[pdftex] Colored background for pdftex document.

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 12:46:53PM -0500, John Culleton wrote:

> Sometimes I need to  have a colored background for an entire page. I 
> use pdftex. Pstricks could be used but that adds other complications 
> to the workflow.  I would prefer a vector rather than a bitmapped 
> process. 
> 
> As many of you know already I am LaTeX-intolerant. 

With miniltx.tex color.sty can also be used with plain TeX.
If you don't even like miniltx.tex, then you can use
package atbegshi.sty with the page color implementation of
pdftex.def. Yes, package atbegshi.sty can be used with plain TeX!

\input atbegshi.sty\relax
\AtBeginShipoutInit
\AtBeginShipout{%
  % do something with box \AtBeginShipoutBox
  % put a colored rule behind it
}

Yours sincerely
  Heiko Oberdiek
--