How can I modify vertical space between figure and caption?

Question

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[draft]{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\setlength\fboxsep{124pt}
\setlength\fboxrule{1pt}
\fbox{\includegraphics{dummy}}
\caption{Dummy caption}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

How can I increase vertical space between figure and caption?

score 120 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 14 '19 at 10:40

120

Modify the lengths \abovecaptionskip and \belowcaptionskip (in the document preamble) to suit your needs:

\setlength{\abovecaptionskip}{15pt plus 3pt minus 2pt} % Chosen fairly arbitrarily

The default values are 10pt and 0pt. (The plus and minus allows the space to stretch and shrink if needed. The numbers specify how much.)

edited Apr 14 '19 at 10:40

B--rian

103

answered Feb 27 '12 at 15:06

Andrey Vihrov

22,325

15

What does plus 3pt minus 2pt stand for? – Ichibann Feb 27 '12 at 15:11
13

@Ichibann: plus and minus allow the space to stretch and shrink if needed. The numbers specify how much. – Andrey Vihrov Feb 27 '12 at 15:15
3

Where do I put this line of code? – LWZ Sep 07 '13 at 23:27
1

@LWZ: In the document preamble. – Andrey Vihrov Sep 09 '13 at 06:18
3

@AndreyVihrov: Correct be if I'm wrong, but it seems like you can place this line inside the float (e.g. figure) and then it will affect only this given float. – Dror Feb 04 '14 at 20:57
2

@Dror yes indeed it works for one specific float if you put the code inside just after the \begin command. Also it's possible to use a negative number like -5pt. – gaborous Jan 05 '15 at 22:47
8

@AndreyVihrov When you say "The default values are 10pt and 0pt.", do you mean 10pt plus 0pt or either 10pt or 0pt. The reason being, something unknown is causing my \belowcaptionskip to equal 0pt. This is undesired. I have caption loaded. – Jonathan Komar Dec 01 '16 at 10:19
2

@JonathanKomar If I read the source code correctly, the default are \setlength\abovecaptionskip{2pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}% length above caption \setlength\belowcaptionskip{2pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}% length below caption – Clément Oct 28 '21 at 02:53
This does not work for me. I did \setlength{\abovecaptionskip}{50pt plus 10pt minus 10pt} prior to the figure, and the spacing increases after the caption instead of before it. – Caleb Stanford Dec 30 '21 at 21:42

score 67 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 17 '15 at 23:26

67

\vspace*{-10mm} placed before \caption command does the trick. Just pick the number that works for you the best.

edited Aug 17 '15 at 23:26

Johannes_B

24,235
10
93
248

answered Aug 17 '15 at 22:54

Tetyana B.

681

3

welcome, maybe using package caption would be a better approach? A global definition is almost always better than setting stuff by hand. – Johannes_B Aug 17 '15 at 23:27
7

Thanks, this worked great for me! I needed to tweak the distance of a single figure, which on the bottom has only a thin, vertical line. This line caused the bulk of the figure to move too far up. In my experience, these sort of cases are best solved locally with small hacks like this. – Martin J.H. Jan 02 '16 at 21:58
This works great if you want to configure only one figure. The accpepted answer will adjust all figures in your document. – 2523fewqf23f Jun 28 '19 at 19:37
Worked fine for me. Thanks! – Humberto Fioravante Ferro Jul 21 '20 at 03:08

Markus Weninger · Answer 3 · 2017-01-10T12:14:16.947

31

You can use the caption package for this:

\usepackage[skip=2pt]{caption} % example skip set to 2pt

This will effect all figures.

The documentation says:

The vertical space between the caption and the figure or table contents is controlled by the option skip=amount. The standard LATEX document classes article, report and book preset it to skip=10pt, but other document classes may use a different amount.

edited Jan 10 '17 at 12:14

answered Jan 10 '17 at 11:57

Markus Weninger

1,074

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '20 at 20:43

2

Just do the \vspace*{-3mm} option

\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.74\textwidth]{figs/Subplt.pdf}
    \vspace*{-3mm}
    \caption{Inverter-level and macro-level MAPE bootstrap distributions.}
    \label{Fig:Subplt_fig}
\end{figure}

answered Jun 15 '20 at 20:43

ArmandduPlessis

201

2

Welcome. I wouldn't recommend this at all. I recommend to use the clean solution presented in the accepted answer. – Johannes_B Jun 16 '20 at 03:11
7

I'm sure this is a hack with horrible side-effects, but it's a hack that just let me claw back under the page limit before a submission deadline, so on that basis, it was useful to know about and did the job. – Adam Burke Sep 25 '20 at 06:31
1

If you use this be aware of https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/686212/250119 . Can't really recommend. – user202729 May 20 '23 at 08:28

How can I modify vertical space between figure and caption?

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