[Tex/LaTex] How to justify subfig subfloats

floatshorizontal alignmentsubfloats

I have three subfloats and I want them to be aligned over the full \textwidth, no matter what the sizes are (smaller than a third of the page of course).

I have the following setup:

\begin{figure} %
    \centering
    \subfloat[subcaption 1]{%
    \includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image1}} %
    %
    \subfloat[subcaption 2]{%
    \includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image2}} %
    %
    \subfloat[subcaption 3]{%
    \includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image3}} %

    \caption{%
    \label{fig:trans_actions} %
    Some caption text here. This is the full textwidth.}
\end{figure}

How do I get the images justified over the full width of the text?

Best Answer

Just add \hfill to spread out the figures, which adds a rubber length that is allowed to stretch and shrink horizontally as needed.

The [showframe] option for the geometry pacakge was used to show the placement of the figures and the margins.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}% Remove demo option in real document
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subfig}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \subfloat[subcaption 1]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image1}}
    \hfill
    \subfloat[subcaption 2]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image2}}
    \hfill
    \subfloat[subcaption 3]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image3}}
    \caption{\label{fig:trans_actions}
    Some caption text here. This is the full textwidth.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

As Werner pointed out, the above solution aligns the edges of the figures with the margins. If you also want spacing between the figures and margins as well you add \null\hfill on the left, and \hfill\null on the right.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}% Remove demo option in real document
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subfig}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \null\hfill
    \subfloat[subcaption 1]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image1}}
    \hfill
    \subfloat[subcaption 2]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image2}}
    \hfill
    \subfloat[subcaption 3]{\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{image3}}
    \hfill\null
    \caption{\label{fig:trans_actions}
    Some caption text here. This is the full textwidth.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Subfloat caption width requirements and alignment problems

Here are some suggestions to fix your current situation:

Note the subfloat notation:
```
\subfloat[<LoF>][<subcaption>]{<body>}
```
Since your <body> consisted only of a \label command, the <subcaption> (actually, the <LoF> entry) had to wrap around something that is "very thin", causing it to not typeset properly. See page 4 of the subfig documentation for an explanation of this.
Also, the \label should be included in the <body>.
If you put the entire \subfloat within a fixed-width environment, the caption will wrap according to that width. This can be achieved via a minipage environment, for example. In the following minimal example, I've defined two new commands:
```
\vertfig[<subcaption>]{<body>}% For vertical figure placement
\horizfig[<subcaption>]{<body>}% For horizontal figure placement
```
that you can use to replace the traditional \subfloat. \vertfig typesets its contents in a 5in-width minipage, while \horizfig does so in a 3in-width minipage. Both dropped the second optional argument of \subfloat[..][..]{...}, since it didn't seem to matter to you.

As you can see, no fixed-width \captionsetup is required, since the captions wrap to the box they're contained in.

Different subfloats with different widths

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[a3paper]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry
\usepackage{graphicx}% http://ctan.org/pkg/graphicx
%\usepackage{caption}% http://ctan.org/pkg/caption
\usepackage{subfig}% http://ctan.org/pkg/subfig
\newsubfloat{figure}
\pagestyle{empty}% No header/footer
\newcommand{\vertfig}[2][]{%
  \begin{minipage}{5in}\subfloat[#1]{#2}\end{minipage}}
\newcommand{\horizfig}[2][]{%
  \begin{minipage}{3in}\subfloat[#1]{#2}\end{minipage}}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering
  \vertfig% \subfloat
    [This is probably the biggest tiger you will ever see in your life.
     The caption associated with this subfloat should span more than one
     line even though the width of the contents is 5in.]
    {\includegraphics[width=5in]{tiger}\label{fig:vizcardfront}}

  \vertfig% \subfloat
    [Data submission form on the back of the view guide.]
    {\includegraphics[width=5in]{tiger}\label{fig:vizcardback}}
  \caption{The visibility monitoring view guide.}\label{fig:viewcard}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering
  \horizfig%\subfloat
    [Here is another picture of the tiger, this time a little smaller.
     It is still very fierce-looking, right?]
    {\includegraphics[width=3in]{tiger}\label{fig:plantcam}}
  \hfill
  \horizfig%\subfloat
    [A HOBO$\textsuperscript{\textregistered}$ data logger for air and soil data.]
    {\includegraphics[width=3in]{tiger}\label{fig:logger}}
  \caption{Automatic data collection instruments.}\label{fig:autodata}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

geometry was merely used to set the paper size to a3paper.

[Tex/LaTex] Include centered full page figure with no margins

Another option is to use pdfpages package as reported here.

For this add the following line in the preamble:

\usepackage{pdfpages}

Now you need to create a pdf with exact size of your LaTeX document. For this I used Inkscape, but you can use any other tool. In case you do not know what is the exact size of page in pixels, just open the pdf with Inkscape. This will give you titlepage, you can see the height and width of page in Inkscape. Let's say the size of page is 765x990 pixels. Now resize the image that you want to this size and embed it in this page. Save the file as pdf in Inkscape.

Now in the main LaTeX file use the following command

\includepdf{input.pdf}

I am attaching a screenshot of my document below.

LaTeX Full Page Image

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Subfloat caption width requirements and alignment problems

[Tex/LaTex] Include centered full page figure with no margins

Related Question