Change text of subcaption of figure to italic

Question

I am using the caption package to create captions and subcaptions (with \caption*{}) below my figures. I simply want to change the text format of the subcaption to italic. I have a vague feeling that this should be possible via \captionsetup{} but I don't know how. I don't want to use the subcaptions package if possible.

Here is a minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx} % demo is just for the example
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[t]
 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=2cm]{x}
\caption{Test 1}
\caption*{This is the subtext to be placed below the caption of the figure. I want this to be in italic without having to type textit every time} 
\label{fig:test1}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Maybe this (https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/822/change-the-font-of-figure-captions) answers your question? — Excelsior, May 11 '21 at 13:30
@Excelsior - thank you very much for the link! But this only changes the caption text that follows the label (i.e. "Test 1" in my example). But I want to ONLY change the subcaption text to italic. Any idea how I could do that? — BeSeLuFri, May 11 '21 at 13:40

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 11 '21 at 13:52

3

It appears that the caption package does not provide the ability to change the style only for the \caption* command. The simplest way I can see is to define a new \subcaption command in this way:

\newcommand{\subcaption}[1]{\caption*{\itshape #1}}

MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx} % demo is just for the example
\newcommand{\subcaption}[1]{\caption*{\itshape #1}}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[t]
 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=2cm]{x}
\caption{Test 1}
\subcaption{This is the subtext to be placed below the caption of the figure. I want this to be in italic without having to type textit every time} 
\label{fig:test1}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

answered May 11 '21 at 13:52

Ivan

4,368

works like a charm - thank you very much! Just out of interest: what is the #1 in \newcommand{\subcaption}[1]{\caption*{\itshape #1}} for? – BeSeLuFri May 11 '21 at 14:09
#1stands for the first (and only) argument of \subcaption which is indeed defined as a command with one argument ([1]). In other words \subcation{<text>} simply expands to \caption*{\itshape <text>}, i.e. it substitutes #1 with the argument passed to \subcaption – Ivan May 11 '21 at 14:19
thank you - very helpful! – BeSeLuFri May 11 '21 at 14:26

Change text of subcaption of figure to italic

1 Answers1