Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!euler.claremont.edu!dhosek
From: dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: LaTeX: wrapping text around figures
Message-ID: <1991Feb18.131046.1@euler.claremont.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 21:10:46 GMT
References: <1991Feb18.145249.39052@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Organization: Harvey Mudd College
Lines: 51

In article <1991Feb18.145249.39052@eagle.wesleyan.edu>, jochterski@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
> I have read through the manuals, and tried various things with little success.
> Is there a way to get LaTeX to wrap text around figures (esp. from PiCTeX).
> I.e.:
 
> (1)hblahblahblahblahblahblahblah
> blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah
> (2)hblahblah |------------------|    Either starting point (1) or (2) is
> blahblahblah |                  |    O.K.
> blahblahblah |                  |
> blahblahblah |     Figure       |
> blahblahblah |                  |
> blahblahblah |__________________|
> blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah
 
> I know that a similar feat may be accomplished in TeX with \parshape. Does one
> necessarily have to twiddle with LaTex's \linewidth? (LaTeX manual recommends
> not doing that...)

The problem is very difficult to solve in a general manner; you
could use \parshape and resign yourself to having to do a lot of
manual twiddling, but it's not terribly appealing. You'll find
things are especially annoying if the figure appears near any of
the following:
- page break
- section header
- paragraph break
- list-based environment (description, itemize, enumerate, quote,
  quotation, verse, \newtheorem-generated commands, verbatim...)
Tom Reid created a general solution for plain TeX that turned out
not to be a general solution. In particular, if a footnote
appeared in the course of the rightfig, as he called it, it would
get indentation and contribute towards the line total. In LaTeX,
there are a lot of hidden things that would also complicate the
situation.

I'm pretty certain somebody tackled this problem at one of last
year's TeX meetings (TeX91 at Cork, perhaps?) but I haven't seen
any report on their findings yet.

-dh

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