Labeling and adding caption inside a figure

Question

Seems like this question is rather closed. However, I feel that something is missing there.

Inside a figure environment, the \caption alone is nice, but its real power comes from the combination with \label. This is what enables the user to enumerate the graphics in his/her document automatically and establish cross references.

Is it possible to combine everything together?

That is, have a figure which is something like:

|---------------------------|
|                           |
|       <The figure>        |
|                           |
| Figure 1. And its caption |
|---------------------------|

and labeled using \label{fig:1}, such that its caption is embedded in the figure itself (like the wonderful possibilities offered in the answers to the linked question). Then have something like \ref{fig:1} to refer to this figure.

Is it possible to automate this? Somehow, let hand-coded caption communicate with the \caption+\label+\ref mechanism. I have to say that I don't even know where to start addressing this issue.

Can you give more indication about what the question is? I have to say I don't understand it at all. In the accepted answer to the linked question the caption is not embedded in the image file it is just typeset with latex/tikz but overlayed over the image, but caption/label would just work as normal. — David Carlisle, Mar 12 '13 at 20:04
Perhaps the package textpos could be useful for your purpose. Check the manual HERE and look for the option overlay. — Dox, Mar 12 '13 at 20:32

Andrew Swann · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-13T08:09:05.553

You can use the caption package to set up a style, lets call it overlay that saves the caption for use later. Here is an example:

EDIT example technique slightly change, example extended, now working with hyperref

Sample output

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz,caption}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\DeclareCaptionFormat{overlay}{\gdef\capoverlay{#1#2#3\par}}
\DeclareCaptionStyle{overlay}{format=overlay}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[htp]
  \centering
  \captionsetup{format=overlay}
  \caption{Example.}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \node[anchor=south west,inner sep=0] (image) at (0,0)
    {\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image-a}};
    \begin{scope}[x={(image.south east)},y={(image.north west)}]
      \draw[white, fill=gray,opacity=0.5] (0,0) rectangle (1,0.15);
      \draw let \p1 = (1,0)
      in node[opacity=0.5,text width=\x1,align=center,color=white] at
      (0.5, 0.075) 
      {\capoverlay};
    \end{scope}
  \end{tikzpicture}
  \label{fig:example}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-a}
  \caption{Non-overlay example}
  \label{fig:non}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htp]
  \centering
  \captionsetup{format=overlay}
  \caption{Example with caption overlay and long placed on a smaller figure.}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \node[anchor=south west,inner sep=0] (image) at (0,0)
    {\includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{example-image-a}};
    \begin{scope}[x={(image.south east)},y={(image.north west)}]
      \draw[white, fill=gray,opacity=0.5] (0,0) rectangle (1,0.15);
      \draw let \p1 = (1,0)
      in node[opacity=0.5,text width=\x1,align=center,color=blue] at
      (0.5, 0.075) 
      {\capoverlay};
    \end{scope}
  \end{tikzpicture}
  \label{fig:example2}
\end{figure}

A reference to Figure~\ref{fig:example} and to Figure~\ref{fig:example2}.

\listoffigures

\end{document}

Note this needs the caption to come before the tikz code. It formats the caption, saves it in a command and reuses that command in the code of the linked question to place text on top of the figure. As set-up now this works with hyperref and does not affect other figures. You can change the formatting of the caption via standard tikz commands on the node.

Labeling and adding caption inside a figure

1 Answers1