How to have image span two columns without a page break

Question

I'm making a document with two columns; however, I'd like the first page to server as a cover page with a title spanning two columns and a cover image doing the same. I tried to do it as follows, using floatrow to center the spanned image:

\documentclass[11pt,twocolumn,landscape]{article}
\usepackage{floatrow}

\begin{document}

\twocolumn[
\centerline{\Large\bf Project Title}
\medskip
\centerline{\Large\bf Subheader}
\medskip
\centerline{\today}
\bigskip
]

\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure.jpg}
\label{fig:label}
\end{figure*}

\clearpage %to end the page

%other content
\end{document}

However, this always causes a page break before the figure* environment -- I can't get the image to sit on the same page as the title! Adding a [h] or [H] tag doesn't seem to work. What should I do to get the image to stay on the same page as the previous text?

Answer 1

You can use titlepage environment

\documentclass[11pt,twocolumn,landscape]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{kantlipsum}

\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\centering
{\Large\bfseries Project Title}

\medskip

{\Large\bfseries Subheader}

\medskip

{\today}

%\bigskip

\vfill
\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example-image-a}

\end{titlepage}

\kant
\end{document}

Use \bfseries as \bf is deprecated and \centerline is TeX, use \centering in LaTeX. Also, there is no need of \label when you don't have a caption.

Answer 2

Using multicols may be more useful, than basic LaTeX \twocolumn. The picture was changed, of course, and reduced to show all on one page (hence also \clearpage commented). The rest is unchanged, however many people dislike \bf in LaTeX documents. See, e.g. "Correct" way to bold/italicize text?.

%\documentclass[11pt,twocolumn,landscape]{article}
\documentclass[11pt,landscape]{article}
%\usepackage{floatrow}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

%\twocolumn[
\centerline{\Large\bf Project Title}
\medskip
\centerline{\Large\bf Subheader}
\medskip
\centerline{\today}
\bigskip
%]

\begin{figure*}[h]
%\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure.jpg}
\includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{it}
\label{fig:label}
\end{figure*}

%\clearpage %to end the page  % Commented to show all on one page - PS



%other content
\begin{multicols}{2}
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
other content other content other content other content other content
\end{multicols}
\end{document}