Unexpected “Float too large for page”

Question

My client wants the illustrations in her book to have the page to themselves, so I’ve been using code like this for the floats:

\documentclass{memoir}

% Page layout: 6″×9″ , no trim; type-block: 4.75″×7.5″
\setstocksize{9in}{6in} \settrimmedsize{9in}{6in}{*} \settrims{0in}{0in}
\setbinding{0.375in} \setlrmarginsandblock{0.375in}{0.5in}{*} \setulmarginsandblock{0.75in}{0.75in}{*}

\usepackage{calc}
\setheadfoot{\baselineskip}{\topskip + \baselineskip} \setheaderspaces{*}{\topskip}{*} \setmarginnotes{0.25\spinemargin}{0.5\spinemargin}{0pt}

\checkandfixthelayout[nearest]

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
  % type-block is 4.75″×7.5″, picture is 2850×2850 @600dpi = 4.75″×4.75″,
  % so add (7.5″−4.75″)÷2 = 1.375″ vspace on each side of the picture
  % to force it to occupy a full page
  \vspace{1.375in}
  \centering
  \includegraphics{illustration.png}
  \vspace{1.375in}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Despite my math, I’m getting the message, “LaTeX Warning: Float too large for page by 16.02414pt on input line 23.”

Following the answers to How can I get rid of the LaTeX warning: Float too large for page?, I can certainly reduce the vspace I’m adding, but I’d like to understand where the error is coming from. What am I not accounting for that’s eating 14–16 points in every picture?

The text height is 538pt, that is, 7.44in. But why not just doing \begin{figure}[p] and forget about manually centering the object, as LaTeX does it by itself? — egreg, Nov 27 '17 at 17:20
\begin{figure}[p] pushes the illustration to the end of the chapter; I’d like it to not float so far. — J. C. Salomon, Nov 27 '17 at 17:24
something else is wrong if [p] is pushing large floats to end of chapter )it holds back small floats, to try to fill a page) — David Carlisle, Nov 27 '17 at 17:34
What counts as “large”? Most of these pictures are 3″–4½″ tall, not much more than half the \textheight. — J. C. Salomon, Nov 27 '17 at 19:19

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '17 at 17:29

Let TeX do the computations:

\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\setstocksize{9in}{6in}
\settrimmedsize{9in}{6in}{*}
\settrims{0in}{0in}
\setbinding{0.375in}
\setlrmarginsandblock{0.375in}{0.5in}{*}
\setulmarginsandblock{0.75in}{0.75in}{*}

\setheadfoot{\baselineskip}{\topskip + \baselineskip}
\setheaderspaces{*}{\topskip}{*}
\setmarginnotes{0.25\spinemargin}{0.5\spinemargin}{0pt}

\checkandfixthelayout[nearest]

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}

\begin{minipage}[c][\textheight]{\textwidth}
\centering
\rule{4.75in}{4.75in}
%\includegraphics{illustration.png}
\end{minipage}

\end{figure}

\end{document}

Thank you also for the \rule{4.75in}{4.75in}; I hope I remember it next time I need a standalone MWE. — J. C. Salomon, Nov 27 '17 at 19:21

Unexpected “Float too large for page”

1 Answers1