Two-column figure at beginning of appendix

Question

My two-column document has an Appendix, and I would like to put a two-column Figure at the beginning of the Appendix.

I tried to use the following code:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}

\section{Section}
\blindtext[4]

\clearpage

\appendix
\section{Appendix}
\begin{figure*}[t]
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
\caption{Figure}
\end{figure*}

\blindtext[4]

\end{document}

The result looks like this (The Figure was placed on the last page):

This question asks something similar, but it does not ask about the Appendix (or right after clearing the page). Also, the suggested solution with \twocolumn[...] does not seem to work in this case.

a full-width float can only go at the top or bottom of a two-column page (and at the bottom only on a non-first page with a special package). the question How to put a full-width table at the top or bottom of the same two-column page as the reference text? offers a hackish workaround that involves setting a full-width block in the narrower left-hand column and forcing a compensating blank area in the right-hand column. although the code given is for the bottom of the page, it can also work higher up. requires iteration to get the dimensions right. — barbara beeton, Nov 03 '17 at 16:56

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '17 at 17:48

You can use the stfloats package:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{stfloats}
\begin{document}

\section{Section}
\blindtext[4]

\clearpage

\begin{figure*}[!t]
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
\caption{Figure}
\end{figure*}


\appendix
\section{Appendix}

\blindtext[4] \blindtext[4] 

\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 03 '17 at 17:18

Two column figures always come at the earliest at the page after their position in the source, but here for reasons that are not totally apparent at present the \clearpage before the figure is affecting the placement. (Or at least it's not clear how to flush all the floats at that point without using \clearpage in a way that affects the position of the following floats)

However as there are no pending floats here you can remove the clearpage:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}

\section{Section}
\blindtext[4]

%\clearpage

\begin{figure*}[!t]
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
A very wide figure that spans across two columns.
\caption{Figure}
\end{figure*}

\newpage



\appendix
\section{Appendix}

\blindtext[4]

\end{document}

Two-column figure at beginning of appendix

2 Answers2