Draw won't resize an image/frame

Hello,
I’m creating a CV template on LibreOffice Draw and I have a small UN flag emoji that I need to resize to the same size as the French flag emoji.

The image/frame’s Size option lets me change the width size, but height and keep ratio are both greyed out and inactive.
CLI
xml code: https://termbin.com/r60b
GUI
LibreOffice Draw 7.4.7.2 → right tap image/frame → tap Position and Size… → Size → Width: 1.06cm → change to 0.46cm → tap OK → image frame shows as a tall thin object.

I tried resizing with xml, but having trouble with Vi search finding the image.
202601081659_cv_template.odg (143.0 KB)

Another question afterwards for distributing images/frames, but that may be another post. Easy on Gimp, Inkscape and Blender, so unsure if LO has this solution?

I don’t have the font so cannot see any flags in your document. If this is to be distributed to others consider if svg or png would be a better option than emoji. This site has svg flags under MIT licence, https://flagicons.lipis.dev/

Align&Distibute2

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I’m confused? Are the flags images/frames or emoji characters?

Distributed to potential employers would be in PDF format.
The template editabe LODraw odg file is just for myself to easily edit later on with relevant details.

Distribution off images is promising, to be worked on once I fix up the image/frames and/or emoji characters.

My Windows 11 doesn’t display Emoji flags at all. The flags are svg that I downloaded.

I would avoid emoji entirely as they are displayed differently on different platforms, see "🇺🇳" Flag: United Nations Emoji Symbol — Meaning · Copy & Paste | Emojiall , you have no control over how they appear for the recipient.

Did you see the link I gave previously?

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Thanks, I checked your link now after you mentioned it.
The svg images are 2nd rate to the much better emoji graphics, which I’m sourcing from https://emojipedia.org/flags

An emoji is not an image; it is a character.

Consequently, select it and change text size.

PS: you mention a French flag, but I only see a Swiss flag.

This is because you have a Text box, not an image. Usually on such a shape, you tick Fit to text to cause the “frame” to auto-adapt to width. You must manually adjust height.

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Yes, LO is not showing the French flag in Drawing 202601081659.odg.
I remade the document and now the French flag appears in Drawing 202601081954.odg.

Seems like emojis are too difficult to work with, or perhaps that the emoji character is inconsistent with the LODraw file’s images/frames rather than using emoji characters.

I’ve searched the Internet, but I don’t see how to tell whether the images/frames are image or emoji characters. Or maybe you’ve deducted by the fact that LODraw won’t allow the resize? I confirm the UN flag is an emoji I sourced, but I don’t know whether the French flag is an image/frame or emoji if not for your deduction.
The French flag image/frame looks like an emoji, but your diagnosis is the best info I have for now that the French flag is an image and not an emoji character. Internet searches for images doesn’t find any flag images that look as good as emoji characters.

Think easiest solution is to search for a flag image/frame to remain consistent with the LODraw file.
202601081659_cv_template.odg (143.0 KB)
202601081954.odg (141.1 KB)

This is part of the solution.
I discovered the solution to resizing is to untick Fit height to text.
Breadcrumb/path: LibreOffice Draw 7.4.7.2 → right tap image/frame → tap Position and Size… → Adapt → untick Fit width/height to text → Size → Width/Height → tap n.nncm → change to n.nncm → tap OK.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to the image/frame not being an image but rather an emoji character, the resize to Width: 0.46cm and Height: 0.41cm causes the emoji not to resize but to display question marks.

My understanding is that any platform can display a PDF, so once I finish editing the LODraw odg file, I will export as PDF, for sharing with others.

This is quite easy:

  1. open the side bar and display the “contents” pane by clicking on the Compass icon (Navigator)
  2. click on a flag
  3. the corresponding object is highlighted in the Navigator
    In your case, it tells Shape 1234 (Text Frame zzz…) where “zzz” is the beginning of the text.

Don’t be confused by the fact that a flag is shown: flag emojis are made of a pair of “letters” taken from a dedicated Unicode block.

You can confirm the emoji nature:

  1. put the cursor inside the text box immediately at right of the flag
  2. press Alt+X
    This changes display of the preceding glyph to its hexadecimal encoding U+1234. The French flag changes to an “F” (first “letter” in the pair) and U+1F1F7 (corresponding the special R).

Emojis are characters. They are handled as text. So, think “typography”. All your other “decorations” (ski, fish, barbecue, sail boat) are text emojis. Your document contains a single image, the blurred photo at top left.

Since emojis are text, they can only appear where text is allowed. Therefore, you must use a shape, the simplest of which is a text box. The difficulty may come from this support requirement: text must be hosted by a Draw object.


Globally speaking, your document does not use styles. Draw styles are less user-friendly than Writer ones but their use would be beneficial to you because your text boxes can be grouped into "categories (headings, sub-headings, description, annotation, …). Styling them would allow to reformat the document centrally, without doing it on every text box.

You could perhaps do the same in Writer though it is not DTP (desktop publishing) program. You’d have simpler text flow management but you’d need also at least one frame (for the dark left pane) and Writer frames are very very (should be written seven times) difficult to master.