Is it possible to represent text inside a "box" in a specific position?

[TeoColuccio]

The most suitable function seems to be .multi_cell(), but with this I can't set the coordinates on the y axis.
In fact I'm trying to set the "h" parameter, but this goes to set the height of the single cell (hence also the distance between them), and not where the text is to be printed.

[Lucas-C]

Hi @TeoColuccio!
Could you provide some minimal code describing what you are trying to achieve?
Maybe your problem is similar to issue #210?

[TeoColuccio]

Hi @Lucas-C,
Basically, what I would like to be able to do is insert a text box in a sheet position that I specify. As in this example created manually:

[TeoColuccio]

Ok,

txt = """ 
Laborum ut aute occaecat laboris cupidatat sit. Cupidatat irure excepteur id labore sunt velit. Laborum in sit pariatur aliqua enim dolore sint nostrud eiusmod ex sunt elit. Enim ipsum sint reprehenderit laboris incididunt consequat amet ullamco laborum cillum nulla elit esse.

Sint occaecat aliqua do irure cupidatat et excepteur. Sint nisi do in ipsum irure. Elit sit quis enim commodo aliquip laborum ex pariatur elit anim id velit anim. Exercitation veniam id irure enim dolore ad enim elit. Non in est est excepteur.
"""

pdf.set_x(100)
pdf.set_y(100) 

print(pdf.get_x(), pdf.get_y())
pdf.multi_cell(w=x2-x1, 
               txt=txt)

Now the problem is that the .set_x () doesn't seem to work. Whatever value I enter, when I call get_x (), it always returns 9.999999999999998. Maybe it's a bug !?

Update: I think it is a bug, because set_xy() works fine and it was just what I was looking for.

[gmischler]

Maybe it's a bug !?

No, it's working perfectly just as designed and documented.
While you were looking the other way, this happened (the very first sentence):

set_y(y)

Moves the current abscissa back to the left margin and sets the ordinate.
If the value provided is negative, it is relative to the bottom of the page.
Args

y : float
    the new current ordinate 

This behaviour may be somewhat surprising given the method name, but it has historical reasons and can't easily be changed without breaking a lot of existing code.
So either you need to switch the order of your .set_x() and .set_y() calls, or indeed use .set_xy(), which internally does exactly that.

[TeoColuccio]

Maybe it's a bug !?

No, it's working perfectly just as designed and documented. While you were looking the other way, this happened (the very first sentence):

set_y(y)

Moves the current abscissa back to the left margin and sets the ordinate.
If the value provided is negative, it is relative to the bottom of the page.
Args

y : float
    the new current ordinate 

This behaviour may be somewhat surprising given the method name, but it has historical reasons and can't easily be changed without breaking a lot of existing code. So either you need to switch the order of your .set_x() and .set_y() calls, or indeed use .set_xy(), which internally does exactly that.

Ok I understand. But in fact set_xy () works perfectly and so I can also close the issue.

[Lucas-C]

Great!
Thank you for your help @gmischler 😊