I tried to find a class for making a single-page landscape flyer, but the closest I came up with were classes for posters, and I didn't understand LaTeX well enough to modify them for my purpose. So, I started writing my own class, but it is so sloppy, and every time I modify it I get errors. So, if anyone can make suggestions...
More specifically:
- I want to use LaTeX (MikTeX 2.7) to produce a pdf file of a single, one-sided, 8.5 x 11 page.
- I want one of the long edges to have several repetitions of my contact info, so that I can make those tabs that people can tear off.
- I want a clean way of placing a title and laying out textblocks in artistic ways on the page in the .tex file. That is, I want to contain all of the dirty commands with wierd, user-unfriendly syntax in the .cls file, and provide straightforward access to things like size, color, positioning, and rotation (size and positioning are most important).
- I want a faded background image(s).
So far I have my little project dispersed into various files: flyer.cls, flyer.tex, flyerbg.tex, and the various image files and output files that are produced. I will post my code for flyer.cls.
Code: Select all
%%% flyer.cls
%%%
%%% Michael Burns
%%% 2009 September 18 - 2009 September 23
%%% This class does not work with:
%%% latex file.tex
%%% dvips file.dvi -o file.ps
%%% ps2pdf file.ps
%%% Use instead:
%%% pdflatex file.tex
%%%
%%% The flyer is typeset as a landscape, and it will likely appear sideways
%%% in a pdf viewer.
%%% There are three commands, \tearofffrstline{},
%%% \tearoffscndline{}, and \tearoffthrdline{}, whose arguments are printed
%%% in a series of tear-offs along the bottom (long edge) of the flyer.
%%% The main content of the flyer goes in the \begin{content}\end{content}
%%% environment.
%%% There must be a file, flyerbg.eps, that contains the background image.
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesClass{flyer}[2009/09/18 LaTeX class for typesetting flyers]
\LoadClass{article}
\RequirePackage[absolute]{textpos}
\RequirePackage{color}
\RequirePackage{rotating}
\RequirePackage{fix-cm}
\RequirePackage{calc}
\RequirePackage{eso-pic}
\RequirePackage{verbatim}
%\setlength{\hoffset}{-1in}
%\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0pt}
%\setlength{\evensidemargin}{0pt}
%\setlength{\marginparsep}{0pt}
%\setlength{\marginparwidth}{0pt}
%\setlength{\textwidth}{\paperwidth}
%\addtolength{\textwidth}{-2in}
%\setlength{\voffset}{-1in}
%\setlength{\topmargin}{0pt}
%\setlength{\headheight}{0pt}
%\setlength{\headsep}{0pt}
%\setlength{\footskip}{0pt}
%\setlength{\textheight}{\paperheight}
%\addtolength{\textheight}{-2in}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
\pdfpagewidth=\paperwidth
\pdfpageheight=\paperheight
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\renewcommand{\Huge}{\fontsize{50}{60}\selectfont}
\renewcommand{\huge}{\fontsize{30}{36}\selectfont}
\renewcommand{\Large}{\fontsize{20}{25}\selectfont}
\TPGrid[0pt,0pt]{10}{10}
\newenvironment{precontent}
{\begin{textblock}{6}[0.5,0.5](4,5)}
{\end{textblock}}
\newenvironment{content}
{\begin{precontent}\begin{sideways}\begin{minipage}[c]{8\TPVertModule}}
{\end{minipage}\end{sideways}\end{precontent}}
%%% First attempt at background image:
%\newcommand{\BackgroundEPS}[4]{
% \special{ps: @beginspecial @setspecial initmatrix
% 0.9 setgray #2 #3 translate #4 dup scale}
% \special{ps: plotfile #1}
% \special{ps: @endspecial}
%}
%\BackgroundEPS{flyerbg.eps}{1}{1}{1}
%%% Second attempt at background image:
%\AddToShipoutPicture{
% \put(0,0){\includegraphics{flyerbg}}
%}
%%% Third attempt at background image:
%\newenvironment{textbg}[3]
% {\begin{\textblock}{1}[0.5,0.5](#1,#2)\huge\begin{turn}{#3+90}}
% {\end{turn}\end{\textblock}}
\newcommand{\@tearofffrstline}{}
\newcommand{\tearofffrstline}[1]{\renewcommand{\@tearofffrstline}{#1}}
\newcommand{\@tearoffscndline}{}
\newcommand{\tearoffscndline}[1]{\renewcommand{\@tearoffscndline}{#1}}
\newcommand{\@tearoffthrdline}{}
\newcommand{\tearoffthrdline}[1]{\renewcommand{\@tearoffthrdline}{#1}}
\newcommand{\maketearoff}{
\mbox{
\begin{tabular}{l}
\@tearofffrstline\\
\@tearoffscndline\\
\@tearoffthrdline
\end{tabular}
}\\[15pt]
}
\newcommand{\maketearoffs}{
\begin{textblock}{3}[1,0.5](10,5)\begin{flushright}
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\maketearoff
\end{flushright}\end{textblock}
}
\AtEndDocument{\maketearoffs}
