Will it ever be possible to use wrapfig with an enumerate or itemize environment?

Question

wrapfig is incompatible with the enumerate and itemize environments. Is there a typographical reason not to wrap a list around a figure or is it a technical limitation of LaTeX? If it is a technical limitation, is there any work (new packages or changes to LaTeX) currently being done to eliminate the limitation in the future?

Edit: To respond to some of the comments: I realize that there are "gymnastics" which can make this work. I do not have an example of the problem. Whenever I run into a problem with wrapfig because it is near an enumerate or itemize environment, I search for an easy solution, find none, and move the figure elsewhere. In the vast majority of cases, the cost of learning the complex solutions isn't worth the benefit of keeping the figure where I want it.

Answer 1

FWIW, wrapfigure works out of the box in ConTeXt. So, it is clearly not a limitation of TeX.

\setuppapersize[A5]

\useexternalfigure[ctanlion][http://www.ctan.org/lion/ctan_lion_350x350.png][width=3cm]


\starttext

\placefigure[left,2*hang]{Test}
  {\externalfigure[ctanlion]}

\startitemize[n]
  \item \input ward
  \item \input ward
  \item \input ward
\stopitemize

\stoptext

which gives:

Removing 2*hang from \placefigure gives:

Answer 2

The cutwin package (and some \parshape gymnastics) can be used here:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{cutwin}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\renewcommand\windowpagestuff{%
  \hspace*{25pt}\includegraphics[height=4cm]{ctanlion}
  \captionof{figure}{A test figure.}
}
\opencutleft

\begin{cutout}{2}{10pt}{0.5\linewidth}{12}
\begin{enumerate}
{%
\parshape 15 26pt \linewidth 26pt \linewidth 0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth
  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth
  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth   0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth   0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth 
  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth   0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth   0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth
  0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth   0.5\linewidth 0.5\linewidth 26 pt \linewidth
\item \lipsum[1]
}%
\item \lipsum[2]
\item \lipsum[2]
\end{enumerate}
\end{cutout}

\end{document}

CTAN lion drawing by Duane Bibby.

Answer 3

It is possible by putting the wrapfigure into a parbox or minipage as is mentioned in some of the duplicates of this question. However those methods usually fix vertical spacing issues by manually inserting \vspace with hand picked values. This solution works automatically by using a strut. The strut places the baseline of the first text line at a specified distance from the top of the minipage. Then adjustbox is used to place the top of the minipage exactly that amount above the outer baseline.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{wrapfig}

\begin{document}

\newlength{\strutheight}
\settoheight{\strutheight}{\strut}
\begin{enumerate}
  \item \lipsum[1]
  \item
    \begin{adjustbox}{valign=T,raise=\strutheight,minipage={\linewidth}}
      \begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt}
        \includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-a}
      \end{wrapfigure}
    \strut{}\lipsum[2]
    \end{adjustbox}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 4

Here's a kluge. It replaces itemize with a lookalike, instead of trying to fiddle around with wrapfig.

\documentclass{article}

%put this code in preamble
\newlength{\bulletwidth}\settowidth{\bulletwidth}{$\bullet$}
\newcommand{\mitem}{\setlength{\leftskip}{\leftmargin}\hspace*{-\labelsep}\hspace*{-\bulletwidth}$\bullet$\hspace*{\labelsep}}
\newcommand{\mend}{\setlength{\leftskip}{0cm}}

\begin{document}

Some text.

\mitem This is an example of a list item.

\mitem Second item in list.

\mend

Some more text.

\end{document}

Each \mitem in the list must be preceded by a blank line. The list ends with \mend (also preceded by a blank line). There's no command to begin the list. This works for simple text items; I haven't tried it with anything more complicated.

Someone who knows more about how itemize works (and why it conflicts with wrapfig) might be able to make an even better imitation. It would also be fairly easy to generalize this to enumerate'd lists if necessary.

Answer 5

You can create a new wrap enviroment. In the following MWE my wrapr env. places the image in the right side of the page while wrapl place it in the left. Both enviroments have the same structure:

wrapr{vertical adjustment of text}{number of lines}{horizontal space needed for the image}{vertical adjustment of image}{IMAGE}{TEXT}

We can see here both enviroments in use

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots,tkz-euclide}
\tkzSetUpPoint[size=7,fill=white]
\usepackage{wrapfig}


\newenvironment{WrapText1}[3][r]
{\wrapfigure[#2]{#1}{#3}}
{\endwrapfigure}
\newenvironment{WrapText2}[3][l]
{\wrapfigure[#2]{#1}{#3}}
{\endwrapfigure}
\newcommand{\wrapr}[6]{
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}\mbox{}\\
\vspace{#1}
\begin{WrapText1}{#2}{#3}
\vspace{#4}#5\end{WrapText1}#6
\end{minipage}}

\newcommand{\wrapl}[6]{
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}\mbox{}\\
\vspace{#1}
\begin{WrapText2}{#2}{#3}
\vspace{#4}#5\end{WrapText2}#6
\end{minipage}}
\usepackage{lipsum}


\begin{document}
\wrapr{-4mm}{8}{4cm}{5mm}{\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzDefPoint(3,0){C}
\tkzDefPoint(0,0){B}
\tkzDefPoint(1,2){A}
\tkzDefPoint(1.33,.66){G}
\tkzDefPoint(1.5,0){M}
\tkzDefPoint(.5,1){N}
\tkzDefPoint(2,1){P}
\draw(A)--(B)--(C)-- cycle;
\draw(A)--(M);
\draw(B)--(P);
\draw(C)--(N);
\tkzLabelPoint[left](B){$B$}
\tkzLabelPoint[below](M){$D$}
\tkzLabelPoint[right](P){$E$}
\tkzLabelPoint[left](N){$Z$}
\tkzLabelPoint[right](C){$C$}
\tkzLabelPoint[above](A){$A$}
\tkzLabelPoint[left,yshift=-3mm,xshift=1.7mm](G){$G$}
\tkzDrawPoints(A,B,C,M,N,P,G)
\end{tikzpicture}}{\begin{enumerate}
\item \lipsum[1]
\end{enumerate}}
\vspace{2cm}
\wrapl{-4mm}{8}{3cm}{5mm}{\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzDefPoint(3,0){C}
\tkzDefPoint(0,0){B}
\tkzDefPoint(1,2){A}
\tkzDefPoint(1.33,.66){G}
\tkzDefPoint(1.5,0){M}
\tkzDefPoint(.5,1){N}
\tkzDefPoint(2,1){P}
\draw(A)--(B)--(C)-- cycle;
\draw(A)--(M);
\draw(B)--(P);
\draw(C)--(N);
\tkzLabelPoint[left](B){$B$}
\tkzLabelPoint[below](M){$D$}
\tkzLabelPoint[right](P){$E$}
\tkzLabelPoint[left](N){$Z$}
\tkzLabelPoint[right](C){$C$}
\tkzLabelPoint[above](A){$A$}
\tkzLabelPoint[left,yshift=-3mm,xshift=1.7mm](G){$G$}
\tkzDrawPoints(A,B,C,M,N,P,G)
\end{tikzpicture}}{\begin{enumerate}
\item \lipsum[1]
\end{enumerate}}
\end{document}