graphicsinline()vertical alignment
Images appearing inline aren't always ideally placed relative to the baseline and risers of the text itself, so I frequently find myself doing manual adjustment, by eye, using \raisebox{}{} with a negative first parameter.
My question is whether there is a simple way to get a comparable effect without adjusting the parameter manually against the output in each case.
You can directly tell where the baseline should meet the picture using the baseline option
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
the distance \tikz[baseline=-0.5ex]{ \draw [|-|] (0,0) -- (5ex,0); } overarching the activities
\end{document}
I'd define a new environment and use adjustbox for this. The principle is the same as in Heiko's answer.
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox,varwidth,xparse}
\NewDocumentEnvironment{bracedrows}{m}
{\begin{adjustbox}{valign=t}%
$\kern-\nulldelimiterspace\left.
\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}}}
{\end{tabular}\right\rbrace
\begin{varwidth}{.5\linewidth}#1\end{varwidth}$%
\end{adjustbox}}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item \begin{bracedrows}{Text}
First line\\
Second line\\
Third line
\end{bracedrows}
\item \begin{bracedrows}{Text in \\ two lines}
One\\
Two\\
Three
\end{bracedrows}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
With varwidth you're sure your side text will occupy only the necessary width.
Best Answer
Images are added with a zero depth, i.e. they sit on the baseline. It depends very much on the situation (and personal taste) what the "ideal" placement of a particular image is. So no, there is no way to automatically get-it-just-right (TM).
Note that
\raiseboxallows the use of\height,\depth,\widthand\totalheight(=height+depth) which represent the original dimension of the to be raised box. As said,\depthis zero and so\totalheightis identical to\heightfor images. So if you want all you images to be 10% below the baseline you can use\raisebox{-.1\height}{\includegraphics[...]{...}}.If you want the images to be as deep as the normal text you can use
\dp\strutboxas a reference. The\strutboxcontains the depth and height of a\strut. Both together are equal to\baselineskipso about 20% larger than the actual font size. Therefore you might want to use-.8\dp\strutbox. Alternatively you can use a font size relative length inex.1exis about the height of anx.As always you might want to make a macro for this if you need this more often.