Libreoffice Draw - How to anchor image as character

English
#1

ANSWER:

ORIGINAL QUESTION:
Hi, is there any way to anchor images to text in Draw like you can do in Writer? Or at least auto-align them with a text’s row? It’s pretty tedious trying to do it manually with hundreds of images that should be a part of text.

EDIT: Grouping is a bit redundant since I’m not moving the text boxes around after I create them. I just need the image object to quickly align with a specific place in text as there is a lot of small images in my text and I will be making a lot of big and small adjustments to the texts.

I’m using Draw for making custom playing cards for a board game playtesting (in my free time, not proffesion). It has been fabulous for every other aspect of the designing of the cards. These images in text are the only hurdle. I also checked the situation in Inkscape and Gimp but the same issue is present there too. I’m considering using just text instead of images or maybe placeholder emojis since it’s just playtesting. I also started messing around with creating a custom font for this purpose.

For comparison, check these cards from Clank! and see how they use images as part of text.
image

Here is my work in progress document that’s hurting the most from this issue:
ActionCardsA1.odg (324.8 KB)

Placing the images once is okay but I really do not want to manually move them after every little change.

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#7

You also repeated in your comment below to @ajlittoz:
“I need to align an object (small image) with a character in text.”

Please describe exactly what text and character it is (step by step). And also describe how you inserted this text. Thank you.

#8

Any character in any text in Libreoffice Draw. I don’t really understand how it would impact the process if the character is an A or a B. And there really is only one kind of text allowed in Draw as far as I know. You have an object and you can write inside the object. Be it Textbox or an inserted image, it doesn’t matter, they all behave the same way.

Also I don’t need to specifically fix my current solution - I need A solution - ANY solution. Because so far it seems like I want something that simply can’t be done. At least not in Libreoffice Draw, Gimp or Inkscape.

#9

Well, you are approaching a solution.

But first, I would ask you to refrain from trying to imply features that exist in Google (I don’t know about that anyway), or in Writer, into Draw.

There is no way to anchor an image to a character in Draw!

Now we come to a possible solution, which has already been presented by both @ajlittoz and myself.

When you insert text you can do so in Draw using a text box or drawing object. The drawing object as well as the text box are objects.

So if you want to fix an image in a certain spatial relation to the text, you position the image or the text to each other until it fits your ideas. Then select both objects and group them with the “Group” function. Obviously it has the same effect as (well, what is not possible in Draw) if you anchor the image to the character.

#11

You’re failing to understand the crucial difference between anchoring something to a character and anchoring something to a text container. Anchoring something to the text doesn’t help me in any way at all. I’m not gonna be moving the text container. I need the image to act as a character or at least make it easy to align it with a row in the text so that any work in progress changes of the text’s contents are quick.

And I already provided 2 solutions myself (placeholder emojis/text until final version or custom font) that are way better than anything you guys said. Not to mention @ajlittoz seems to be on some completely different version of Draw (I’m on the latest release) so none of what they wrote does what they say it should (although parts of it are probably due to my grid settings).

I’d close this Question with simply the first answer you gave me - “No, in Draw there is no possibility to anchor an image as a character to the text.”
No need to discuss it further than that.

#12

Draw wasn’t substantially changed/enhanced for many years.
There simply is no anchoring within Draw. Shapes are inserted into the DrawPage with a position, not anchored to anything.
Shapes can be grouped then, but even if one of them is a TextBox shape, the text itself and its characters will not be regarded.
To get anchoring to a text whether to character or as character or to paragraph inside a drawing made with Draw,would require to insert a Writer model as an OLE object.

starShapeAnchoredAsCharacterInsideWriterOLEinDrawing.odg (21.5 KB)

You probably are using the wrong tool.

1 Like
#13
#14

You make your own font for objects you want as text. Font Forge might be a start.

One recommendation, which probably comes too late, is to name your objects. It makes selection much easier, especially with many objects. If you copy and paste a named object, it also becomes a named objects but with a numbered suffix. This makes it much easier to keep track of objects.

#2

…is there any way to anchor images to text in Draw like you can do in Writer?

No, in Draw there is no possibility to anchor an image as a character to the text. In Draw there is no floating text as in Writer. Texts can only be inserted via a text box (F2).

The easiest way to label images is:

Write a text box below the image, for example.
Select the image and the text box.
Right-click and select “Group” in the context menu.

Could it be that you are using the wrong module of LibreOffice for your work?
Please let us know what kind of documentation you have in mind. Thanks.

#4

Please do not use answer boxes (Solutions) if they are not a solution to your question, thank you.
Edit your initial question or write a comment.

Can you upload a sample document here 1-2 pages with text and images. Thanks.

How to upload:
Click on the three dots ( … ) directly below your initial question.
Then click the pencil icon to edit your question.
In question edit mode, select the upload icon.
Select your file and click the Upload button.
Thank you.

1 Like
#5

If your concern is only to position text relative to some other object, use Shape>Align Objects.

Any object end up within a bounding rectangle. Select (multiple selection) the object to "synchronise. Then choose the alignment option you desire.

To fine-tune position, select one object and press the arrow keys. They move the object one pixel at a time. For faster movement, press Shift+arrow key.

Once your objects are satisfactorily positioned, group them so that you won"t inadvertently offset one relative to another. The group will eventually be moved as a whole, which is easier to fix than an individual offset (due to the z-ordering, a click may not select the one you think).

#6

The problem is I do not need to align an object with another object. I need to align an object (small image) with a character in text. Like when you paste an image into LO Writer or Google Documents, it’s anchored to the text. When you add or delete a character - the image moves accordingly. Even using emojis would be acceptable if for soem reason LO didn’t have absolutely hideous versions of emojis most of the time.

EDIT: Huh that’s weird. The emojis suddenly changed into good looking ones. As if they’ve finished loading. They look usable now.

#10

Huh that’s weird. The emojis suddenly changed into good looking ones. As if they’ve finished loading. They look usable now.

Does it have anything to do with your original question?

Is this now your solution to your question or do you just want to confuse those who want to help you with some side issues?

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