Adjusting large figures using LaTeX

May 3, 2013

Typesetting my thesis I came across this problem:
I had a large figure (containing many panes) I wanted to print on one page with a caption underneath.


First I included the graphic by using the following code:

begin{figure}[htp]
centering
includegraphics[scale=1]{"filepath"}
caption{"Some sort of caption"}
label{"Figurename"}
end{figure}

The figure covered up the page nr on the bottom of the page, and the placement looked a bit weird.

Awkward placement

Awkward figure placement on page

After some google browsing, I came across this solution:

begin{figure}[htp]
vspace*{-5.0em} % adjust value to shift the top margin
% etc etc etc ...
end{figure}

Ah, much better. But, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the horizontal adjustment. I thought to myself “hmm, maybe there’s a hspace as well? –

begin{figure}[htp]
vspace*{-5.0em} % adjust value to shift the top margin
hspace*{-2.0em} % adjust value to shift the left margin
% etc etc etc
end{figure}
OK figure

Better placement of the figure

And there it was, right smack where I wanted it :-)