Graphics and other visual elements can be inserted inline into a document using AbstractDocument.insert_element. For example, inline elements are used to render HTML images included with the IMG tag. There is currently no support for floating or absolutely-positioned elements.
Elements must subclass InlineElement and override the place and remove methods. These methods are called by TextLayout when the element becomes or ceases to be visible. For TextLayout and ScrollableTextLayout, this is when the element is added or removed from the document; but for IncrementalTextLayout the methods are also called as the element scrolls in and out of the viewport.
The constructor of InlineElement gives the width and height (separated into the ascent above the baseline, and descent below the baseline) of the element.
Typically an InlineElement subclass will add graphics primitives to the layout's graphics batch; though applications may choose to simply record the position of the element and render it separately.
The position of the element in the document text is marked with a NUL character (U+0000) placeholder. This has the effect that inserting an element into a document increases the length of the document text by one. Elements can also be styled as if they were ordinary character text, though the layout ignores any such style attributes.