I have two problems with figures placed into the left or right margin. When the figure is in a group, extra whitespace is inserted between the paragraphs that precede and follow the placefigure command. This happens for figures placed by startplacefigure/stopplacefigure and tradiitonal placefigure commands, and paragraphs placed by startparagraph/stopparagraph or marked by par or newlines. When the figure is not in a group, whitespace called for by \setupwhitespace is lost, except when the paragraphs are marked by traditional means. That is, whitespace is lost when startparagraph/stopparagraph is used. Interestingly, when that is changed to bpar/epar, the problem for ungrouped figures disappears, but as I understand it, bpar/epar is not a real substitute for startparagraph/stopparagraph. There is probably a simple explanation, but it eludes me. I prefer to be able to use startparagraph/stopparagraph, and it is sometimes desirable to place a figure into a group in order to prevent unique settings from leaking out. The following should demonstrate the problem. Turning on grid setting makes it worse. I get the same result with current betas and older versions. \useMPlibrary [dum] %\showgrid \setuplayout [%grid=yes, backspace=151pt,leftmargin=117pt] \setupwhitespace[big] \define\Paragraph{\startparagraph\input khatt-en\stopparagraph} \starttext { \subject{Start/stop paragraphs and figures} \subsubject{Group, extra whitespace} \Paragraph \Paragraph \begingroup \startplacefigure[location={leftmargin,none}] \externalfigure[A] \stopplacefigure \endgroup \Paragraph \Paragraph \subsubject{No group, no whitespace} \Paragraph \Paragraph \startplacefigure[location={leftmargin,none}] \externalfigure[A] \stopplacefigure \Paragraph \Paragraph \Paragraph } \page { \subject{Start/stop paragraphs, traditional figures} \subsubject{Group, extra whitespace} \Paragraph \Paragraph {\placefigure[leftmargin,none]{}{\externalfigure[A]}} \Paragraph \Paragraph \subsubject{No group, no whitespace} \Paragraph \Paragraph \placefigure[leftmargin,none]{}{\externalfigure[A]} \Paragraph \Paragraph \Paragraph } \page { \subject{Traditional paragraphs, start/stop figures} \subsubject{Group, extra whitespace} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \begingroup% or \bgroup or { \startplacefigure[location={leftmargin,none}] \externalfigure[A] \stopplacefigure \endgroup% or \egroup or } \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \subsubject{Okay} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \startplacefigure[location={leftmargin,none}] \externalfigure[A] \stopplacefigure \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par } \page { \subject{Traditional paragraphs, traditional figures} \subsubject{Group, extra whitespace} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par {\placefigure[leftmargin,none]{}{\externalfigure[A]}} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \subsubject{Okay} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \placefigure[leftmargin,none]{}{\externalfigure[A]} \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par \input khatt-en\par } \stoptext -- Rik