Re: silly newby graphics question
Richard Brown wrote: This is a sily question, but my only excuse is I'm trying to understand. Thanks for your patience, understanding and answers! Up to now I've been inserting my photographs and other graphics in a float. But what is the float actually for? Can I just insert the graphics files directly via the Insert > Graphics command? If I can, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each system, that is with or without a float? You can insert graphics directly without a float. This has one disadvantage, which is the reason why floats were invented: You have probably noticed that text isn't broken into pages in LyX. That happens later, when you print (or make a PDF). The problem is - what happens when there is a rather big image, but it doesn't quite fit? For example, half the page is full of text, but now there is an image that need 2/3 of a page. There isn't room for it, so this page ends and the next page begins with the big image on top. And the problem is that the previous page is now only half full. This wastes paper, and it looks ugly and unprofessional. Of course, you can place the big image carefully to avoid this. (Using a pdf preview, and moving the image around.) Now, consider a book manuscript with 50 such big images. Then you need to add half a page of text in the beginning - everything moves, and just about every image needs to be fixed again. An automatic solution was needed - floats. With the image in a float, this happens during page layout: * If the floating image fits, it goes right there. * If it doesn't fit, it still moves to the next page. But the current page does *not* end. It is filled up with whatever text that comes after the big image. So, no half-full pages any more. * The price for this is that the floats not necessarily appear exactly where you want them to be. (When they won't fit.) As others have pointed out, floats also offers some niceties like cross referencing and "list of floats". But the automatic and nice-looking page breaking in the precence of (big) images is the main thing. Helge Hafting
Re: silly newby graphics question
On Friday 19 March 2010 03:17:49 Richard Brown wrote: > This is a sily question, but my only excuse is I'm trying to understand. > Thanks for your patience, understanding and answers! > > Up to now I've been inserting my photographs and other graphics in a float. > But what is the float actually for? Can I just insert the graphics files > directly via the Insert > Graphics command? If I can, what are the > advantages and disadvantages of each system, that is with or without a > float? Floats provide a facility for a caption and placement in a table of illustrations, as well as the ability for LyX to govern the placement of the graphic, which usually comes out better than manual placement with regard to all the text fitting together with minimum blankage. I usually don't use floats. I like to write "As you can see in the following illustration", rather than have LyX write "As you can see from graphic 3.4 on the opposite page". Floats theoretically offer a "here no matter what" facility which should place the graphic and its float exactly where it is in the text. "Ummm, maybe." SteveT Steve Litt Recession Relief Package http://www.recession-relief.US Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt
Re: silly newby graphics question
A float leaves to LaTeX the decision of where to put the image. This is not a trivial decision and in most cases, LaTeX does a better job than you at balancing text distribution when an image is inserted. Even if you want to put an image in a particular place, a float allows you to do it. - Julio Rojas jcredbe...@gmail.com On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Richard Brown wrote: > This is a sily question, but my only excuse is I'm trying to understand. > Thanks for your patience, understanding and answers! > > Up to now I've been inserting my photographs and other graphics in a float. > But what is the float actually for? Can I just insert the graphics files > directly via the Insert > Graphics command? If I can, what are the > advantages and disadvantages of each system, that is with or without a > float? > > TIA > > Richard >
silly newby graphics question
This is a sily question, but my only excuse is I'm trying to understand. Thanks for your patience, understanding and answers! Up to now I've been inserting my photographs and other graphics in a float. But what is the float actually for? Can I just insert the graphics files directly via the Insert > Graphics command? If I can, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each system, that is with or without a float? TIA Richard
