[Tex/LaTex] Make figure with minipages wider than text

floatsminipage

I have a lot of figures I want to present, and I try to line them up three in a row to save space, using the code below.

The figures become a bit too small, so I wanted to make the outer figure 1.25 of textwidth by putting {1.25\textwidth} after \begin{figure}, but that gives me a "Missing number, treated as zero." error.

How can I make the figure wider?

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
    \begin{minipage}{.33\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q1.eps}
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}{.33\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q2.eps}
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}{.33\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q3.eps}
    \end{minipage}
    \caption{Answers to questions 1, 2, and 3.}
    \label{fig:survey-ans-1-2-3}
\end{figure}

Best Answer

Here I use nested \makeboxes around the minipages. The outer one set to \textwidth, so that it centers properly, the inner to 1.25\textwidth to allow the \hfills to operate.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
    \makebox[\textwidth]{\makebox[1.25\textwidth]{%
    \begin{minipage}{.4\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q1.eps}
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}{.4\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q2.eps}
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}{.4\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{survey-q3.eps}
    \end{minipage}}}
    \caption{Answers to questions 1, 2, and 3.}
    \label{fig:survey-ans-1-2-3}
\end{figure}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Center figure that is wider than \textwidth

Put the content of your figure environment into a \makebox[\textwidth][c]{...} macro. This will center its content to the normal text width even if it is wider than that. See also my similar answer to Place figures side by side, spill into outer margin.

The image can also be aligned to the left and right using [l] and [r], which makes the image lap into the right or left margin, respectively.

Example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
  \makebox[\textwidth][c]{\includegraphics[width=1.2\textwidth]{image}}%
  \caption{Caption}
  \label{fig:key}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Starting from 2011/08/13 you can also use adjustbox package for such alignments. For centering use the center=<length> which centers the content in the given length. The length is optional and defaults to \linewidth which is normally identical to \textwidth. There is also left and right as well as inner and outer.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}[2011/08/13]
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
  \includegraphics[width=1.2\textwidth,center]{image}%
  \caption{Caption}
  \label{fig:key}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Make the width of the figure (including 2 minipages) same as the paper

Use \framebox instead of \fbox.

 \begin{figure}
  \centering
  \framebox[1\linewidth][t]{%
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
      \begin{minipage}[t]{1\linewidth}%
      left part is going to be very big sentence that goes into two lines
      \end{minipage}%
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
      \begin{minipage}[t]{1\linewidth}%
      right part is going to be very big sentence that goes into two lines
      \end{minipage}%
    \end{minipage}}%
  \captionof{figure}{An example program}\label{fig:An example program}
\end{figure}

enter image description here

EDIT: As per Martin's comments on using \framebox and verbatim text/catcode changing material, this code will work as desired using \fbox

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \fbox{%
  \begin{minipage}[t]{1\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}%
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
      left part right part is going to be very big sentence that goes into two lines
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
      right part right part is going to be very big sentence that goes into two lines
    \end{minipage}
    \end{minipage}}
  \captionof{figure}{An example program}\label{fig:An example program}
\end{figure}

However, you have to use

\usepackage{calc} % as per Stephan's advice.

for this to work properly.

PS. If you want this to go up to the paper width (do you really want to do that?), you have to reduce the margins to zero using geometry.

I am of the opinion that you can simply use \caption inside figure environment (instead of \captionof which will be used outside \figure environment)

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Center figure that is wider than \textwidth

[Tex/LaTex] Make the width of the figure (including 2 minipages) same as the paper

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