[Tex/LaTex] Centering description vertically

descriptionvertical alignment

I have a description environment and would like to center the descriptions vertically w.r.t respect to the items (which are images).

\begin{description}
    \item[\pict1] - Description
\end{description}

\pict1 is rather large compared to the height of the description text. As it is, it is put at the "base line" (the bottom of the image) and I would like it to be centered.

Best Answer

I'm not sure that description is the best way do to this; I'd use

\begin{flushleft}
\sbox0{\includegraphics{pict1}}
\raisebox{-.5\height}{\usebox0}\quad
\begin{minipage}{\dimexpr\textwidth-\wd0-1em}
Description
\end{minipage}
\end{flushleft}

The main problem is in fact that the description text height is not known in advance. This could be easily made up into a new environment.

Here's an example:

enter image description here

If your descriptions are only one line long, then a different and simpler approach can be used.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}

\begin{document}

\begin{description}[labelwidth=3cm]

\item[{\includegraphics[valign=c,width=2.5cm]{a}}] Description a

\item[{\includegraphics[valign=c,width=1.5cm]{b}}] Description b

\item[{\includegraphics[valign=c,width=2cm]{b}}] Description c

\end{description}

\end{document}

Adjust the parameters to description to suit you. The key is valign=c provided by adjustbox.

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Dealing with long description environment items

Using the enumitem package with beamer is not a good idea; for example, just by loading enumitem, the default beamer font and color specifications for description are lost; moreover \setbeamercolor and \setbeamerfont will have no effect on description item; even worst, the enumitem package will also interfere with the beamer layout for itemize and enumerate; in fact, it will produce errors for the enumerate environment (See example at the bottom).

In the following example I defined a Ldescription environment based on the beamer definition of standard description; since the new definition follows the "beamer way", it will behave as expected (it's overaly aware, for exampe, and respects the color and font templates) and will give you the desired layout (feel free to adjust the lengths according to your needs):

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\makeatletter
\def\Ldescription{%
  \@ifnextchar[{\beamer@testforospec}{\beamer@descdefault\beamer@descriptionwidth\@@Ldescription}%
}

\def\beamer@testforospec[{\@ifnextchar<{\beamer@scandefaultospec[}{\@Ldescription[}}%

\def\beamer@scandefaultospec[#1]{\def\beamer@defaultospec{#1}\Ldescription}

\def\@Ldescription[#1]{%
\setbox\beamer@tempbox=\hbox{\def\insertdescriptionitem{#1}
  \usebeamertemplate**{description item}}%
\beamer@descdefault\wd\beamer@tempbox\@@description%
}%

\def\@@Ldescription{%
  \beamer@descdefault35pt%
  \list
  {}
  {\labelwidth\beamer@descdefault\leftmargin2.8em\let\makelabel\beamer@Ldescriptionitem}%
  \beamer@cramped%
  \raggedright
  \beamer@firstlineitemizeunskip%
}

\def\endLdescription{\ifhmode\unskip\fi\endlist}
\long\def\beamer@Ldescriptionitem#1{%
  \def\insertdescriptionitem{#1}%
  \hspace\labelsep{\parbox[b]{\dimexpr\textwidth-\labelsep\relax}{%
        \usebeamertemplate**{description item}%
    }}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{Ldescription}
\item<1->[very very very very long item] \lipsum[2]
\item<2,4>[short titem] description 2
\item<3->[another very very very very long item] description 3
\item<4->[short item] description 4
\end{Ldescription}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

An image of the fourth frame:

enter image description here

Why enumitem shouln't be used with beamer

Processing the following code:

\documentclass{beamer}
%\usepackage{enumitem}

\setbeamercolor{description item}{fg=olive!80!black}
\setbeamerfont{description item}{size=\footnotesize}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{description}
\item[item] description
\end{description}
\begin{itemize}
\item description
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

produces the following (expected) output:

enter image description here

Now uncomment-out the line loading enumitem. reprocess and now you'll get the following undesired result:

enter image description here

Now, try this simple document:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{enumerate}
\item test
\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

and you'll receive:

! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [grouping levels=255].
\labelenumi ->{
               \labelenumi }
l.10 \end{frame}
                
!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

The moral is clear: enumitem and beamera are incompatible. Perhaps using the loadonly package option to create own lists could be safe:

\usepackage[loadonly]{enumitem}

[Tex/LaTex] Line break after description label

The insertion of an empty item seems to give a better vertical spacing. One can define a myitemize environment that includes this empty item; that will prevent typing it for each description item:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}

\newenvironment{myitemize}%
{\begin{itemize}\item[]}
{\end{itemize}}

\begin{document}

\begin{description}[style = sameline, leftmargin = 1em]
\item[Animals:]
  \begin{itemize}
  \item[]
  \item Dog
  \item Cat
  \item Fish
  \end{itemize}

\item[Colors:]
  \begin{myitemize}
  \item Red
  \item Green
  \item Blue
  \end{myitemize}
\end{description}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Dealing with long description environment items

Why enumitem shouln't be used with beamer

[Tex/LaTex] Line break after description label

Related Question