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javaapache-fop

Inlining Text between images in Apache FOP2

I'm trying to inline the text test between images, but as soon as I add text, I get spacing at the top and bottom of the text.

enter image description here

As I've discovered earlier, in order to get rid of those top and bottom spacing that's breaking the image layout, I need to set the font-size to 0:

enter image description here

But font-size zero is pretty useless if you want to display text.

            <fo:block font-size="0" >
                <fo:external-graphic src=" http://www.mycee.com/image/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_13.jpg"/>
            </fo:block>
            <fo:block background-color="pink" font-size="0pt" >
                <fo:external-graphic src="http://www.mycee.com/image/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_14.jpg"/>
                test
                <fo:external-graphic src="http://www.mycee.com/image/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_16.jpg"/>
            </fo:block>
            <fo:block background-color="magenta" font-size="0" >
                <fo:external-graphic src=" http://www.mycee.com/image/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_17.jpg"/>
            </fo:block>

Putting the text inside fo-inline, I can at least get rid of the top padding, but there's still padding at the bottom breaking my layout.

    <fo:inline font-size="10pt">
    test
    </fo:inline>

enter image description here

What is the correct way to insert text between images without the text causing padding to appear at the top or bottom?

Update

Finally got it working

<fo:block background-color="pink" line-height="2.4mm" line-stacking-strategy="none" font-size="11pt">
                <fo:table>
                    <fo:table-column/>
                    <fo:table-column/>
                    <fo:table-column/>
                    <fo:table-body>
                        <fo:table-row>
                            <fo:table-cell text-align="left">
                                <fo:block>
                                    <fo:external-graphic
                                            src="http://www.mycee.com/images/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_14.jpg"/>
                                </fo:block>
                            </fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:table-cell text-align="right">
                                <fo:block>
                                    12345678.90
                                </fo:block>
                            </fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:table-cell text-align="right">
                                <fo:block>
                                    <fo:external-graphic
                                            src="http://www.mycee.com/images/20135-Test-Mockup-V1.0-01_16.jpg"/>
                                </fo:block>
                            </fo:table-cell>
                        </fo:table-row>
                    </fo:table-body>
                </fo:table>
            </fo:block>

enter image description here

If you zoom enough, you'll eventually see a line, but for printing purposes, this is perfect.

Solution

  • The "padding" you see could be due to the way line height is computed.

    Line height is controlled by two different FO properties:

    • line-height sets the starting value, the one deriving from the block's text content; its default value is normal, and FOP calculates it as 1.2 * font-size
    • line-stacking-strategy controls how the starting value is modified if the fo:block contains inline elements (fo:inlines, images, ...) besides simple text; it defaults to max-height, meaning (roughly speaking) that the line height is increased to fit images and inlines having larger font size

    Now, let us look at your specific situation:

    • font-size defaults to 12pt, which means that the initial value for line height is 1.2 * 12pt = 14.4pt; if the height of your images is less than that, they will appear having some space at the top and at the bottom
    • setting font-size="0pt" kinda works, because the initial line height would be 0pt, which would be subsequently increased to the height of the images

    Suggested change:

    • try using line-height="x" line-stacking-strategy="font-height" (where x is the height of your images) in the fo:block elements containing text and images; the combined effect of these properties is to set the line height to the exact given value

    (disclosure: I'm a FOP developer, though not very active nowadays)