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8.10 figure

     \begin{figure[*]}[placement]
     figbody
     \label{label}
     \caption[loftitle]{text}
     \end{figure}

Figures are objects that are not part of the normal text, and are instead “floated” to a convenient place, such as the top of a page. Figures will not be split between two pages.

When typesetting in double-columns, the starred form produces a full-width figure (across both columns).

The optional argument [placement] determines where LaTeX will try to place your figure. There are four places where LaTeX can possibly put a float:

t
(Top)—at the top of a text page.
b
(Bottom)—at the bottom of a text page. However, b is not allowed for full-width floats (figure*) with double-column output. To ameliorate this, use the stfloats or dblfloatfix package, but see the discussion at caveats in the FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=2colfloat.
h
(Here)—at the position in the text where the figure environment appears. However, this is not allowed by itself, t is automatically added. To absolutely force a figure to appear “here”, use the float and use its H placement letter. (That package also provides other options.)
p
(Page of floats)—on a separate float page, which is a page containing no text, only floats.

The standard report and article classes use the default placement tbp.

The body of the figure is made up of whatever text, LaTeX commands, etc. you wish.

The \caption command specifies caption text for the figure. The caption is numbered by default. If loftitle is present, it is used in the list of figures instead of text (see Tables of contents).

The maximum fraction of the page allowed to be occuped by floats at the bottom; default ‘.3’.
\floatpagefraction
The minimum fraction of a float page that must be occupied by floats; default ‘.5’.
\floatsep
Space between floats at the top or bottom of a page; default ‘12pt plus2pt minus2pt’.
\intextsep
Space above and below a float in the middle of the main text; default ‘12pt plus2pt minus2pt’ for ‘10pt’ and ‘11pt’ styles, ‘14pt plus4pt minus4pt’ for ‘12pt’.
\textfloatsep
Space between the last (first) float at the top (bottom) of a page; default ‘20pt plus2pt minus4pt’.
\textfraction
Minimum fraction of a page that must be text; if floats take up too much space to preserve this much text, floats will be moved to a different page. The default is ‘.2’.
\topfraction
Maximum fraction at the top of a page that may be occupied before floats; default is ‘.7’.