Using the same figure twice with no new number

Question

I have a figure that relates to two different issues discussed at very different point in a long document. Rather then send the reader back 50 pages to look up a figure, I would like to include the figure again at the later point.

However, I don't want it to appear twice in the list of figures or receive a new label number.

In this example, I would like it to appear in chapter 2 as figure 2.5 and again in chapter 4 as figure 2.5.

Is there a simple way to accomplish this? I am using Xelatex Version 3.1415926-2.5-0.9999.3 from the Texlive 2013 Arch Linux package.

Answer 1

With caption it's easy to avoid a caption going in the list of figures.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{caption}
\newcommand{\repeatcaption}[2]{%
  \renewcommand{\thefigure}{\ref{#1}}%
  \captionsetup{list=no}%
  \caption{#2 (repeated from page \pageref{#1})}%
  \addtocounter{figure}{-1}% So that next figure after the repeat gets the right number.
}
\newcommand{\fakeimage}{\fbox{Fake image}} % just for the example
\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\listoffigures
\mainmatter
\chapter{A chapter title}
text
\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\fakeimage
\caption{A caption}\label{figure:nice}
\end{figure}
\chapter{Another title}
text
\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\fakeimage
\caption{This is for the new figure}\label{figure:dull}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\fakeimage
\repeatcaption{figure:nice}{A caption}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

It's up to you whether defining a macro holding the figure to be repeated or one for the caption text.

Answer 2

Here's one way, by stuffing the repeated figure content in a saved\vbox. However, in this case, the repeated figure will not be a float. EDITED to resolve List of Figures issue.

\documentclass{article}
\newsavebox\savefigure
\begin{document}
\listoffigures

\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\framebox{first figure}
\caption{First caption}
\end{figure}

\savebox\savefigure{\vbox{%
\centering
\framebox{second figure}
}}
\begin{figure}[ht]
\noindent\usebox{\savefigure}
\caption{Second caption}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\framebox{third figure}
\caption{Third caption}
\end{figure}

{\centering
\medskip
\noindent\usebox{\savefigure}\par
\bigskip
Figure 2: Second caption\par}
\end{document}