Make two figures aligned at top

Question

I am inserting two graphs (of different size) in the following way:

\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{graph1.eps}
\includegraphics[scale=0.3]{graph2.eps}
\caption{\label{fig:scaled_diss}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

which would be perfect if the graphs were of near-identical build, but it's currently resulting in the graph borders being mis-aligned, as in:

enter image description here

So the right graph doesn't have tics on the x axis. How do I make it that the graphs are aligned at the top, then the scaling can be altered, to give something like this:

enter image description here

don't use scale= use height= so they both scale to the same height. (and don't use H :-) — David Carlisle, Mar 10 '13 at 21:41
@David But using "height=" won't give the desired result -- in the desired result, the two images do not have the same height, because of the x-axis labels in the first image. (And for examples like the way the figures and text are used together seamlessly in the question itself, H is a reasonable way to ensure the result isn't nonsense, if you need to use the figure command at all. :-) — Matt, Jan 18 '14 at 10:55

score 75 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '13 at 21:48

Use the adjustbox package's valign=t key to align the graphics contents at the top:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}% http://ctan.org/pkg/adjustbox
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[scale=0.5,valign=t]{example-image-a}
  \includegraphics[scale=0.3,valign=t]{example-image-b}
  \caption{A caption\label{fig:scaled_diss}}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Using the export key with adjustbox, this will load the graphicx package, and allow you to use its keys as part of \includegraphics.

Also, for your specific example, it may be more advisable to use a fixed height, rather than a scale. This way you can more readily provide the same vertical alignment of your items (graphics or otherwise).

I got this error: Option clash for package adjustbox.. Now I have to check with all other packages... :-( — hola, Sep 02 '17 at 14:47

score 21 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

21

Since adjustbox is not easy to install on ubuntu-12.04 the solution proposed in Aligning image and text on top, with minipages can be useful.

\begin{tabular}{p{0.5\textwidth} p{0.5\textwidth}}
  \vspace{0pt} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{example-image-a} &
  \vspace{0pt} \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{example-image-b}
\end{tabular}

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Aug 06 '13 at 09:55

zeliboba

413

thanks. This is (at least for me) the easiest way to align the images on top. +1 – marcel Sep 26 '19 at 13:32

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 24 '16 at 17:37

A third alternative is the stackengine package, with its \belowbaseline command, which places the top of an object a given distance below the baseline, shown below without, then with \belowbaseline.

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

\def\figa{\rule{1in}{1in}}
\def\figb{\scalebox{.6}{\figa}}

\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\figa~\figb
\caption{\label{fig:scaled_diss}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\belowbaseline[0pt]{\figa}~\belowbaseline[0pt]{\figb}
\caption{\label{fig:scaled_diss}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

enter image description here

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 12:07

And yet another alternative is to use the graphboxpackage. It has some extra options for \includegraphics. The top vertical aligment would be achived using align=t option:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphbox,graphicx}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[align=t,scale=0.5]{example-image}
\includegraphics[align=t,scale=0.3]{example-image}
\caption{Caption text\label{fig:scaled_diss}}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

I'd strongly advise against the use of the float package H option. Furthermore using \centering rather than the environment center produces less vertical space.

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 27 '20 at 16:11

-1

perhaps an even simpler one, using multicol:

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\begin{multicols}{2}
\includegraphics[width=0.65\textwidth]{whatever.eps}
\includegraphics[width=0.34\textwidth]{whatever.eps}
\end{multicols}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

answered Jul 27 '20 at 16:11

Manuel Lera Ramírez

1

It is best to use \centering instead of center to avoid unwanted extra white space. In addtion, try to provide full MWE, instead of just snippets that requires adding code to work. Furthermore, this solution is rather hacky and most likely not the indented way to use the package multicol. – Guilherme Zanotelli Oct 15 '21 at 20:54

Make two figures aligned at top

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