Document 491

The LaTeX float package

Version: 3.x, 4.x, 5.x - Scientific WorkPlace & Scientific Word

Instead of being anchored at a specific point in a LaTeX document, floating objects are movable. LaTeX determines their best placement and final position in the typeset document after taking into consideration line and page breaks and division headers. You can suggest a preferred placement to LaTeX by specifying t (top of a page), b (bottom of a page), p (on a page of floating objects), or h (where the floating object appears in the document file, if possible).

The float package improves the interface for defining and placing floating objects by defining the H (Here) placement option of the superseded Here package. It uses the H placement option with the FRAME macro in tcilatex.tex to tell LaTeX to place the floating object where it appears in the document file, even if the placement is typographically ill advised. If not enough room remains on the page to hold the floating object, LaTeX moves it to the next page, leaving blank space on the page before.

Note Because pdfLaTeX and the Portable LaTeX output filter bypass the FRAME macro, the float package can't be used to control the placement of floating objects in PDF or portable LaTeX files. Use the placeins package instead.

SWP and SW work differently with the float package depending on how you save your document. If you save it as an SWP/SW document, the program automatically uses the H placement option when you select only the Here placement for a floating graphic. If you save the document as a Portable LaTeX document, the program doesn't use the float package and uses the normal h (here) placement option instead. Using the package reduces the likelihood that LaTeX will accumulate too many floating objects to typeset your document correctly.

See Using the float package with SWP/SW for detailed instructions on using the float package.

The float package implements two float styles: boxed and ruled floats. Boxed floats are surrounded by a box extending from the right to the left margin, regardless of the size of the floating object. Ruled floats are introduced by a horizontal line; have another line under the caption, if any; and are followed by a third line, all extending from the right to the left margin. You must define the float style and the floating object in an encapsulated TeX field. The package also provides a way to define your own types of floating objects, which can be ruled or boxed. See the documentation for the float package for more information.

The float package has no options. The installation program places the package in the TCITeX/TeX/LaTeX/contrib/float directory.

See also

• Error: Too many unprocessed floats.

Last revised 02/08/06

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