[Tex/LaTex] Set distance between Captions

captionsminipagepositioning

I've got a question about the placement of captions, specifically the distance between the captions.

The problem is that I have two figures next to each other (through minipage) that both require a caption with a lot of text. However, as the picture below indicates, it quickly becomes unreadable, so I would like to add some whitespace there.

Does anybody know how to achieve this?

enter image description here

The actual code

\begin{figure}

\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}

\includegraphics[scale=0.45]{3b_01.png}

\caption{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that 
    the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not. The map 
    is an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. 
    Gamma goes from 0 to 1 (each increment in y direction = 1/15 ) where as Tau goes 
    from 0 to 1 (each increment x direction = 1/60). }

\label{fig:3b_01}

\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}{.45\textwidth}

\includegraphics[scale=0.45]{3b_02.png}

\caption{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that
    the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not.The map is
    an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. Gamma 
    goes from 0 to 1 (each increment in y direction = 1/15 ) where as Tau goes from 
    0 to 1 (each increment x direction = 1/60). Notice how the different tolerance 
    leads to a larger area but with an equal shape }

\label{fig:3b_02}

\end{minipage}

\end{figure}

Best Answer

You could just add \hfil or \hfill (try what you like more) between your two figure. This will "push" the two images to the margins and put some blank space between them.

Here is a version with minipage and one with subfigure from subcaption. If the \hfill is not possible for you, you should take a look on the command \subcaptionbox in the documentation here. If your images do have different heights, neither my [t]-alignment nor a [b] alignment will look nice, as the captions do have different length. \subcaptionbox offers a possibility to manage such cases.

% arara: pdflatex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}
\includegraphics[scale=0.45]{3b_01.png}
\caption[Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells]{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not. The map is an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. Gamma goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment in $y$ direction $= 1/15$) where as Tau goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment $x$ direction $= 1/60$).}
\end{minipage}%
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{.45\textwidth}
\includegraphics[scale=0.45]{3b_02.png}
\caption[Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells]{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not.The map is an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. Gamma goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment in $y$ direction $= 1/15$) where as Tau goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment $x$ direction $= 1/60$). Notice how the different tolerance leads to a larger area but with an equal shape}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{figure}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.45\linewidth]{3b_01.png}
\caption[Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells]{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not. The map is an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. Gamma goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment in $y$ direction $= 1/15$) where as Tau goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment $x$ direction $= 1/60$).}
\label{fig:3b_01}
\end{subfigure}%
\hfill
\begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{3b_02.png}
\caption[Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells]{Synchronisation map for the two coupled cells: blue points indicate that the systems synchronise, red points indicate that the system does not.The map is an average of three equal systems with each a different initial condition. Gamma goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment in $y$ direction $= 1/15$) where as Tau goes from \numrange{0}{1} (each increment $x$ direction $= 1/60$). Notice how the different tolerance leads to a larger area but with an equal shape}
\label{fig:3b_02}
\end{subfigure}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

enter image description here

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