12

I'd like my academic paper to have a page-width-spanning figure right underneath the title. How do I do this? Whenever I try using \begin{figure*}...\end{figure*} with the figure at the start of my paper, it always pushes it to the second page, no matter what combination of h, t, ! arguments I put.

To be clear, I want something like this: figure span to one column on double column page

but I want my figure to be at the top of the FIRST page underneath the title. Does anyone have a minimum working example?

My document begins like this:

\begin{document} \maketitle ...

Community
  • 1
wwwilliam
  • 223

2 Answers2

10

This way:

\documentclass[12pt,twocolumn]{article}

\usepackage{float}

\usepackage{lipsum} % provides just dummy text

\begin{document}

\twocolumn[{\begin{figure}[H]
\setlength{\linewidth}{\textwidth}
\setlength{\hsize}{\textwidth}
\centering
\rule{10cm}{5cm} % this is your image
\caption{My first float}
\end{figure}}]

\lipsum % provides just dummy text

\end{document}

How does it work:

  • The command \twocolumn initializes twocolumn mode. It has an optional argument that gets typeset as a "header" in the onecolumn mode.

  • In this header we put a float placed Here (please, never use H specifier elsewhere).

  • Inside the float, we have to convince LaTeX that it's a wide figure, by correctly redefining the two width parameters.

Version with \maketitle

The difference is that instead of using the command \twocolumn, we add the figure into the command \@maketitle which is responsible for typesetting the title material.

\documentclass[12pt,twocolumn]{article}

\usepackage{float}

\usepackage{lipsum} % provides just dummy text

\title{MyTitle}
\author{Me the 1st}

\begin{document}

\makeatletter
\g@addto@macro\@maketitle{
  \begin{figure}[H]
  \setlength{\linewidth}{\textwidth}
  \setlength{\hsize}{\textwidth}
  \centering
  \rule{10cm}{5cm} % this is your image
  \caption{My first float}
  \end{figure}
}
\makeatother

\maketitle

\lipsum % provides just dummy text

\end{document}
yo'
  • 51,322
  • You are right about mwe's. But the question said below the title. Without a mwe, it is hard to say which way they get the title! :-) –  Dec 09 '12 at 22:35
  • Hi @tohecz, sorry, I wasn't clear... I do have a \maketitle; I apologize my question wasn't clear. With a \maketitle above the \twocolumn code you suggested, I have a blank first page except for the title, and my desired figure appears on the top of the second page. any ideas? – wwwilliam Dec 09 '12 at 22:56
  • @spadina I added a version that should work with \maketitle. If it does not work, please edit your question and provide a full Minimal Working Example. – yo' Dec 09 '12 at 23:03
7

You may (mis)use the title field and insert a picture. To insert a caption, I used the \captionof from caption package as a floating figure there makes me uncomfortable!

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{caption}

\title[The title]{%
The Title\\[1em]
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{logo}%
\captionof{figure}{This is a figure}
}
\author{The Author}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\lipsum[1-5]

\end{document}

enter image description here

To avoid trouble with headers or bookmarks use 

 \title[The Title]{The Title\\[1em] 
  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{logo}
  \captionof{figure}{This is a figure}
  }

as suggested by Gonzalo.