Tables & Figures

How to Add Captions in LaTeX

Captions describe your figures and tables. They're added inside figure or table environments.

Basic Caption

Add \caption{} inside figure or table:

\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{results.png}
\caption{Performance comparison across methods}
\label{fig:results}
\end{figure}

Caption Position

Place \caption before content for tables, after for figures:

% Figure: caption goes AFTER
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics{img.png}
\caption{After the image}
\end{figure}

% Table: caption goes BEFORE
\begin{table}
\caption{Before the table}
\begin{tabular}{cc}...\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Short Caption for List of Figures

Add a short version for the list:

\caption[Short version]{This is a very long caption that explains everything in detail but would look bad in the list of figures}

Customize Caption Style

Use the caption package:

\usepackage{caption}
\captionsetup{
  font=small,
  labelfont=bf,
  format=hang
}

💡 Tips

•Always add \label{} right after \caption{} for cross-references
•Use descriptive captions—readers often scan figures first
•Caption should make the figure understandable without reading the text

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