How to position wide figures in two column documents

Question

I want to an image at the bottom of a page in a two column document. Using figure* causes the image to jump to the bottom of the document. Is there a way to avoid this?

Here is an example:

\begin{figure*}[h]
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{image.png}
\caption{info}
\label{fig:1}
\end{figure*}

This results in all the images jumping to the bottom of the document. Using [b],[!b],[h], [!h],[ht] or [!ht] also results in the images jumping to the bottom of the document. Even if the figures are reduced in size, smaller than text width, I end up with several pages of text and then some pages of figures.

This is what I currently use.

\documentclass[twocolumn,pre,floats,aps,amsmath,amssymb]{revtex4}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{bm}
\begin{document}
\title{document title }
\author{name}
\affiliation {place }
\date{\today}
\maketitle
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}
\begin{figure*}[h]
\includegraphics[width=5 in]{1.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:1}
\end{figure*}
\section{Materials and Methods}
\label{sec:experiment}
\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}
\begin{figure*}[h]
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{2.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:2}
\end{figure*}.
\begin{figure*}[h]
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{3.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:3}
\end{figure*} 
\section{Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclusion}
\begin{figure*}[h]
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{4.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:4}
\end{figure*}
\subsubsection*{References}
 citation~\cite{ABC}, article citation~\cite{author}comment 
\begin{thebibliography}{99}
\bibitem{ABC}reference {\it } ()
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

This is just a shot in the dark, but you does putting \renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.99} in your preamble help at all? — John Wickerson, May 22 '13 at 12:49
Please provide a MWE, that can be used by us using the copy-and-paste to reproduce your problem. — cacamailg, May 22 '13 at 12:49
This might help: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/11366/how-can-i-get-the-figures-not-to-be-pushed-to-the-end-of-the-document — John Wickerson, May 22 '13 at 12:50
See http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/39017/how-to-influence-the-position-of-float-environments-like-figure-and-table-in-lat/ — cacamailg, May 22 '13 at 12:50
Take a look at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/66467/latex-figures-in-two-column — , May 22 '13 at 13:28
When I use the stfloats package, I get several errors: unidentified control sequence, tex capacity exceeded, underfull hbox() paragraph() — Olivier, May 22 '13 at 20:51
The \begin{figure*} environment will ignore the possition modifiers h and t, so you are only allowed to place figures on the top of the page or on a page of floats. If you use the dblfloatfix package (add \usepackage{dblfloatfix} in your preamble), you will also be allowed to use the b modifier. Note that you will still not be allowed to use h, but since you wanted your figures at the bottom of the page, this package should solve your problem. — Fredrik M. Kirkemo, Jul 06 '13 at 11:15

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 17 '14 at 08:58

[More of a comment, but to move off the unanswered list]

With the standard document classes, loading dblfloatfix would allow some flexibility here. However, as you are using REVTeX that does not work (you can load the package but it has no effect). The best that you can do is miss out the positional arguments entirely: LaTeX will then at least be able to place the floats at the top of columns and so some of them won't get bumped to the end of the document. (As you are using a journal document class the usual advice applies: just because you think the layout is odd doesn't mean you should change it!)

\documentclass[twocolumn,pre,floats,aps,amsmath,amssymb]{revtex4}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\title{document title }
\author{name}
\affiliation {place }
\date{\today}
\maketitle
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}
\lipsum[1-8]
\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=5 in]{1.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:1}
\end{figure*}
\section{Materials and Methods}
\label{sec:experiment}
\lipsum[1-8]
\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}
\lipsum[1-8]
\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{2.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:2}
\end{figure*}.
\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{3.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:3}
\end{figure*} 
\section{Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclusion}
\lipsum[1-8]
\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=6 in]{4.png}
\caption{A sample schematic diagram for an experiment.}
\label{fig:4}
\end{figure*}
\subsubsection*{References}
 citation~\cite{ABC}, article citation~\cite{author}comment 
\begin{thebibliography}{99}
\bibitem{ABC}reference {\it } ()
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

How to position wide figures in two column documents

1 Answers1