\section}[block]{\large\scshape\centering}{\thesection.}{1em}{}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
    \pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyfoot{}
\fancyhead[C]{Journal paper template $\bullet$ April 2012 $\bullet$ Vol. XXI, No. 1}
\fancyfoot[RO,LE]{\thepage}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\title{\vspace{-15mm}%
    \fontsize{24pt}{10pt}\selectfont
\textbf{Long Titles Look More Impressive Than Short Ones}
}   

\author{%
\large
\textsc{Jonathan S. Doe}\thanks{Template by \href{http://www.howtotex.com}{howtoTeX.com}} \\[2mm]
\normalsize University of Technology, Delft \\
\normalsize \href{mailto:frits@howtoTeX.com}{frits@howtoTeX.com}
\vspace{-5mm}
}
\date{}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\thispagestyle{fancy}

\begin{abstract}
\noindent \lipsum[1]
\end{abstract}


\begin{multicols}{2} 
\lipsum[1]

\section{Section title example}
\lipsum[1-2]

\section{One more section}
\lipsum[3-5]

\end{multicols}

\end{document}

Please add the code for your page! Nobody wants to recreate it just to test a single issue. — LaRiFaRi, Apr 15 '14 at 10:52
Or duplicate with: http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/59342/31034 — , Apr 15 '14 at 12:20
@ferahfeza - not really, mdframed fails with some kind of overflow, and other solutions do not break on multiple pages. — Tahtisilma, Apr 15 '14 at 12:27

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Combining answer link and surrounding abstract with colorbox:

\documentclass[twoside]{article}
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\linespread{1.05} % Palatino needs more space between lines
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage[hmarginratio=1:1,top=32mm,columnsep=20pt]{geometry}
\usepackage[font=it]{caption}
\usepackage{paralist}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\usepackage{abstract}
    \renewcommand{\abstractnamefont}{\normalfont\bfseries}
\renewcommand{\abstracttextfont}{\normalfont\small\itshape}

\usepackage{titlesec}
    \renewcommand\thesection{\Roman{section}}
    \titleformat{\section}[block]{\large\scshape\centering}{\thesection.}{1em}{}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
    \pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyfoot{}
\fancyhead[C]{Journal paper template $\bullet$ April 2012 $\bullet$ Vol. XXI, No. 1}
\fancyfoot[RO,LE]{\thepage}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\title{\vspace{-15mm}%
    \fontsize{24pt}{10pt}\selectfont
\textbf{Long Titles Look More Impressive Than Short Ones}
}

\author{%
\large
\textsc{Jonathan S. Doe}\thanks{Template by \href{http://www.howtotex.com}{howtoTeX.com}} \\[2mm]
\normalsize University of Technology, Delft \\
\normalsize \href{mailto:frits@howtoTeX.com}{frits@howtoTeX.com}
\vspace{-5mm}
}
\date{}

\makeatletter
\let\old@page@sofar\page@sofar
\let\old@box\box
\let\old@rlap\rlap
\def\page@sofar{%
\let\box\colorcolumn
\def\rlap{\let\box\old@box\old@rlap}%
\old@page@sofar
}
\def\colorcolumn#1{%
       \kern\dimexpr-\fboxrule-\fboxsep\relax
        {\let\box\old@box\fcolorbox{orange!30}{orange!30}{\box#1\llap{\phantom p}}}%
        \kern\dimexpr-\fboxrule-\fboxsep\relax
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\thispagestyle{fancy}

\begin{abstract}
\hspace{-0.7cm}\colorbox{yellow!50}{
\parbox{\linewidth}{
\noindent \lipsum[1]
}
}
\end{abstract}

\begin{multicols}{2} 
\lipsum[1]

\section{Section title example}
\lipsum[1-2]

\section{One more section}
\lipsum[3-5]

\end{multicols}

\end{document}

Note that mdframed solution fails with some kind of overflow. Output of compilation

Is there any way to increase the breadth of the colorbox of abstract to align them with the columns. Otherwise it looks a bit sketchy. But thanks for your answer. :) — sm176357, Apr 15 '14 at 12:57
@bapnu88 You can change
\hspace{-0.7cm} to \hspace{-1.51cm} and \parbox{\linewidth} to \parbox{1.125\linewidth} — Tahtisilma, Apr 15 '14 at 13:05

Adding Background color to Columns

1 Answers1