How to create a background image on title page with LaTeX?

Question

I want to put a background image on a title page of a document. Is it possible and does it work?

EDIT: The answer by Presidenten using the eso-pic package and my answer found after some research using the wallpaper package both work.

Answer 1

Assuming you have a background file named background.png - Add this code before \begin{document}

\usepackage{eso-pic}
\newcommand\BackgroundPic{%
\put(0,0){%
\parbox[b][\paperheight]{\paperwidth}{%
\vfill
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,height=\paperheight,%
keepaspectratio]{background.png}%
\vfill
}}}

...and this immediately after \begin{document}:

\AddToShipoutPicture*{\BackgroundPic}

The * will make sure that the background picture will only be put on one page.

If you wish to use the picture on multiple pages, skip the *:

\AddToShipoutPicture{\BackgroundPic}

Then use this command to stop using the background picture:

\ClearShipoutPicture

Answer 2

After some research, I found an answer myself. This is a little bit different to the answer by Presidenten, both solutions work.

The package wallpaper works well for this purpose.

You need to import the package in the header:

\usepackage{wallpaper}

After that you can use commands like:

\ThisLRCornerWallPaper{0.5}{somerights.png}
\LRCornerWallPaper{0.5}{somerights.png}

The LRCorner-command places the image in the lower-right corner of the site. There are commands like \ULCornerWallPaper and so on for the other corners and \CenterWallPaper and \TileWallPaper for centering or tiling the image.

The This at the start of the command places the image only on the current page, without this the image is placed on all following pages.

The numerical argument {0.5} scales the image to 0.5 the size of the page.

Answer 3

The @david-carlisle response is perfect. But for my particular case I had to add the transparent parameter, as indicated below.

\usepackage{transparent}
\usepackage{eso-pic}
\newcommand\BackgroundPic{%
\put(0,0){%
\parbox[b][\paperheight]{\paperwidth}{%
\vfill
\centering
{\transparent{0.4} \includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,height=\paperheight,%
keepaspectratio]{background.png}}%
\vfill
}}}