Document Classes ⇒ boxed float that is NOT 3.4pt wider than the textwidth

[seano]

Hi
I'm sure I'm not the first person to be annoyed by this, but after a relatively long search on the web, battling my way through the index of "The LaTeX Companion" and some DIY effort redifining things in the float.sty file, I still don't have an effective solution to my problem:

How can you put a box around a figure that is alligned with the width of the paragraph?

At first I didn't notice this effect, but now it's really annoying me. I'm actually a bit surprised that everybody seems to have accepted this as OK. But if we're all so happy with a misalignment of 3.4pt every time we put in a picture, why aren't we all just using Microsoft Word?

Anyway, my best effort was to use the following code in the preamble, after loading the float package:

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\makeatletter
\renewcommand\fs@boxed{\def\@fs@cfont{\bfseries}\let\@fs@capt\floatc@plain
  \def\@fs@pre{\setbox\@currbox\vbox{\hbadness10000
    \moveleft0.0pt\vbox{\advance\hsize by0.8pt
      \hrule \hbox to\hsize{\vrule\kern0.0pt
        \vbox{\kern0.0pt\box\@currbox\kern0.0pt}\kern0.0pt\vrule}\hrule}}}
  \def\@fs@mid{\kern2.0pt}
  \def\@fs@post{}\let\@fs@iftopcapt\iffalse}
\makeatother

This is basically just a copy of the "boxed" style so that the box is only 0.4pt too big (the standard line thickness of the box is 0.4pt).

Does anybody know how to do this properly?
Thanks

[localghost]

[...] How can you put a box around a figure that is alligned with the width of the paragraph? [...] Does anybody know how to do this properly? [...]

With the help of the calc package you can try a simple piece of code.

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\begin{figure}[!ht]
  \centering
  \fbox{
    \makebox[\textwidth-4.2\fboxsep-4.2\fboxrule]{
      \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm}
    }
  }
  \caption{A figure with box aligned with the textwidth}\label{fig:boxfigure}
\end{figure}

Trying this code first, I logically set the width of the box a little bit different.

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\makebox[\textwidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule]{
  \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm}
}

That normally should do the trick. But it didn't and I don't know why. The box is extended into the margin. So, take the first version. Replace the \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm} command by whatever you want to put there. This is only a coarse framework, which might be extended. More examples can be found in the document epslatex.


Best regards and welcome on Board
Thorsten

[Juanjo]

If you write

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\fbox{
    \makebox[\textwidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule]{
      \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm}
    }
  }

you are leaving spaces before and after \makebox. Please note that it is not the same thing \fbox{Text} than \fbox{ Text } (remark the spaces around "Text" in the last command). A way to make things work is to write

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\fbox{%
    \makebox[\textwidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule]{
      \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm}
    }%
  }

Anyway, instead of a combination of \fbox and \makebox, one can directly use \framebox. This allows in fact to avoid the use of the calc package:

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\begin{figure}[!ht]
  \centering
  \framebox[\textwidth]{
      \rule{6.4cm}{3.6cm}
    }
  \caption{A figure with box aligned with the textwidth}\label{fig:boxfigure}
\end{figure}

The trick is that the optional argument of \framebox indicates the total width of the box, including the box lines and the separation between frame and content. In other words, \framebox[length]{Text} behaves as \fbox{\makebox[length-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule]{Text}}

[localghost]

I wonder why this idea did not come to my mind. Sometimes I should think a little less complicated.


Thanks by
Thorsten

[seano]

Thanks!
That seems to work much better. However, because I like to make things difficult, I also want to be able to use multiple images within a single box. The code I've used looks like this:

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\begin{figure}[!ht]%
  \framebox[\textwidth]{%
    \parbox[c]{\textwidth}{%
      \subfloat[First big black box]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}\label{fig_1a}}\\%
      \subfloat[Second similar box ]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}\label{fig_1b}}\\%
      \subfloat[Third big black box]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}\label{fig-1c}}}}%
  \caption{Distribution of square boxes}%
  \label{fig:fig_1}%
\end{figure}%

The only problem with this is that it leaves a line of white space between the border and the top of the first figure. I think this is because \parbox begins a new line, but I'm not sure.

Any ideas for a workaround?

[localghost]

The whole construction looks a bit more homogeneous when centring the subfigures in the parbox environment. So the top margin doesn't distort the look.

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\begin{figure}[!ht]%
  \framebox[\textwidth]{%
    \parbox{\textwidth}{%
      \centering
      \subfloat[First big black box\label{subfig-1:figure}]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}}\\%
      \subfloat[Second similar box\label{subfig-2:figure}]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}}\\%
      \subfloat[Third big black box\label{subfig-3:figure}]{\rule{14.5cm}{7.0cm}}
    }
  }%
  \caption{Distribution of square boxes}\label{fig:figure}
\end{figure}%

You could eliminate that space by using a negative vertical space right after the \centering command.

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\vspace*{-\baselineskip}

[seano]

Aaah, that looks better!

Although

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\vspace*{-\baselineskip}\vspace*{1.5pt}

was even better

At least, for now it's more accurate. I'm guessing that the \doublespacing that the silly university insists on will muck it all up again...
Never mind. That can be a little task for later.

Thanks for the tip on the centering. My text width was 14.5cm anyway, so I hadn't noticed that they were effectively "misaligned." Fixed now too.

[Juanjo]

Assuming that captions are placed below, as it is the case here, the subfig package leaves a small space, called "farskip" above every subfloat. See Figure 91 in page 35 of the manual. The default value of farskip is 10 pt. So, instead of

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\vspace*{-\baselineskip}\vspace*{1.5pt}

it suffices

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\vspace*{-10pt}

Just a final remark. Inside the \framebox there is room only for text having a width less than or equal to \textwidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule. Hence the \parbox is too wide. It is centered in the \framebox, so you notice nothing. In this case, there is no problem, but perhaps things would be different in other situation.