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I have a big floating figure that is being shifted a little more far than the usual and I suspect it might be because LaTeX does not like to put figures within an enumerated list (which is filling up 0.75 of a page not far after the figure has been placed because it has quite a lot of text between items).

Does somebody know if LaTeX is reluctant to break an enumerated list with a Figure?

quimnuss
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    why can"t you put the figure after the list if you allow latex to shift it anyway? If you want it to appear in the list have you tried to force it there with the "place here"-option? – ted Jun 09 '13 at 11:53
  • @ted I usually trust the automagic criteria of LaTeX placing floats, I'd like to keep that in case the text were to change. Since I see there's lots of space within the enumerate list, I'm wondering why it does not take advantatge of it, but I don't want to force anything. – quimnuss Jun 09 '13 at 12:54
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    Floats are only marginally tied to the place where they appear in the LaTeX document; that place basically means "starting from here, try and find a suitable spot where the float can be typeset". The caption and the number are just thought for giving a description and defining a label for referencing the object. According to Murphy's law “the place where I'd like the float to appear is never the one that will be eventually chosen”. – egreg Jun 09 '13 at 13:16
  • @egreg I know that, and I like it. What I'm asking is if LaTeX is reluctant to place floats within enumerate lists or not. – quimnuss Jun 09 '13 at 14:34
  • LaTeX is not more reluctant than in other places. But it respects the relevant parameters' values. A good place to look for information is Frank Mittelbach's answer to How to influence the position of float environments – egreg Jun 09 '13 at 14:54
  • @egreg Thanks! that's what I was wondering, the documentation you gave does not say anything about enumerates, so I'm guessing it does not treat them specially. Also, I created a MWE document to test it, and it seems to allow figures to break enumerates. Question answered. (you can place your comment as answer if you like) – quimnuss Jun 11 '13 at 10:22

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Floats are only marginally tied to the place where they appear in the LaTeX document; that place basically means "starting from here, try and find a suitable spot where the float can be typeset". The caption and the number are in fact thought for giving a description and defining a label for referencing the object.

According to Murphy's law “the place where I'd like the float to appear is never the one that will be eventually chosen”; this seems to be a joke, but it's really what happens in the majority of cases: particularly, if a float is large, the chances it can be placed at the “right spot” are small.

I'd add also that I find it dubious breaking an enumerated (or itemized) list with a float, because it hinders legibility more than if the float is at the top or bottom of the page with an appropriate reference in the text.

In general, LaTeX is not more reluctant to place floats in the middle of a list than in other places. But it respects the relevant parameters' values. A good place to look for information is Frank Mittelbach's answer to How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?

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