[texhax] Beamer background picture

[Victor Ivrii]

I understand that background picture in the talk could be very
distractive and I am not going to use it. Still, I wanted to be able
to put it. As a result I came to the following solution

\documentclass[beamer]
\usetheme{Copenhagen}
% and other customizing color- inner- outer- font- themes

\usepackage{eso-pic} % great for adding backgrounds

\AddToShipoutPicture{ \put(0,5){%
   \parbox[b][\paperheight]{\paperwidth}{%
     \vfill
     \centering
     \rotatebox{0}{\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,height=1.5\paperheight,%
                      ]{background.pdf}}%
     \vfill
}}}


%eso-pic routine for adding pictures \AddToShipoutPicture* would
affect only current page
%background.pdf is a file containing picture in question


\setbeamercolor{background canvas}{bg=} %setting own beamer background
transparent


% Then as usual beamer document


%%%%%%%
%

Does anyone knows a simpler solution?



-- 
========================
Victor Ivrii, Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
http://www.math.toronto.edu/ivrii