In the context of book and publishing terminology, runaround means placing the text visually around an image or graphic element. Text wrap and text box are some of its most close relatives.
The surrounding text of a given image or graphic can also be formatted to turn and wrap around it instead of running in a straight line across the page. It aids in making the document more visually attractive and easy to read. Runaround allows the text and image to be distinct so that readers can easily trace the subject of interest without encountering any obstacles.
Runaround is a standard feature found in newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and other printed matter. Through adding a runaround, designers make it possible to make the pages look attractive, and they also manage to divide large blocks of the text so that the content becomes more accessible to read.
Runaround enables one to select the degree to which text surrounds an image. This could be as uncomplicated as to form just a primary border or as complicated as to use to develop an outline that encloses the object. The flexibility enables designers to try out many schemes and come up with interesting spatial arrangements.
Runaround in desktop publishing software is affected by changing the parameters of text wrap choices. Some of these options are making spaces between the text and the image, shaping the wrap, or using different styles to get the preferred effect.
In summary, runaround is an essential mechanism in publishing that helps designers make documents neat and easy to peruse by skillfully aligning images and texts.