Inline elements

Styled blue + underlined by default (override the color with a nested <font color>). In the PDF the run becomes a clickable Link annotation pointing at href. An empty or absent href leaves the run unstyled and links nowhere — and an empty one warns — so always give it a real target.

Overrides only the attributes it names — an absent color or size inherits the surrounding run untouched — so <font> is the inline escape hatch for recoloring or resizing a span without disturbing weight, slant, or family. It does not change the font family; that comes from the enclosing <text>'s font attribute.

Wrap each paragraph of a multi-paragraph block in <p>…</p>. Every <p> but the first opens a gap above it, sized by the paragraph-spacing attribute on the enclosing <text>, so one styled <text> can hold several paragraphs without a wrapper around each. Inline markup nests inside a <p> just as it does in the paragraph itself.

<field> lives inside a <text>, like any other inline markup, and is replaced at layout time with a document value: name="page" prints the current physical page, name="pages" the total. It inherits the run's font, size, and color, so it sets exactly like the words around it — style the surrounding <text> (or a <font>) rather than the field. Placed in a <layout> template, it re-resolves with the right number on every page; the set of names is meant to grow (a title, a year) as documents gain metadata.

pages only knows the total once pagination finishes, which is why fields belong in a <layout> template. Dropped into ordinary page body, name="pages" renders a literal ? to flag that it can't be resolved there.

<inline> drops a block into the middle of a paragraph — the print cousin of CSS display: inline-block. Everything else is a regular element: put a <rect>, a <circle>, an <image>, or a whole <vertical> inside, or just text, and it flows as one unbreakable unit between the words around it. The line grows to fit it, and the rest of the paragraph keeps wrapping and justifying as usual.

Its size and box styling are ordinary style: attributes — the block stays unaware it is inline, so style:width, style:background, style:padding, and the rest compose exactly as they do anywhere else. The only inline-specific knob is valign: middle (the default) centers the box on the line, baseline rests its bottom on the text baseline, and top aligns its top edge.

When <inline> wraps bare text it builds a styled run like a tiny <text>, so it also takes the type attributes (font, size, bold, color, …) — handy for a colored chip or badge.