[XeTeX] Cannot load dislocated image file

[Ross Moore]

Hi Jonathan and Sven,

On 15/03/2008, at 11:54 PM, Jonathan Kew wrote:

> On 15 Mar 2008, at 12:39 pm, Sven Siegmund wrote:
>
>> Another problem, which I am trying to solve now is the centering of
>> the image.
>>
>> my source is now
>>
>> \begin{figure}[htp]
>> \centering
>> \XeTeXpicfile 'img/maerklin-schienentypen-h0.jpg' width 10cm
>> \caption{Gleistypen}
>> \label{fig:gleistypen}
>> \end{figure}
>>
>> but the yentering command did not affect the position of the
>> picture file.
>
> Apparently \centering applies to the lines of a paragraph, but not to
> boxes found outside of horizontal mode. \XeTeXpicfile does not by
> itself cause TeX to leave "vertical mode" and begin paragraph  
> building.
>
> You could fix this by putting \hskip0pt before \XeTeXpicfile; that
> will ensure TeX enters horizontal mode, and the picture becomes part
> of a line that will be centered (rather than just a box in the
> vertical list).

Or use the TeX command   \leavevmode  to switch cleanly to horizontal.

viz.

\show\leavevmode

 > \leavevmode=macro:
->\unhbox \voidb at x .
l.4 \show\leavevmode

It simply un-hboxes an empty box, which is always available
for precisely this purpose.

>
> However, I'd suggest you simply use \includegraphics instead; with
> \usepackage{graphicx} in your preamble, this should work as you want
> (and is more readily portable to non-xetex usage):
>
>    \begin{figure}[htp]
>    \centering
>    \includegraphics[width=10cm]{img/maerklin-schienentypen-h0.jpg}
>    \caption{Gleistypen}
>    \label{fig:gleistypen}
>    \end{figure}

I agree entirely.
LaTeX packages already contain the wisdom and experience of many
users and programmers who have "been there before".
To not make use of this can be quite a waste of time.

>
> JK
>


Hope this helps,

	Ross

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                         ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                             office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                               tel: +61 +2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                            fax: +61 +2 9850 8114
------------------------------------------------------------------------