[Tex/LaTex] Figure caption alignment screwed when using line break

captionsfloatshorizontal alignmentline-breaking

I am having trouble with figure captions when I need a manual line break.

\documentclass[A4]{book}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage[top=35mm, bottom=38mm, inner=40mm, outer=24mm]{geometry}
\usepackage[hang,small,it]{caption}
\usepackage{showframe}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\caption{Single line no problem.}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\caption[Content]{Sketching out variants for a new glass plate based installation.\\%
Unless specified, sizes are in cm.}
\label{fig:sketches_plate_arrangements}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

The second figure caption is left aligned instead of centered. (in my actual setup it is a bit more to the right, and the second line is at least properly indented, but still the caption is way too much left).

enter image description here

Well, since you closed the question for unknown reasons, here is my answer. The idea is to use the margin parameter of captionsetup. If captionsetup is used without "float type" option and inside the \begin{figure} ... \end{figure} block, it only applies the settings for one particular occurrence.

\documentclass[A4]{book}
\usepackage[top=35mm, bottom=38mm, inner=40mm, outer=24mm]{geometry}
\usepackage[hang,small,it]{caption}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[scale=0.2]{dissem_Modell2_hires.png}
\captionsetup{%  settings just for this caption
  margin = 70pt
}
\caption[Content]{Sketching out variants for a new glass plate based installation.%
Unless specified, sizes are in cm.}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

If you don't mind manual tweaks, you can use \oalign:

\documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage[top=35mm, bottom=38mm, inner=40mm, outer=24mm]{geometry}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\caption{Single line no problem.}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\caption[Content]{\oalign{Sketching out variants for a new glass plate based installation.\hfil\strut\cr\strut Unless specified, sizes are in cm.\hfil}}
\label{fig:sketches_plate_arrangements}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to add line break to caption without using caption package

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\caption[caption]{This is the caption\\\hspace{\textwidth}This is the second line}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

The reason why \\ does not work originally is that the caption is small enough to fit on one line. The default caption setting first sets the caption in an mbox and if that is less than the line width that box is centred. Otherwise that box is discarded and the caption is re-set in a parbox. On the first setting \\ does nothing as it is always a no-op in such a box, on the second setting (if it is used) then \\ starts a new line. So all you have to do is make sure that the first setting is not used, as the space at the start of a line is discarded, it doesn't really matter how big the space is, so long as the total natural width of the whole caption is bigger than \textwidth.

[Tex/LaTex] Hbox overfull: automatic linebreaks on spaces

you've already separated the different elements, providing spaces between the distinct equations comprising each language and separately coding these equations as math (even though the space between the first two is, probably inadvertently, omitted). unfortunately, these spaces don't fall in a place that is optimal for tex to break the line.

the ultimate goal is for what is presented to be understood.

there are two parts to this recommendation.

first, the words "milk, curry, rice" are, as you say, constants, and as such should be in a text font, preferably not italic in this context, even though they're part of the math expression. as coded in your original, they are typeset as strings of variables multiplied together. these could be coded as \mathrm{<word>}, but that doesn't help with line breaking. it also wouldn't leave spaces after the commas, although in this situation, whether spaces are visible there or not wouldn't be misunderstood by a reader.

another way to approach these is to recognize them as text, and input them as, for example,

$\mathcal{C}_o=\{\text{milk, curry, rice}\}$

but this doesn't help with line breaking either, since in this context, the only "allowable" break is after the equals sign.

so, second part of suggestion, take advantage of the fact that a reader isn't likely to misunderstand what is meant if a line is broken within that string of constants, and (temporarily) terminate the math after the opening brace, and reinstate it for the ending brace:

$\mathcal{C}_o=\{$milk, curry, rice$\}$

to illustrate, using a forced line break for the "all math" instance, compare these two lines:

enter image description here

here's the input that produced the image:

\begin{itemize}
\item The language of enquiry $\mathcal{L}$ is given by
$\mathcal{C}_o=\{milk, curry, rice\}$,\\
$\mathcal{R}_o=\{TastesHot, IsWhite, ContainsSpice, ContainsSugar\}$,
$\mathcal{F}_o=\{\}$.
\item The language of enquiry $\mathcal{L}$ is given by
$\mathcal{C}_o=\{$milk, curry, rice$\}$,
$\mathcal{R}_o=\{$TastesHot, IsWhite, ContainsSpice, ContainsSugar$\}$,
$\mathcal{F}_o=\{\}$.
\end{itemize}

(by the way, that's hardly a minimal example.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to add line break to caption without using caption package

[Tex/LaTex] Hbox overfull: automatic linebreaks on spaces

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