Page Layout ⇒ Extra Spacing below Figures placed at Top of Page

[jaykemper]

I noticed that when a figure doesn't have enough space below it, it pushes the figure to the next page and fills in text that was entered after it. I completely under stand the reasoning for that, however, there is more space below the figure caption of the pushed back figure than there is if it were where it had been placed in code.

MWE:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
  \lipsum[2]

  \begin{figure}[!ht]
    \centering
    \fbox{\includegraphics[height=2in]{authors-quill}}
    \caption{Compare the space below here...}
  \end{figure}

  \lipsum[1]

  Figure code is between these two paragraphs.

  \begin{figure}[!ht]
    \centering
    \fbox{\includegraphics[height=2in]{authors-quill}}
    \caption{to the space below here.}
  \end{figure}

  \lipsum[5-6]
\end{document}

Is there a way to make those the same distance? What lengths are being used here?

[tom]

You see different vertical spaces because the first figure is situated between two paragraphs, whereas the second is placed within a paragraph. This means that two different lengths are used, \intextsep (default 12pt) and \textfloatsep (default 20pt). I have to admit, I find the names somewhat misleading. If you prefer equal spacing, add these two lines to your preamble:

Code: Select all

\setlength{\intextsep}{12pt}
\setlength{\textfloatsep}{12pt}

Take a look at the layouts package manual (chapter 6) for more details.

Btw. there is nothing in the attached PDF.

[jaykemper]

Great, I knew there were some lengths being used there, I just had no idea what they were.

For reference, I attached the PDF output.