How to do it...

The shapepar package can typeset paragraphs in a specific shape, such as a circle, a hexagon, or a heart. The shape size will be adjusted so the given text fits in. We will now try it with a heart:

How it works...

We loaded the blindtext package, which provides filler text via the \blindtext command, which is great for testing. Then we loaded the shapepar package.

That package provides the command \shapepar, which is used as follows:

\shapepar[scale length]{shape command} text of the paragraph

Here, we used the \heartshape command as the shape command, which typesets the following paragraph of text with the shape of a heart. The shape applies only to the following paragraph. The paragraph is not an argument.

The scale length value is optional. It's a LaTeX length, which will be used as a base unit within the shape definition. If not given, it's automatically calculated for optimal filling of the shape.

There's another short command:

\heartpar{text}

It works as follows:

\shapepar{\heartshape} text\ \ $\heartsuit$\par 

It prints the text in the shape of a heart and ends it with a heart symbol.

There's more...

We can shape text in various ways. Furthermore, we can let text flow around a shape. In other words, we can cut out shapes from the text.

Further shapes

The following shapes and corresponding commands are predefined:

The last shape doesn't provide another command. Use it as follows:

\shapepar{\rectangleshape{40}{20}} text

Use it without the units for the length, as the command refers to the base unit length of the shape. The holes mentioned in the preceding table are circular.

Cutting out shapes

A companion of the \shapepar command can cut out text using a shape:

\cutout {side} (horizontal offset,vertical offset)
  settings \shapepar ...

This cuts out the text with the specified shape from the following text. The side option can be l or r for left or right, respectively. You can use offsets for shifting settings as optional code. It can contain commands such as modifying the \cutoutsep command, which is the separation between outer text and shaped text, 12 pt by default. These commands have only a local effect.

For further details, refer to the package's manual. Since a good example is missing there, here's one, simply working within the code from our preceding recipes:

\cutout{l} (5ex,2\baselineskip) \setlength{\cutoutsep}{8pt}
  \shapepar{\circleshape} a few words of text\par
\blindtext

This will generate the following as output: