Re: [Orgmode] LaTeX export of images

[Francesco Pizzolante]

Hi Nick and Carsten,

First of all I thank you for your replies and the already checked-in patch.

The behavior for images inserted in the middle of a paragraph is now correct.

>> Yes sure, but what is wrong with \centerline?  does the \centering  
>> lead to a different result?

Using \centerline in the middle of a paragraph makes the image centered in the
rest of the line: if you have word before and after the image, you get first
the words before the image, then you get the image which is centered according
to the remaining space on the line, and finally the words that come after the
images are printed on the following line... it was really weird.

Now, thanks to Nick's patch the image is correctly printed in the middle of
the text.


> Currently, specifying either a #+CAPTION or a #+LABEL (or both) floats
> the image.  Absent both of these the image is inlined (although without
> the above patch, it's inlined badly).
>
> LaTeX implicitly assumes that a floating figure has a caption: that's
> where the figure number is incremented for example. Given that, it does
> not seem productive to have a separate indicator for floats.
>
> Of course, if one is willing to forego the incrementing of the counter,
> then a float without a caption is possible in LaTeX - but is it useful?
> If it is, then using the #+LABEL specifier alone is enough to float the
> image (but currently, there is a problem in org-latex in that a \caption
> is always output - but that is a minor problem, easily fixed, if so
> desired).
>
> To summarize: org-latex currently always produces a \caption which
> causes LaTeX to increment the figure counter, but also to produce
> a "Figure <N>:" caption, even if the caption is empty. We could
> change org-latex not to produce a \caption if #+CAPTION is absent,
> but that would mean that the figure counter does not get incremented.
>
> I'm not sure that a saparate specifier is needed (it might be
> desirable only on readability grounds: saying #+FLOAT, rather than
> #+CAPTION or #+LABEL makes it a bit more obvious). These specifiers are
> per-image, afaict, not per-file/subtree. For my part, I don't
> see the need for the coarser kind of control: per-image is enough.
> But if desired, then maybe
>
> #+FLOAT: t (default nil)
>
> or perhaps better
>
> #+OPTIONS: float:t
>
> can be used for the coarser control.
>
> I hope this is clear but if there are questions, let me know. What do
> you think?

This is perfectly clear. I thought a little bit more about this and I come
with the following idea.

We should float an image by default if the image is alone on a line (with or
without caption or label). If label and caption are present than we add them
to the float. If not, we simply float the image.

An extra option like

#+OPTIONS: float:nil/t

could be used if we want to override the default behavior.

In summary:

1) an image in the middle of the text simply exports as a \includegraphics
   command (this works perfectly no, so nothing to do here);

2) an image alone on a line should be floated by default;

3) caption and label are added only if present;

4) and extra option can be used to override the default behavior determining
   if the image is floated of not.

Does all this make sense to you? Do you think this is feasible?

If you have questions, please let me know.

Regards,
Francesco