I just filed bug tdf#165770 for this.
“Draw: Need ability show Page Margins (page boundaries)”
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165770
Please CC yourself there, and vote for it.
1 Like
That is only true for the top and left margins (see screenshot).
The grid is not in sync with the bottom and right margins. Therefore the tiny dots in the grid only approximately align with the margins there. Also, I want clearly visible lines and not some dots.
1 Like
Because I want to make sure I am placing my objects within the visual boundaries that I have defined.
The printing margins are never visible on the page, nor is the software’s interpretation and representation of the printer margins reliable.
That is why I also often use the page margins to approximate the printing margins. I want to see that my objects are within the printable space.
tdf#165770 confirmed by me.
with me:
Version: 25.2.1.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: d3abf4aee5fd705e4a92bba33a32f40bc4e56f49
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (10.0 build 19045); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL threaded
1 Like
@Hrbrgr please don’t confirm just based on “yes it’s impossible”. The question is - why should it be possible at all.
Then use guidelines. This is not a compelling reason to introduce margins. You define rectangular boundaries; someone else wants them in form of a star … Draw has the features to do that, and margins are IMO not something we should do. In Writer, margins are part of a box model; and for Draw, this has no meaning.
Why have margins if they can’t be made visible?
1 Like
Agree: we should drop the margins from the page properties in Draw.
1 Like
Yes, that would be correct!
Not correct at all. Draw is a capable environment to prepare both vector and raster graphics of any layout (e.g. 36" posters, or 3"x5" postcards). In that context margins (visible now by applying a background to margins) coupled with layout grid, which I find accurate, allows for the composition one needs.
The ‘Align Objects’ context menu controls (Left, Center, Right, Top, Middle, Bottom) do in fact respond relative to a page margins as set. So no we can not just drop margins for the sd module.
1 Like
This task can also be solved without margins, e.g. by positioning a rectangle.
In Writer, margins define the area used (automatically!) by the text flow. What specifically do margins do in Draw? The boundaries that you are talking about are just some guides, hints to a user, not something automatically defining anything, nor limiting anything, right? Guidelines are 100% suitable for the task.
1 Like
Only sort of, bcz methods delivered by margins give you the ability to perform alignment at an arbitrary distance from the page edge, methods to align relative to a draw shape “rectangle” are not available.
Page margins in the sd module can currently be made visible with a temporary background area fill as noted, so strictly speaking ability to show them as a line is not needed–but the margin definitions and methods for a sd page object are very much required.
2 Likes
Alignment is a good point. It should be mentioned in the bug.
Then you need to find a way to show the printable area! And you need to make sure it is accurate for every printer that might print that document!
Or… just simply provide the possibility show the margins on the page.
BTW: The “Position” of objects (F4) is defined by the margins. The Position X = 0.00 is right up against the left margin, and the Position Y = 0.00 is right up against the top margin - as it should be.
I use margins ALL the time when creating Draw documents, for the above and other reasons.
1 Like
I was giving possible workarounds.
In my Draw document I made little squares in the corners on a non-printing layer to emulate the crop marks in your screenshot. I assumed you wanted those rather then the Border outline (Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids > Object Boundaries > Border Outline)
Until the bug is resolved the easiest way is to create a new layer, draw a rectangle starting very slightly outside the top left margin so the start will automatically begin at the margin and drag it down to the bottom right margin. Once again the end point will want to align itself with the margin. Set the fill to None and the lines to grey. Set the layer to Visible, Non printing, Locked. Save as template
LetterPageWithMargin.odg (9.2 KB)
As long as the standard for pages (printed or otherwise displayed) is rectangular, the “box model” (setting the text document apart as a text entity, page by page) is equally (if not more) relevant for a graphical document.
1 Like
Sorry, but don’t you see a contradiction here? There is no “text document”, when we are talking about Draw; there’s even more no “page by page” for the flowing text; and there is no text content for the page in Draw. For any element that can have text content, the box model applies.
1 Like
If I may add my two cents to the discussion about “box model” …
It depends on how you use Draw.
When you use Draw to produce “printable” documents, i.e. documents relevant by themselves (remember Impress and Draw are two facets of the same component), then margins are important. It is not a matter of text flow. It only aims at guaranteeing that everything set in a “page” (or slide if you prefer) will be visible, no matter the output device, screen, printer, whatever.
On the contrary, when Draw is only a scratchpad containing decorations for documents created with other components, such as Writer or Calc, margins do not matter. The Draw document is only a storage medium allowing to design and edit illustrations which are then pasted somewhere else. Such a scratchpad is not intended to be “printed” or sent by itself.
3 Likes
Many of us give special use cases to margins. For example, we can use for marking an area we want to preserve in a final composition because we have a pre-impressed paper. Or maybe, we want to adjust it for marking (without drawing them) the cutting lines in a pre-production for cutting a specific format of paper.
Also, the printer is not the unique way to generate results with Draw. We would want to generate a PDF document, a PNG photo or SVG elements, that contemplate that zone.
Please, think that the best feature of Draw has always been the variety of uses given by users.
1 Like
While you wait for bug 165770 to be resolved
Create a template along the lines of the sample I made in in comment 21 above. The margin is locked, visible but not printable.
Or you can revert to 24.8 or earlier which shows margins, possibly only if Writer also shows margins
While you wait for bug 165770 to be resolved