[Tex/LaTex] How to insert an image with width of double column between title and abstract in IEEEtran document

Question

I am using the IEEEtran class. I tried the following code for inserting an image between the title and the abstract. However, texts are on top of the inserted image. How can I avoid that?

\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}
\IEEEoverridecommandlockouts
\usepackage{graphicx}
\def\BibTeX{{\rm B\kern-.05em{\sc i\kern-.025em b}\kern-.08em
    T\kern-.1667em\lower.7ex\hbox{E}\kern-.125emX}}
\usepackage[font=small,labelfont=bf,tableposition=top]{caption}

\usepackage{blindtext}
\title{here title}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{example-image-a}
    \captionof{figure}{While solid paints (left top).}
    \label{fig:fig1}
\end{center}

\begin{abstract}
here abstract.
\end{abstract}

\blindtext\\
\blindtext\\
\blindtext\\
\blindtext

\end{document}

Answer 1

You might want to consider first if it is really a good idea to have an image just after the title before the abstract. This is very unusually and might be criticized by the reviewers or confuse the readers.

Nevertheless, here a technical solution. As figure* does not work here as it is placed on the second page, independent what settings I used, and a second \twocolumn command (the first one is inside \maketitle) has the same behavior, I decided that the image must be placed as part of the title code, i.e. inside \maketitle. The easiest way is to redefine the \twcocolumn macro (which sets content over two columns) so that your code is inserted after the title code of the class.

\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}
\IEEEoverridecommandlockouts
\usepackage{graphicx}
\def\BibTeX{{\rm B\kern-.05em{\sc i\kern-.025em b}\kern-.08em
    T\kern-.1667em\lower.7ex\hbox{E}\kern-.125emX}}
\usepackage[font=small,labelfont=bf,tableposition=top]{caption}

\usepackage{blindtext}
\title{here title}

\let\oldtwocolumn\twocolumn
\renewcommand\twocolumn[1][]{%
    \oldtwocolumn[{#1}{
    \begin{center}
           \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{example-image-a}
           \captionof{figure}{While solid paints (left top).}
           \label{fig:fig1}
        \end{center}
    }]
}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
here abstract.
\end{abstract}

\blindtext\\
\blindtext\\
\blindtext\\
\blindtext

\end{document}