|  |  | 4.2 Text objects

## 4.2 Text objects

Text objects come in two flavors: simple labels, and paragraphs.

The position you have to click to start creating a label object is the lower left corner of the piece of text. A popup window appears where you can enter Latex source code.

A paragraph object is different from a simple text object in that its width is part of its definition. When you create a paragraph object, you first have to drag out a horizontal segment for the paragraph. This is used as the top edge of the paragraph--it will extend downwards as far as necessary to accomodate all the text. Paragraphs are formatted using Latex's `minipage` environment. Latex tries to fill the given bounding box as nicely as possible. It is possible to include center environments, lemmas, and much more in minipages.

You can use any LaTeX-command that is legal inside a `\makebox` (for labels) or inside a `minipage` (for paragraphs). You cannot use commands that involve a non-linear translation into PDF, such as commands to include external images.

You can use color in your text objects, using the `\textcolor` command, like this:

    This is in black. \textcolor{red}{This is in red.} This is in black.

All the symbolic colors of your current style sheet are also available as arguments to `\textcolor`. You can also use absolute colors, for instance:

    This is in black. \textcolor[rgb]{1,1,0}{This is in yellow.} This is in black.

Note that currently Ipe doesn't display color changes on the screen. The generated PDF or Postscript output, however, is correct.

After you have created or edited a text object, the Ipe screen display will show the beginning of the Latex source. You can select Run Latex from the File menu to create the PDF/Postscript representation of the object. This converts all the text objects in your document at once, and Ipe will display a correct rendition of the text afterwards.

If the Latex conversion process results in errors, Ipe will automatically show you the log file created by the Latex run. If you cannot figure out the problem, look in the section on troubleshooting.

You can use Unicode text, such as accented characters, Greek, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, in your text objects, once you have set up the necessary style files and fonts.

|  |  | 4.2 Text objects