Changing the pagestyle on the page where a {table} or any other float is placed

Question

When typesetting a large table using \begin{table} ... \end{table} (or any other float) one sometimes wants to change the pagestyle of the page where the float finally appears.

Can one use \thispagestyle{...} for achieving this effect at all? In any case, putting the command inside the float does not help; it is applied to the wrong page in this case (namely to the page where the float is defined, and not to the page where the float appears). What is the standard trick around this limitation?

I probably need to add: I am using \usepackage{fancyhdr} and about 60 other packages in latex2e, with a 5000 line .cls file. And the float in question is not a full-page float; for this or possibly for some other, unknown reason, \usepackage{floatpag} and \thisfloatpagestyle{...} does not have any effect.

Answer 1

This kind of thing seems to work. Not sure if it's the best way.

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{book}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
 \usepackage{floatpag} 
  \pagestyle{fancy}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

%this one is jiggered
\begin{figure}[p]
\thisfloatpagestyle{fancyplain}
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure with jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p]
\rule{14cm}{14cm}
\caption{Figure without jiggered pagestyle}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Answer 2

The following solution patches the output routine using everyshi to check whether you're on the page where the "special float" resides or not. And, accordingly, change the page style to "something special".

The user interface is the following:

• Use a \label{<label>} in your "special float";

• In the preamble, use \specialpagelabel{<label>} to insert label associated with a "special float". Use \specialpagelabels{<csv labels>} to process a list of "special labels".

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum,fancyhdr}
\usepackage{everyshi,etoolbox,refcount}

\fancypagestyle{flpage}{%
  \fancyhf{}% Clear header/footer
  \fancyhead[C]{this is a special header}
  \fancyfoot[C]{this is a special footer}
}

\EveryShipout{%
  \renewcommand*{\do}[1]{%
    \ifnum\value{page}=\number\numexpr\getpagerefnumber{#1}-1\relax
      \thispagestyle{flpage}%
    \fi
  }
  \dolistloop{\splab}%
}
\newcommand{\specialpagelabel}[1]{\listgadd{\splab}{#1}}% Process single label
\newcommand{\specialpagelabels}[1]{% Process multiple labels
  \renewcommand*{\do}[1]{\listgadd{\splab}{##1}}% Each entry gets added to \splab
  \docsvlist{#1}}% Process list

\specialpagelabels{fig:special1,fig:special2}


\setcounter{topnumber}{1}% Just for this example (allow only 1 float at the [t]op of the page)
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[t]
  \caption{A top float; processed on page~\thepage, placed on page~\pageref{fig:normal1}.}
  \label{fig:normal1}
\end{figure}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{figure}[t]
  \caption{Another top float; processed on page~\thepage, placed on page~\pageref{fig:special1}.}
  \label{fig:special1}
\end{figure}

\lipsum[2-35]

\begin{figure}[t]
  \caption{A top float; processed on page~\thepage, placed on page~\pageref{fig:normal2}.}
  \label{fig:normal2}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[t]
  \caption{Another top float; processed on page~\thepage, placed on page~\pageref{fig:special2}.}
  \label{fig:special2}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

List processing is provided by etoolbox. Each "special label" is added to a global list called \splab, and processed via \dolistloop{\splab} just before \shipout.

The above solution is somewhat general. If you have only a couple of images, then a more manual solution with strategic placement of (say) afterpage or atbegshi macros might suffice.