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The options in

\begin{figure}[!htb]
[...]
\end{figure}

are in conflict (place here, place at the top, place at the bottom).

It is said that the order doesn't matter. So, how are those options prioritized?

Leonardo Castro
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1 Answers1

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The order in the option does not matter as they just restrict where latex attempts to place the float so the main effect of the option you give is to prevent the float being placed on a float page as p is not included.

Obviously h has to be tried first, at the point the float is entered, but top bottom and page floats are just cyclically tried as each time latex tries to make a page it looks through the pending floats to see if a float is allowed, so for example if starting a new page it looks at the first pending figure to see if it allows t and if so attempts to add it to the page, but that float will have been tried with b on the previous page and possibly t on the previous page.

! should rarely be used, it just says to ignore some constraints.

David Carlisle
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  • Hmmm... So, although some people describe t as place figure at the top, it's rather allow figure to be placed at the top. – Leonardo Castro Jan 27 '16 at 16:01
  • If I don't put t in the options of a figure, it will never be put at the top of a page?! And, if I don't specify any options, it will never be put at the top nor at the bottom? – Leonardo Castro Jan 27 '16 at 16:02
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    @LeonardoCastro yes that would be the case except that if you do not use the option at all, or use [] then the class-specified default is used which in most classes is [tbp] so using an option such as [t] typically just makes it harder to place the figure it means not bottom and not float page. – David Carlisle Jan 27 '16 at 16:22
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    @LeonardoCastro that is why if you do [h] latex usually warns that it has changed it to [ht]: in latex 2.09 that did not happen so if you used [h] at a point that was near the bottom of the page so the float did not fit, it always went to the end of the document (so all following figures would do the same) as the float having not fitted "here" was not allowed anywhere. using [ht] gives latex more of a chance. – David Carlisle Jan 27 '16 at 16:27