Re: Float control

[Denis Maier via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl>]

Thanks everyone for your responses. That's quite a bit to digest. I'll have a look, read and play around.
Thanks again and all the best,
Denis

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: ntg-context <ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl> Im Auftrag von Alan
> Braslau via ntg-context
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 2. März 2023 03:35
> An: Hans Hagen via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl>
> Cc: Alan Braslau <alan.braslau@icloud.com>
> Betreff: Re: [NTG-context] Float control
> 
> On Thu, 2 Mar 2023 00:12:53 +0100
> Hans Hagen via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl> wrote:
> 
> > On 2/28/2023 11:45 AM, Denis Maier via ntg-context wrote:
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > I’ve recently had to typeset a document that gave me some headaches
> > > with the floats. The floats where jumping around, appearing in a
> > > different order than in the source file, tables ended up split up at
> > > weird points, some positioning keys had not the intended effect
> > > (e.g. top), «page» moved the float more than seemed necessary for
> > > me... I know, TeX’s float positioning algorithm should be rather
> > > reliable and stable, and it’s quite possible that I’m messing things
> > > up in my setups–especially since my source files are XML.
> > >
> > > Anyway, I’d like to learn more about the whole float issue. Is there
> > > anything particular I could read to learn more about the whole
> > > thing? Maybe I’m missing out on something fundamental...
> > Basically floats are output in order when they fit. You can use force
> > to really do that. When there is no room they will migrate. Some
> > options like top and bottom might also change the order. Normally you
> > start with just placing ('here') and see how that works out. Side
> > floats are special and anchored to the text.
> >
> > The more complex and confliuctign the demands, the harder it gets for
> > ConTeXt to fulfill all requirements. In that case shifting around the
> > text or places where you ask for a float helps. It's one of the areas
> > where 'fully automated and perfect' are complex as everything can
> > interfere.
> >
> > Btw, Mikael S is working on a tutorial that explains some neat
> > trickery with specific placements (which also triggered some
> > additional features).
> 
> A few (important) observations on floats:
> 
> 	\startplacefloat
> 	\stopplacefloat
> triggers a paragraph break.
> 
> I therefore locate them always at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph
> of text.
> 	(A trick is to enclose them in a named buffer within a
> 	paragraph, typically where a figure call -
> 	\in{figure}[figureReference] - is to be located. Then to place
> 	the \getbuffer at the beginning or end of a paragraph. See
> 	example below.)
> 
> The keys location=top/bottom will place the float at the top or bottom of the
> page IF IT FITS, otherwise it is pushed to the following page.
> Thus, a bottom can become a top.
> 
> The key location=force will place the figure there, perhaps generating a page
> break if it does not fit.
> 
> The key location=page will put the figure on a following page. This situation
> can sometimes push figures to appear "out of order", if another figure can
> somehow fit before the figure pushed to the following page. This happens if
> another floating figure "comes too soon".
> 
> The keys location=left and location=right will also generate a page break if
> the figure does not fit.
> 
> In the end, one needs to tweak a document in final form especially if it
> contains many figures, unfortunately. This is done by moving the
> \startfigure...\stopfigure. Here, the use of buffers:
> 
> Paragraph text ...
> (see \in{figure}[myfigure]).
> \startbuffer[myfigure]
>   \startfigure[reference=myfigure,
>                location=top,
>                title=Title]
>     \externalfigure[myfigure][width=\textwidth]
>   \stopfigure
> \stopbuffer
> More text ...\par
> \getbuffer[myfigure]
> 
> can make life easier, moving the \getbuffer[myfigure] to an optimal
> paragraph beginning or end.
> 
> Alan
> 
> P.S. It might be nice to be able to anchor a figure not to text but to a page
> location, like location=nexttop or location=nextbottom, or even
> location={nexttop,right} etc. This gets really complicated (but anything is do-
> able).
> 
> P.P.S. I'm certain to learn some neat trickery from Mikael's tutorial!
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