Change background color for only a section of the page?

Question

I understand one can easily change the background color for text portion easily, but I would like to do the same for an entire portion of the page. How does one change background color for only a section of the page?

Answer 1

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty} % Suppress page numbers
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
    \path (current page.north west) 
        node[
            below right,
            fill=blue!40,
            minimum width=\paperwidth,
            minimum height=3cm
            ] 
            (box){};
    \path (current page.south west) 
        node[
            above right,
            fill=red!40,
            minimum width=\paperwidth,
            minimum height=3cm
            ] 
            (box1){};
    \path ($(current page.west)+(1cm,0)$) 
        node[
            %above right,
            fill=black!40,
            %minimum width=\paperwidth,
            minimum height=1cm
            ] 
            (box2){};
    \path ($(box2)+(1cm,0)$) 
        node[
            %above right,
            fill=green!40,
            %minimum width=\paperwidth, 
            minimum height=1cm
            ] 
            (box3){};

%\path (box.west) node[right=5mm,align=left] %<distance can be changed to suit
%{{\fontsize{45pt}{65pt}\color{white}\textbf{JS Bibra}}\\[2mm]
%{\fontsize{30pt}{20pt}\color{cyan}Advisor to TEX}\\[2mm]
%{\fontsize{10pt}{10pt}\color{white}\LaTeX\ development}};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

The following example uses this approach:

• Mark or save the top and bottom positions of the band you want to highlight using zref's savepos module (via \zsaveposy{<label>});

• Insert content into the BackGround of the current page only using eso-pic's \AddToShipoutPictureBG*;

• That content is a rectangle based on \rule[<raise>]{<width>}{<height>}.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{zref-savepos,eso-pic,xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\AddToShipoutPictureBG*{% Add the following in the background of the current page only
  \AtPageLowerLeft{% Starting from the lower left corner of the page
    \color{blue!30!white}% Colour content this colour
    \rule% Insert a rule (technically a filled rectangle)...
      [\dimexpr\zposy{bottom}sp-.3\baselineskip]% ...raised to the "bottom" marker
      {\paperwidth}% ...stretching across the entire page
      {\dimexpr\zposy{top}sp-\zposy{bottom}sp}% ...with height "top"-"bottom"
  }%
}%
\zsaveposy{top}%
\lipsum*[2]%
\zsaveposy{bottom}%

\lipsum[3]

\end{document}

Since \zsaveposy uses the \label-\ref system, you'll have to compile at least twice with every change in the vertical position of top and/or bottom.

---

You can automate the process into an environment colourband:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{zref-savepos,eso-pic,xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}

%\usepackage{xparse}% Only if you're running LaTeX older than 2020-10
\newcounter{colourband}%
\NewDocumentEnvironment{colourband}{m}{%
  \stepcounter{colourband}% New band
  \leavevmode\zsaveposy{top-\thecolourband}% Start new paragraph and save y-position of top
  \ignorespaces
}{%
  \unskip
  \zsaveposy{bottom-\thecolourband}% Save y-position of bottom
  % Add colour band to BackGround of current page only
  \edef\x{\noexpand\AddToShipoutPictureBG*{%
    \noexpand\AtPageLowerLeft{% Starting from the lower left corner of the page
      \noexpand\color{#1}% Colour content this colour
      \noexpand\rule% Insert a rule (technically a filled rectangle)...
        [\dimexpr\zposy{bottom-\thecolourband}sp-.3\baselineskip]% ...raised to the "bottom" marker
        {\paperwidth}% ...stretching across the entire page
        {\dimexpr\zposy{top-\thecolourband}sp-\zposy{bottom-\thecolourband}sp+\baselineskip}% ...with height "top"-"bottom"
    }%
  }}\x%
}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{colourband}{blue!20!white}
\lipsum*[2]%
\end{colourband}%

\begin{colourband}{green!15!white}
\lipsum*[3]
\end{colourband}

\end{document}

Answer 3

If the colored background is related with a particular text, you can use a tcolorbox for this.

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{article}

\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newtcolorbox{colbackbox}[2][]{%
    tile, 
    colback=#2, 
    size=minimal, left=\oddsidemargin+1in,right=\oddsidemargin+1in, spread sidewards, 
    parbox=false, before upper=\indent, after=\par, #1}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{colbackbox}{red!30}
\lipsum[2]
\end{colbackbox}
\begin{colbackbox}[breakable]{blue!15}
\lipsum[3-6]
\end{colbackbox}

\end{document}

But if it's just a frame on any position you can use eso-pic package:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{eso-pic}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\AddToShipoutPictureBG{\AtPageLowerLeft{%
    \put(0,50mm){%
        \color{blue!20}\rule{\paperwidth}{.3\paperheight}}}}

\lipsum[1-15]

\end{document}

Answer 4

You can change the background color of a page using the \pagecolor{color name} command. The code to change the color of background is given below:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}  
\usepackage{xcolor, soul}  
\begin{document}  
\fcolorbox{red}{white}{The text is the simple \LaTeX\ text}\\ \\  
  
\pagecolor{lightgray}  
  
\fcolorbox{blue}{cyan}{text is here}  
\end{document}  

If you want to revert back to original pagecolor, Just add this command

\pagecolor{white}