Get a list of icon definitions with icons having the line height and vertically aligned to the lines

Question

I'm currently trying to define a list of icons/images which will take the size of the line height and be vertically aligned to the lines. This list is basically a list to explain what are these icons about. The example below is what I want to achieve, and is taken from the Apple iOS documentation website.

I grabbed the images from there, but these are a bit larger than the actual line height. Specifying and including the images as it without resizing them should thus produce a rendered version with each image a bit greater than expected. What is weird is that this isn't what I got as rendered version: some images appear way greater than others. I know each image differs lightly in size from the others (e.g.: 26x30, 30x30, 36x32, etc.) but AFAIK this couldn't be reason and explain that issue.

I thought that reducing the size of each image (and keep their ratio) using the size of the line would be enough, like described here. Unfortunately, since this is not possible to determine the height of the line we are currently in as it depends on a bunch of factors: space between lines and font size, etc.

I then decided I should just scale each image using a value that could suit the rendered version using trial and error, but this value isn't automatically computed and as soon I change the size of the text, I need to recompute the value manually. Not really efficient. I got a some better result, but I've still the problem some images appear really smaller than others.

To solve the centering problem I thought to the command \vcenter but I've some issues with it: it requires me to be in math mode and the rest of the line appears outside the page borders.

The ugly code I've for now:

\begin{itemize}
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_file}} Some text$
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_quick_help}} yet some text$
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_identity}} some text$
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_attributes}} some text$
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_size}} some text $
    \item $\vcenter{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig_xcode_inspector_connections}} some text $
\end{itemize}

Any help helping me to solve this issue is welcome.

Answer 1

Like this?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\begin{document}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item \includegraphics[valign=b,height=\fontcharht\font`X]{example-image} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[valign=b,height=\fontcharht\font`X]{example-image-a} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[valign=b,height=\fontcharht\font`X]{logo} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[valign=b,height=\fontcharht\font`X]{pecemblem} Some text    
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Answer 2

If you'd wanted center alignment (as your \vcenter suggested) then I'd recommend adjustbox as Harish showed, but here I think you are better with the default baseline alignment. I'd just do

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item \includegraphics[height=.7em]{example-image} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[height=.7em]{example-image-a} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[height=.7em]{logo} Some text
    \item \includegraphics[height=.7em]{example-image-b} Some text    
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Answer 3

I don't think \vcenter is what you are looking for. A good estimate for the line height is given by \fontdimen22\textfont2+1ex which is the height of the math axis plus the height of the letter x. The $\null\mathsurround=0pt$ is there to initialise the math fonts in TeX, else you will get an error message that there are only 7 fontdimens in nullfont.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand\icon[2]{%
  $\null\mathsurround=0pt$%
  \includegraphics[height=\dimexpr\fontdimen22\textfont2+1ex\relax]{#1}
  \textbf{#2.}\space
}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item \icon{example-image-a}{File} Some text
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Answer 4

Here I set the icon in place of the bullet, though that can be changed by removing it from the [ ] brackets. Also, here, I set the icons to the vertical extent of a cap X, though I comment out an alternative approach where the height may be explicitly specified, with the icon sitting on the baseline of the specified height.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx,scalerel}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\def\seticon#1{%
  \scalerel*{\includegraphics{#1}}{X}% SCALES TO SIZE OF CAP X
%  \scaleto{\includegraphics{#1}}{2ex}% SPECIFY THE HEIGHT OF THE SCALE
}
\begin{document}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item [\seticon{example-image}] Some text
    \item [\seticon{example-image-a}] Some text
    \item [\seticon{ARL_Logo_March2012_BlackGold}] Some text
    \item [\seticon{sbs2}] Some text    
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Here's the alternate form, setting the icons to 2ex height on the baseline.

Answer 5

If you can find and use a suitable icon font (here I've used Font Awesome, which requires XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX), you can drop the images entirely and the scaling with font size problem is handled automatically. Other benefits are higher-quality symbols, infinite scalability, and smaller PDF file size.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontawesome}
\newcommand{\myitem}[2]{\item #1 {\bfseries\sffamily #2}}

\def\testlist{%
\begin{itemize}
  \myitem{\faFile}{File.} Specify general information about the storyboard.
  \myitem{\faQuestionSign}{Quick Help.} Get useful documentation about an object.
  \myitem{\faThumbnailsList}{Identity.} Specify a custom class for your object 
    and define its accessibility attributes.
\end{itemize}
}

\begin{document}\sffamily
{\testlist\par}

{\huge\testlist\par}

\end{document}