[Tex/LaTex] Caption misalignment with minipage and adjustwidth

captionsfloatshorizontal alignmentminipage

I'm trying to fit two over-sized figures side by side on one page. I tried using minipage and adjustwidth, but the caption on the second figure kept mis-aligning to the left, as shown below.

I tried reading multiple seemingly related questions, but I wasn't able to figure this out. I tried using subfigure following one of the suggestions, but that seemed to do worse.

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

\documentclass{article} % letter paper and 11pt font 
\usepackage[space]{grffile} % for filenames with spaces
\usepackage{float} 
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{chngpage}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{calc}
\begin{document}

\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}     % example that almost works
        \begin{figure}[H] 
            \begin{adjustwidth}{-\oddsidemargin-1in}{-\rightmargin}
            \centering 
            \caption{Schooling Time Shares}
            \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{Schooling Time Share over Time.png} 
            \end{adjustwidth}
    \end{figure}
\end{minipage}% 
\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}
        \begin{figure}[H] 
            \begin{adjustwidth}{\oddsidemargin-0.8in}{-\rightmargin}
            \centering 
            \caption{Training Time Shares}
            \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{Training Time Share over Time.png} 
            \end{adjustwidth}
        \end{figure}
\end{minipage}

\end{document}

timeshares

Update: After Mico's expert suggestions, I tried the following:

\begin{figure}[ht!] 
\begin{adjustwidth}{-1.85cm}{-1.75cm}  % choose margin adjustments
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Schooling Time Shares}
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{Schooling Time Share over Time.png} 
\end{minipage}
\hspace*{\fill}  % spread out the two minipages
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Training Time Shares}
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{Training Time Share over Time.png}
\end{minipage} 
\end{adjustwidth}
\end{figure}

which produced the following output:

timeshares2

Now the captions are symmetric, which is much better than before. One last remaining bit, though, is: If one (perhaps unnecessarily) wanted to make the captions come more closely to the center, how could one do this? I thought maybe I could introduce a few spaces next to the caption, but an hspace* or mbox only shifted the caption down, not to the right.

Update2: As commented below \caption{\kern0.2cm Schooling Time Shares} is able to move the caption text slightly to the right. Also width=1.1\linewidth is more stable than scale=0.5. Final code:

\begin{figure}[ht!] 
\begin{adjustwidth}{-3.5cm}{-3cm}  % choose margin adjustments
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
 \caption{\kern0.2cm Schooling Time Shares }
\includegraphics[width=1.1\linewidth]{Schooling Time Share over Time.png} 
\end{minipage}
\hspace*{\fill}  % spread out the two minipages
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{\kern0.2cm Training Time Shares }
\includegraphics[width=1.1\linewidth]{Training Time Share over Time.png}
\end{minipage} 
\end{adjustwidth}
\end{figure}

produces

timeshares3

Update 3: See Bernard's solution below with the floatrow package. It may be the most concise.

Best Answer

I would use a single figure environment, start the adjustwidth environment inside the figure environment, and use two minipage environments, side by side, to display the two images; each can be given its own \caption. (The frame lines in the screenshot depict the ordinary page margins.)

enter image description here

\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{article} 
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx} % omit 'demo' option in real doc
\usepackage[space]{grffile} % for filenames with spaces
\usepackage{float} 
\usepackage{chngpage}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry} % omit 'showframe' option in real doc
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[ht!] 
\begin{adjustwidth}{-1.25cm}{-1.25cm}  % choose margin adjustments
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Schooling Time Shares}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Schooling Time Share over Time.png} 
\end{minipage}
\hspace*{\fill}  % spread out the two minipages
\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Training Time Shares}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Training Time Share over Time.png}
\end{minipage} 
\end{adjustwidth}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Addendum: You mention in a comment that you weren't sure whether you should use subfigures. That decision depends mostly on how the two images are related to each other. If they're not particularly related, it makes sense to assign separate, figure-level captions to them. If, on the other hand, they're related quite closely, it's probably a good idea to treat them as subfigures. Fortunately, it's not hard to do so: (i) load the subcaption package instead of (or in addition to) the caption package, (ii) replace minipage with subfigure (four instances), and (iii) provide a new \caption statement for the overall figure. The earlier captions, previously numbered 1 and 2, will now be labeled (a) and (b).

enter image description here

\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{article} 
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx} % omit 'demo' option in real doc
\usepackage[space]{grffile} % for filenames with spaces
\usepackage{float} 
\usepackage{chngpage}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{geometry}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[ht!]
\caption{Two Types of Time Shares} 
\begin{adjustwidth}{-1.25cm}{-1.25cm}  % choose margin adjustments
\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Schooling Time Shares}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Schooling Time Share over Time.png} 
\end{subfigure}
\hspace*{\fill}  % spread out the two minipages
\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
\caption{Training Time Shares}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Training Time Share over Time.png}
\end{subfigure} 
\end{adjustwidth}
\end{figure}

\end{document}
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