Ipe Manual -- 7.5 Ipe symbols used from text objects

|  |  | 7.5 Ipe symbols used from text objects

## 7.5 Ipe symbols used from text objects

Presentations often make use of `itemize` environments. You can make these prettier in a number of ways:

You can color your bullets:

    <preamble>
    \def\labelitemi{\LARGE\textcolor{red}{$\bullet$}}
    </preamble>

Enumeration numbers could be put in a colored box:

    <preamble>
    \newcommand{\labelenumi}{\fbox{\Roman{enumi}}}
    </preamble>

You could use the Dingbats font for nice enumerations, for instance by putting `\usepackage{pifont}` in your preamble, and then having text objects with `\begin{dinglist}{43}` or `\begin{dingautolist}{172}` (or use 182, 192, 202 for various circled numbers).

You can mark items as "good" and "bad" using these "bullets":

Bad item: `\textcolor{red}{\ding{55}}`
Good item: `\textcolor{green}{\ding{52}}`

Finally, you can custom design your own bullets by creating an Ipe symbol for it. For instance:

    <symbol name="bullet(sfpx)">
      <path matrix="2 0 0 2 0 0" pen="sym-pen" stroke="sym-stroke" fill="sym-fill">
        0 0 m -1.0 0.333 l -0.8 0 l -1.0 -0.333 l h</path>
    </symbol>
    <preamble>
      \def\labelitemi{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\hbox to 0.3em%
          {\ipesymbol{bullet(sfpx)}{blue}{yellow}{normal}}}}
    </preamble>

Note the use of the `\ipesymbol{name}{stroke}{fill}{pen}` command. It allows you to use an Ipe symbol from inside a text object. The symbol is magnified proportionally to the ex-height of the current font at the position where it is used. (And so the symbol should be designed to be the correct size for a font of ex-height 1pt.)

In the following example, we redefine the bullet to be a blue glassy sphere:

    <gradient name="ball" type="radial" coords="-4 10 2 0 0 18">
      <stop offset="0" color="1 1 1"/>
      <stop offset="1" color="0 0 1"/>
    </gradient>
    <symbol name="sphere">
      <path matrix="0.04 0 0 0.04 0 0" fill="blue" gradient="ball">
        18 0 0 18 0 0 e
      </path>
    </symbol>
    <preamble>
      \def\labelitemi{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\hbox to 0.3em{\ipesymbol{sphere}{}{}{}}}}
    </preamble>