In the first table, the lohi of align works, but the middle does not have any effect. Putting the content in a frame gives the desired result as in the second table. This is not a problem, I just wondered if it is supposed to work in the first table. Thanks, John \useMPlibrary[dum] \starttext \showframe \startxtable[frame=on,height=7cm,option=stretch,align={lohi,middle}] \startxrow \startxcell \externalfigure[dummy][width=5cm,height=5cm] \stopxcell \startxcell \externalfigure[dummy][width=3cm,height=3cm] \stopxcell \stopxrow \stopxtable \startxtable [frame=on,height=7cm,option=stretch,align={lohi,middle}] \startxrow \startxcell \framed[frame=off,width=local]{\externalfigure[dummy][width=5cm,height=5cm]} \stopxcell \startxcell \framed[frame=off,width=local]{\externalfigure[dummy][width=3cm,height=3cm]} \stopxcell \stopxrow \stopxtable \stoptext