[Tex/LaTex] Positioning image in first column of two column document

floatspositioningsubfloatstwo-column

I'm trying to force an image to appear on the right column of a two-column document. I have already written 5 pages. The 5th page ends with an image:

\begin{figure}[!h!tpb]
\centering
\begin{minipage}{.77\columnwidth}
    \subfloat[Age range.]                   {\includegraphics[width=.91\textwidth, right]   {Evaluation/questions/AgeRange}} \\
    \subfloat[Level of education.]          {\includegraphics[width=.91\textwidth, right]   {Evaluation/questions/Scholarity}} \\
    \subfloat[Knowledge of vector fields.]  {\includegraphics[width=.99\textwidth, right]   {Evaluation/questions/Knowledge}} 
    \caption{Summary of the participants.}
    \label{fig:participants_summary}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}

As I have images that contain text and end up with different sizes, I used a mini page to overcome this problem.

After that page, I start a new figure placement:

\begin{figure}[!htpb]
    \centering
    \vspace{-10pt}
    \subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/questions/Q1/IV0} 
                      \includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/sim/original/VF0}}
    \vspace{-10pt}
    \subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/sim/original/VF5}
                      \includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/questions/Q1/IV1}} 
    \vspace{-10pt}
    \subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/sim/original/VF4}
                      \includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/questions/Q1/IV2}} 
    \vspace{-10pt}
    \subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/questions/Q1/IV3}
                      \includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/sim/original/VF2}} 
    \vspace{-10pt}
    \subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/sim/original/VF3}
                      \includegraphics[width=.45\columnwidth]{Evaluation/questions/Q1/IV4}} 
    \caption{Data set presented to the participants in Q1.}
    \label{fig:q1_data}
\end{figure}

text

I was expecting this set to images to be positioned in the right column (first column of a new page). However, if I just start writing something (after the figure environment), this image is positioned on the second column.

I can't understand why.

enter image description here

Best Answer

Your image clearly shows that your figure is too large to fit on the page,

enter image description here

LaTeX will have given a warning that the float was too large and it was being forced to \textheight as an emergency recovery.

As the float is (now) \textheight tall it has to go on a column on its own, it can not fit in a column that contains text, even if it is just the one line "text".

 \includegraphics[width=.99\textwidth, right]

presumably also gave errors about an unknown key right unless you have loaded a package that adds this key. the standard \includegraphics command does not have a key of that name.

To make things fit you either need to have less images in the figure, so that they can float separately into different columns, or if you need them all in one column, scale them to be smaller so the total height fits on the page.

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