How to add left top-aligned letter to LaTeX subcaption figure?

Question

I am using the subcaption package to place figures side-by-side, and I need to have labels in the form of letters to the top left of the figures.

I.e. I am trying to achieve

A [Figure] B [Figure]
  [Figure]   [Figure]
  [Figure]   [Figure]
  [Figure]   [Figure]
  [Figure]   [Figure]

where a single image is denoted by:

  [Figure] 
  [Figure] 
  [Figure] 
  [Figure]
  [Figure]

I am happy for my figures to be aligned to the top of the float.

I have tried:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside,table]{report}
\usepackage[font=small]{caption}
\usepackage[labelformat = empty,position=top]{subcaption} 
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[tb]
\centering
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.05\textwidth}
\textbf{A}
\end{subfigure}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/figure1.pdf}
\end{subfigure}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.05\textwidth}
\textbf{B}
\end{subfigure}
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/figure2.pdf}
\end{subfigure}
\caption[This is for my LOF]{Yay I am usually a huge figure caption}
\label{Iamalabel}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

How do I get the labels to be

(1) Letters A, B ...

(2) Actually properly positioned as above?

Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. — karlkoeller, Feb 01 '15 at 11:34

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 18 '19 at 10:25

Something like this?

enter image description here

Code

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, twoside]{report}
\usepackage[font=small]{caption}
\usepackage[labelformat=empty, position=top]{subcaption}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[tb]
  \centering
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.03\textwidth}
    \textbf{A}
  \end{subfigure}
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, valign=t]{figures/figure1.pdf}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.03\textwidth}
    \textbf{B}
  \end{subfigure}
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, valign=t]{figures/figure2.pdf}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption[This is for my LOF]{Yay I am usually a huge figure caption}
  \label{Iamalabel}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

The trick is to add the option valign=t to \includegraphics, provided by the package adjustbox with the option export.

An example with multiple figures:

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, twoside]{report}
\usepackage[font=small]{caption}
\usepackage[labelformat=empty, position=top]{subcaption}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[tb]
  \centering
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.03\textwidth}
    \textbf{A}
  \end{subfigure}
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, valign=t]{figures/figure1.pdf}\\[3pt]
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/figure1.pdf}\\[3pt]
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/figure1.pdf}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.03\textwidth}
    \textbf{B}
  \end{subfigure}
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.45\textwidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, valign=t]{figures/figure2.pdf}\\[3pt]
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/figure1.pdf}\\[3pt]
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/figure1.pdf}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption[This is for my LOF]{Yay I am usually a huge figure caption}
  \label{Iamalabel}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Note that, since you are not using subcaptions for your subfigures, you replace all your subfigures with minipages.

any way to get the letter labels (A, B) higher up on the page -- so that they're diagonally up and to the left from the top left corners of the images? — abcd, May 16 '16 at 02:14
You could also make this work without the \usepackage[export]{adjustbox} (and valign=t) by adding \vskip 0pt at the top of every subfigure that contains an image. — Augustin, Mar 18 '19 at 10:21

How to add left top-aligned letter to LaTeX subcaption figure?

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