How to force two figures to stay on the same page in LaTeX?

Question

I have two images that I want to display on a page as figures. Each eats up little less than half of the space available so there's not much room for any other stuff on that page, but I know there is enough space for both of the figures. I tried to place the figures with [ht] and [hb], both [h] and both [ht] but still I can't get those two images on the same page but instead at least few paragraphs between them.

How do I force those two figures to stay on the same page?

Solution 1

You can put two figures inside one figure environment. For example:

\begin{figure}[p]
\centering
\includegraphics{fig1}
\caption{Caption 1}
\includegraphics{fig2}
\caption{Caption 2}
\end{figure}

Each caption will generate a separate figure number.

Solution 2

If you want to have images about same topic, you ca use subfigure package and construction:

\begin{figure}
 \subfigure[first image]{\includegraphics{image}\label{first}}
 \subfigure[second image]{\includegraphics{image}\label{second}}
 \caption{main caption}\label{main_label}
\end{figure}

If you want to have, for example two, different images next to each other you can use:

\begin{figure}
 \begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  \includegraphics{image}
  \caption{first}
 \end{minipage}
 \begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  \includegraphics{image}
  \caption{second}
 \end{minipage}
\end{figure}

For images in columns you will have [1] [2] [3] [4] in the source, but it will look like

[1] [3]

[2] [4].

Solution 3

I had this problem while trying to mix figures and text. What worked for me was the 'H' option without the '!' option. \begin{figure}[H]
'H' tries to forces the figure to be exactly where you put it in the code. This requires you include \usepackage{float}

The options are explained here

Solution 4

If you want them both on the same page and they'll both take up basically the whole page, then the best idea is to tell LaTeX to put them both on a page of their own!

\begin{figure}[p]

It would probably be against sound typographic principles (e.g., ugly) to have two figures on a page with only a few lines of text above or below them.

---

By the way, the reason that [!h] works is because it's telling LaTeX to override its usual restrictions on how much space should be devoted to floats on a page with text. As implied above, there's a reason the restrictions are there. Which isn't to say they can be loosened somewhat; see the FAQ on doing that.

Solution 5

Try adding a !, e.g. [h!].

View more solutions

Comments

[Kusti]

Thanks, [h!] worked! I favored your answer because the "ugly way" seems also a good stuff to know even when I didn't need it in this case.

[bastijn]

That is a nice answer to remember :). Never thought of it but it looks clean :).

[Rupert Nash]

Another possibility is the subfigure package and a command inside the figure environment of something like \subfloat[Caption]{\includegraphics{file}}.

[Crowley]

You can also use construction mentioned by Jerred Russel here: stackoverflow.com/questions/1673942/latex-table-positioning Point is in using float package.

[Boris van Schooten]

doesn't work, latex will replace it with [ht], then proceed to put the figure on a separate page anyway.

[Mulone]

it seems that you can't \label the two different figures independently, though

[ely]

Yes, the float package is definitely the correct answer here. I often lament that using the ! symbol, as in \begin{figure}[h!] might as well be rewritten in TeX as \please because the compiler still just decides for itself where to put your image. It just winks at you this time instead of ignoring you. The float package will make it do what you want for sure.

[Kusti]

Changed the "correct answer" flag because this one seems to be the best.

[fotNelton]

More precisely, [p] only tells the compiler to put them on a page with floats only. That might or might not result in separate pages for the two figures, depending on their size.

[Chris]

@Mulone - It seems you can if you put the \label inside the \caption environment.

[malteseKnight]

my labels work fine, outside the caption, but within \begin{center} \end{center}

[antoine]

Note: if you want to add some space between Caption1 and fig2, use \vspace{1cm}

[Danilo Roascio]

@Antoine - To add some space between Caption1 and Figure2 it would be better to use \vspace{\floatsep}

[Velda]

Link for second picture in figure will go everytime to top of the figure, not good.

[HanniBaL90]

What an elegant solution, never thought it was possible, many thanks ;)

[Jim C]

Man, you saved my life. Thanks a ton! :-)

[Anik Islam Abhi]

Works in Wiley journal template.

[Erdem KAYA]

I am not sure whether this is surprising but, the same approach works for tables, too. \begin{table} \begin{tabular} ... \end{tabular} \begin{tabular} ... \end{tabular} \end{table}