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Layout Guide
Images & Graphics
Boxes and Shapes

Boxes and Shapes

Boxes

Rectangular colored areas are created with <Box>:

<PlaceObject>
  <Box width="4" height="3" background-color="limegreen"/>
</PlaceObject>

green box

Boxes are commonly used as colored backgrounds behind other content. Place the box first (with allocate="no"), then place your text or table on top:

<!-- Background -->
<PlaceObject row="1" column="1" allocate="no">
    <Box width="10" height="3" background-color="lightyellow"/>
</PlaceObject>
<!-- Content on top -->
<PlaceObject row="1" column="1">
    <TextBlock>
        <Paragraph><Value>Text on colored background</Value></Paragraph>
    </TextBlock>
</PlaceObject>

Circles

Circles are created with <Circle>:

<PlaceObject column="5" row="5">
  <Circle radius-x="3" background-color="goldenrod"/>
</PlaceObject>
<PlaceObject column="5" row="5">
  <Circle radius-x="1pt" background-color="black"/>
</PlaceObject>

circle with center

A circle with radius 3 grid cells. The center is at the top-left corner of grid cell (5,5).

For ellipses, use both radius-x and radius-y. The radius can be in grid cells or absolute units (3cm, 1pt).

Like every object, a circle allocates the grid cells of its bounding box; use allocate="no" on <PlaceObject> if it should not block other content.

See also

ImagesBarcodes