[Tex/LaTex] How to place two figures into a column on a two-column document

floatstwo-column

I wanna to place two figures (one with two subfigures) into a column on a two-column document, as shown below.

enter image description here

I tried \begin{figure*} ... \end{figure*}, but got this,

enter image description here

I also tried \begin{multicols}{1} ... \end{multicols}, but got nothing.

Here is my source code. 

\documentclass[twocolumn,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{cleveref}
\usepackage{todonotes}      % create Placeholder for missing figure
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{multicol}

\begin{document}

\blindtext
\blindtext
\blindtext

\begin{figure*}[h]%[pbth]
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}{0.3\textwidth}
        \missingfigure[figwidth=\textwidth]{}
        \caption{Subfigure 1}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}{0.3\textwidth}
        \missingfigure[figwidth=\textwidth]{}
        \caption{Subfigure 2}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}{0.3\textwidth}
        \missingfigure[figwidth=\textwidth]{}
        \caption{Fig. 2}
    \end{subfigure}
    \caption{Fig. 1}
\end{figure*}

\blindtext
\blindtext
\blindtext

\begin{multicols}{1}
\begin{figure}%[h]%[pbth]
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}{0.3\textwidth}
        \missingfigure[figwidth=\textwidth]{}
        \caption{Subfigure 1}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}{0.3\textwidth}
        \missingfigure[figwidth=\textwidth]{}
        \caption{Subfigure 2}
    \end{subfigure}
    \caption{Fig. 1}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}%{0.3\textwidth}
    \missingfigure[figwidth=.3\textwidth]{}
    \caption{Fig. 2}
\end{figure}
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

Best Answer

You can place a combination of ordinary figures and subfigures by making use of the minipage environment.

\documentclass[twocolumn,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\minipage[t]{0.66\linewidth}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{.5\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{example-image}
    \caption{Bob}
\end{subfigure}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{.5\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image}
    \caption{Bob's brother}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{This is a description that's too long to fit on one line.}\label{fig:awesome_image3}
\endminipage
~ % some horizontal spacing, can be done in different ways
\minipage[t]{0.33\linewidth}%
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image}
    \caption{This is a description that's even longer, some would say that it's even too long. However, it shows that figure vertical alignment is not affected.}\label{fig:awesome_image3}
\endminipage
\end{figure*}

\end{document}

figures and subfigures aligned

As you can see figures are aligned horizontally, independently of caption length. This is because I used the placement modifier top [t] for the minipages and subfigures. Obviously, this relatively easy solution works out best if images have the same size, because the top of figures is aligned instead of the bottom.

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