[Tex/LaTex] Control of whitespace when using \includegraphics

formattinggraphicswhite space

Probable duplicate. When using \includegraphics to insert PDF figures in text (double-column format), I find I need to make use of \hspace and \vspace in order to get the figure and the follow-on text appear in the right place. But this requires me to adjust the value of the length parameter for every new picture to make it appear in the right place. Is there a way to avoid need for \hspace and \vspace, or have their values adjusted automatically? Here is a sample:

\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{figure}[!ht] 
\begin{center} \begin{tabular}{c}
\vspace{-4cm}\\
\hspace{-1.2cm}
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{foo} \\
\vspace{-7.5cm}\\
\hspace{-1.2cm}
\end{tabular} \end{center}
\end{figure}

Best Answer

\begin{figure}[!ht]

if you use the optional argument it is almost always best to include p as not doing so greatly increases the chances of the figure going to the end of the document. Also ! should only be used for "difficult cases" never as a default usage.

\begin{center}

The environment form adds vertical space which you do not want here as figure already adds vertical space. Use \centering.

\begin{tabular}{c}

The tabular is doing nothing here: it can be deleted.

\vspace{-4cm}\\

This negative space is partly compensating for the vertical space added by center but -4cm will mean that if the h option is used it will over-print text above the figure, and even t option positioning will make it overprint the page head. if the problem is white space in the image this shoudl be fixed by trimming using the options to \includegraphics or (better) fixing the image using an external editor before inclusion.

\hspace{-1.2cm}

This forces the image to over-print the left margin. Again would be better addresses by trimming the image.

\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{foo} \\

OK but the \\ should be removed once the surrounding tabular is removed.

\vspace{-7.5cm}\\
\hspace{-1.2cm}

These spaces match the ones before the image so can be removed for the same reasons.

\end{tabular} \end{center}

As noted above both the tabular and center can be removed.

\end{figure}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Two figures side by side with text wrapping

You have to carefully adjust the dimensions of your image and the number of lines the wrap figure will extend ( for example [10] in \begin{wrapfigure}[10]{r}{5.5cm}).

An example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx,wrapfig,lipsum}
%------------------------------------------
\begin{document}
This is where the table goes with text wrapping around it. You may
embed tabular environment inside wraptable environment and customize as you like.
%------------------------------------------
\begin{wrapfigure}[10]{r}{5.5cm}
\rule{5.5cm}{7.1cm}
\caption{A wrapped figure}\label{wrap-fig:1}
\end{wrapfigure}
%------------------------------------------
This is where the table goes with text wrapping around it. You may
embed tabular environment inside wraptable environment and customize as you like. This is where the table goes with text wrapping around it. You may
embed tabular environment inside wraptable environment and customize as you like. This is where the table goes with text wrapping around it. 
%
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{minipage}{6cm}
\centering
\rule{\textwidth}{3cm}
\caption{my figure}\label{fig:2}
\end{minipage}%
\end{figure}%

\lipsum[2-3]

Figure~\ref{wrap-fig:1} is a wrapped figure.
%------------------------------------------
\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Why are the Images not correctly centered

The trick is to put your graphics in a \vcenter box. The rest is just bureaucracy: \vcenter requires math mode, and \hbox prevents the image from taking the whole line width.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphics}

\newcommand\myincludegraphics[1]{%
  \ensuremath{\vcenter{\hbox{\includegraphics{#1}}}}%
}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \begin{tabular}{rcl}
    description&\myincludegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    description&\myincludegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    description&\myincludegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    description&\myincludegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    &0\hfill 5\hfill\hfill 15\hfill\hfill\hfill 30&min
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

EDIT: This version deals with descriptions of different lengths, keeping the images horizontally centered no matter what.

The main idea is to put the left descriptions in a \llap (so it will stick out to the left, while pretending to 0pt wide) and the right descriptions in a \hbox to 0pt (these will pretend to be 0pt wide but stick out to the right --- by the way, \rlap doesn't work well in this case).

The rest is to make things easy to use. Package array allows to you automatically but arbitrary code around your entries using < and >. Furthermore, it allows you to define new column types. So I put all the \llap and \hbox magic in the column type C, and included the vertical positioning magic in there as well. This should make things easier to use.

Since the middle column type was redefined, the old timeline didn't work anymore, so I used \multicolumn to reset the middle column type for the last line back to a simple c. While at it, I have packed it all in a macro to save some further typing. (Maybe we should make it extremely fancy by making LaTeX position the numbers on the timeline automatically? :-))))

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{C}{%
      >{\llap\bgroup}c<{\egroup}%
      >{$\vcenter\bgroup\hbox\bgroup}c<{\egroup\egroup$}
      >{\hbox to 0pt\bgroup}c<{\egroup}%
    }%
\newcommand\timeline[1]{&\multicolumn{1}{c}{#1}&min}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \begin{tabular}{C}
    description long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&description very very extremely long\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&descript\\
    \timeline{0\hfill 5\hfill\hfill 15\hfill\hfill\hfill 30}
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure1}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \begin{tabular}{C}
    description long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description very very extremely long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&descript\\
    \timeline{%
      \makebox[0pt][c]{0}\hfill
      \makebox[0pt][c]{5}\hfill\hfill
      \makebox[0pt][c]{15}\hfill\hfill\hfill
      \makebox[0pt][c]{30}}
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure2}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

UPDATE 2: Automatic tick-placement (for fun) and fixed intercolumn spacing (for real):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{C}{%
      >{\llap\bgroup}c<{\egroup\hskip 1em}%
      @{}>{$\vcenter\bgroup\hbox\bgroup}c<{\egroup\egroup$}@{}
      >{\hskip 1em\hbox to 0pt\bgroup}c<{\egroup}%
    }%
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcommand\timeline[1]{%
  &\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}}\begingroup
  \global\let\do\firstT
  \docsvlist{#1}%
  \endgroup&min%
}
\def\firstT#1{\makebox[0pt][c]{#1}\xdef\previousT{#1}\global\let\do\otherTs}
\def\otherTs#1{%
  \count0=#1\relax \advance\count0-\previousT\relax
  \loop\ifnum\count0>0 \typeout{\the\count0}\advance\count0-1 \hfill\repeat
  \makebox[0pt][c]{#1}\xdef\previousT{#1}%
}    

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \begin{tabular}{C}
    description long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&description very very extremely long\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&descript\\
    \timeline{0,5,15,30}\\
    \timeline{0,10,20,30}\\
    \timeline{0,20,25,30}\\
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure1}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \begin{tabular}{C}
    description long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description very very extremely long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&descript\\
    \timeline{0,2,4,6,8,10,20,30}
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure1}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

UPDATE: left-aligned left description

I don't know how to do this automatically, because one needs to know the width of the widest left description in advance. A semi-automatic solution is to set this length in advance, just before the tabular environment --- the column definiton then puts the left description in a \hbox of the given width.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{array}
\newlength\widestLeftEntryLength
\newcolumntype{C}{%
      >{\llap\bgroup\hbox to \widestLeftEntryLength\bgroup}c<{\hss\egroup\egroup\hskip 1em}%
      @{}>{$\vcenter\bgroup\hbox\bgroup}c<{\egroup\egroup$}@{}
      >{\hskip 1em\hbox to 0pt\bgroup}c<{\egroup}%
    }%

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\arraystretch{3}
  \settowidth\widestLeftEntryLength{description very very extremely long}
  \begin{tabular}{C}
    description long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description very very extremely long&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&description\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&desc\\
    description&\includegraphics{gfx/test}&descript\\
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{A caption}
  \label{fig:figure2}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Two figures side by side with text wrapping

[Tex/LaTex] Why are the Images not correctly centered

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