callout-itembox - colored callout item/numbered boxes for LaTeX (document/Beamer)

A small LaTeX package for colored callout item/numbered boxes with a tinted background, a colored side bar, and a circular or numbered marker. Each box can show a bold colored heading plus body text, or body text only.

Quick Usage: drop callout-itembox.sty next to your .tex file.

\usepackage{callout-itembox}

% heading + body
\callout{Primary Objective}{To establish a correlation between mechanical
axis correction and plantar pressure distribution.}

% body only (starred)
\callout*[theme=red]{All parameters recorded pre- and post-operatively.}

% numbered marker, rounded corners
\callout[theme=green, number=1, corners=rounded]{Step one}{First do this.}

Features

• Colored side bar + matching light background, set together by a single theme.
• Seven built-in themes: blue (default), red, teal, green, purple, orange, slate.
• Two layouts: heading + body (\callout) or body only (\callout*).
• Marker is a white dot by default, or a white number with number=<n>.
• Sharp (default) or rounded corners; the bar follows the corner radius.
• Optional soft drop shadow (shadow=on).
• One-off color overrides via barcolor, bgcolor, headcolor.
• Boxes are breakable across pages.

Requirements

A LaTeX engine (pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, or LuaLaTeX) with tcolorbox, tikz, xparse, and xcolor — all part of a standard TeX Live / MiKTeX install.

Installation

Quick (per project): drop callout-itembox.sty next to your .tex file.

System-wide (TeX Live / MiKTeX):

# find your local texmf tree, e.g. ~/texmf on Linux/macOS
mkdir -p $(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME)/tex/latex/callout-itembox
cp callout-itembox.sty $(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME)/tex/latex/callout-itembox/
mktexlsr   # or texhash; MiKTeX: refresh the FNDB

Usage Options

All options go in the optional [...] argument as key=value, comma-separated.

The star (\callout*) switches to the body-only layout regardless of theme.

Examples

See demo.tex for a full color gallery; the compiled result is in demo.pdf. Build it with:

pdflatex demo.tex

License

MIT — see LICENSE. (If you intend to publish on CTAN, the LaTeX Project Public License 1.3c is the conventional choice; swap the license file and the header in callout-itembox.sty accordingly.)