[Tex/LaTex] Last word of paragraph appears on new page after figure

floatsline-breakingpage-breakingparagraphs

I use a figure environment without placement specifiers, and it ends up being put on top of a page, with the very last word of the preceding paragraph put just below it. This means that the page with the figure on it looks like

1) figure+multiple lines of caption

2) spacing

3) the single word "chamber."

4) spacing

5) a new paragraph

note that the multiple lines of caption make the extra word appearing below it look particularly weird.
(i am sorry for not including an MWE, but a lot of fiddling around would be required to get the exact problem that I have)

Now, of course I could use placement specifiers to get rid of this specific problem, or I could add a non breaking space to at least get one more word on the new line. My question however is if there is a general (and canonical) solution to this, or if it is actually acceptable to have that single word at the beginning of a page. (I personally just don't want to look unprofessional)

Best Answer

Latex tries hard to not have a single line of the paragraph go over a page, but if the page does break there it has no way of saying that's a particularly bad place to have a top float.

You could try increasing \widowpenalty (from its default of 150) to encourage the last line of a paragraph to stay with the paragraph on the previous page (or for two lines to come over to the new page), but unless there is enough flexibility on the page to accommodate an extra line, often this will have no effect as that is the only feasible break point.

Best to leave it until the document is nearly finished (or forever:-) and then if you want to change things, you can re-word, or use \enlargethispage{\baselineskip} on the previous page to squeeze in an extra line, or use the optional argument on that float to remove t possibility.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to put a figure on below paragraph in latex

Figures (environment figure) and tables (environment table) are floating objects. That means LaTeX tries to place them optimal in your document. The best place to print them is at the top of the page.

Use the parameter [ht] to advice LaTeX to place the figure either here (h) or at the top (t) of the (next) page: \begin{figure}[ht].

With ! you can instruct LaTeX to make the position of the graphic opposite typographical conventions. That is, the graphic will be placed preferred here. Do not use ! if possible.

[Tex/LaTex] Full-page figure with preceding caption

I'd just put the caption in a [b] figure and the image in a [p] the caption figure will float until there is room for the caption at the bottom if the page, and at the following page break the pending p float will necessarily be output. (I'd never use afterpage: I know who wrote it:-)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum,graphicx}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-11]


\begin{figure}[b]
  \caption[Some rather long caption]{\lipsum*[2]}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[p]
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=.999\textheight]{example-image}% La
\end{figure}
\lipsum[12-20]
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to put a figure on below paragraph in latex

[Tex/LaTex] Full-page figure with preceding caption

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