This is one of those things which isn’t so easy to find, so here’s my contribution.

The Problem

You’re using LaTeX, and have a small image which you want to display inline with the text (i.e. not a float). So, you use something like the following:

...indicate whether the phrase you've constructed is valid (\includegraphics{tick.png}) or not (\includegraphics{cross.png}}). To make things...

This works, but often the vertical alignment is not quite right, as shown in the images below:

Inline images, non-aligned

Zoomed (x600)

The Solution

After some searching and experimenting, I found the best solution to be using the \raisebox command with a negative value, like so:

...indicate whether the phrase you've constructed is valid (\raisebox{-1mm}{\includegraphics{tick.png}}) or not (\raisebox{-1mm}{\includegraphics{cross.png}}). To make things...

The additional code is minimal and it works perfectly (as far as I can tell). Results as below:

Inline images, properly aligned

Zoomed (x600)

Just started using LaTeX, and it annoyed me how the vertical-alignment of the \underline{} tag is not always the same, depending on whether the text ‘dips downwards’ or not (don’t know the correct term).

Anyway I found a fix, basically use \usepackage[normalem]{ulem} in your preamble, and \uline{My Text} instead of \underline{} in your normal text.

via Getting to Grips with Latex – Formatting – Latex Tutorials by Andrew Roberts @ School of Computing, University of Leeds.

A great, cut-to-the-chase article I found about vertical centering with CSS.. enjoy

In the Woods – Vertical Centering With CSS.