Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ How to wrap text around irregular shapes?

[krz]

Hi!
I want to wrap the text around an image with irregular shape. I use \wrapfigure and I get a box around the image, of course, but I don't want it. I just want to get effect like that

shape-irregular.jpg (37.46 KiB) Viewed 4200 times

I found an information it's impossible to get it in LaTeX, but I also found \parshape could resolve the problem. I tried to use for example this

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\parshape=8 0pt\hsize 8pt\hsize 0pt.7\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt.7\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt\hsize

and the paragraph changes its shape, but I really don't know how to join it with \begin{wrapfigure}.
Do you know? Or maybe there are some different ways to get what I want.
By the way, do you know if it's possible to place an image that I want to be wrapped exactly at the top or bottom of the page? The same like in \begin{figure}[t] for example.

[frabjous]

I wouldn't know how to do something like that except using absolute positioning, which is bad practice, but perhaps acceptable for your needs. Have you looked at, e.g., the eso-pic package, possibly using textpos as well?

[krz]

Thanks, frabjous! Textpos works quite nice with \parshape. I used this:

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\begin{textblock*}{70mm}(50mm,10mm)
\includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{photo.jpg}
\end{textblock*}

and this:

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\parshape=20 0pt\hsize 0pt\hsize 0pt\hsize 0pt.6\hsize 0pt.6\hsize 0pt.6\hsize 0pt.6\hsize 0pt.55\hsize 
0pt.45\hsize 0pt.45\hsize 0pt.45\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt.5\hsize 0pt.45\hsize 0pt.45\hsize
0pt.45\hsize 0pt.45\hsize 0pt.7\hsize 0pt\hsize 

By the way, do you know other ways to wrap text around irregular figures?
And another "by-the-way", why it's a bad idea to use absolute positioning?

[frabjous]

By the way, do you know other ways to wrap text around irregular figures?

Not offhand, but I haven't researched it. It wouldn't surprise me if you could do it with figures actually drawn by a package like pstricks or pgf/tikz, but otherwise, LaTeX tends to think in terms of "boxes", which doesn't quite lend itself to such a thing.

And another "by-the-way", why it's a bad idea to use absolute positioning?

The main reason is just that it makes it more difficult if you need to make changes or move things around, since you need redo everything else too. If that's not a worry for you, then it's not a problem.