4.6 Figures
A figure is a float. All the principles and working protocols associated with floats (Sec. 4.4 above), apply to figures.
For completeness, we note that the general form of a figure call is:
| 1. \begin{figure}[placement parameters] %see Sec 4.4 for detailed notes on placement parameters 2. figure body 3. \caption[loftitle]{title} % optional 4. \label{label} % optional 5. \end{figure} |
In the code below, \begin{figure} in line 6 calls the figure environment as a placeholder, with placement parameter [h] (here). However, to call an external picture, we need to \includegraphics as in line 8. This command has the form
\includegraphics[x]{y} where
[x]: graphics width specifications
{y}: name of the external graphics.
Per usual, all \begin statements are closed out seriatim in lines 9 & 10.
The code below produces the Figure 4.6 as an illustration.
| 1. \documentclass[a4]{article} 2. \pagestyle{empty} %supresses page numbering 3. \usepackage[lmargin=1in]{geometry} 4. \usepackage{graphicx} 5. \begin{document} 6. \begin{figure}[h] 7. \centering 8. \includegraphics[width=0.80\textwidth]{freemeal.png} 9. \end{figure} 10. \end{document} |
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Figure 4.6 Figure environment
A variation, in the form of figure* is used when the document is in two-column mode and the figure needs to span the entire text width, across the two columns. Such figures are always placed at the top of the page or pushed to the page of floats at the end.