Putting things at fixed positions on the page
TeX’s model of the world is (broadly speaking) that the author
writes text, and TeX and its macros decide how it all fits on the
page. This is not good news for the author who has, from whatever
source, a requirement that certain things go in exactly the right
place on the page.
There are places on the page, from which things may be hung,
and two LaTeX packages allow you position things relative to such
points, thus providing a means of absolute positioning.
The textpos package aids the construction of pages from
“blobs”, dotted around over the page (as in a poster); you give it
the location, and it places your typeset box accordingly.
The eso-pic defines a “shipout picture” that covers the
page. The user may add picture
-mode commands to this
picture, which of course can include box placements as well as the
other rather stilted commands of picture
-mode.
(Eso-pic requires the services of everyshi, which
must therefore also be available.)
- eso-pic.sty
- macros/latex/contrib/eso-pic (or browse the directory)
- everyshi.sty
- Distributed as part of macros/latex/contrib/ms (or browse the directory)
- textpos.sty
- macros/latex/contrib/textpos (or browse the directory)
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=abspos