Re: sidebyside figures

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Hi Lei Wang,

>I have several small figures and want to place them in two columns as follows:
>___________      __________
>|                     |     |                    |
>|                     |     |                    |
>|  Figure         |     |   Figure        |
>|                    |      |                    |
>|__________|      |__________|
>
>  Fig 1. blabla         Fig 2. blabla
>
>I tried use columns
>\startcolumns[n=2]
>\placefigure[here][fig:1]{blabla}{\externalfigure[fig1]}
>\columns
>\placefigure[here][fig:2]{blabla}{\externalfigure[fig2]}
>\stopcolumns
>
>It seems work depend on the pagebreak and not works all time.
>If there are a pagebreak before or after the block of these
>figures, it not works well.
>
>The \placesidebyside and use combinations will give one
>float Figure with the two pictures as subfigures. But
>what I want is two figure.

The normal double column mechanism tries to place a graphic, stores it when 
there is no place, and flushes it as soon as possible.

The \startcolumns mechanism works well intermixed with the standard one 
column mode.

In your case, esp for vertical chinese, use columnsets:

\startcolumnset

\placefigure[tblr:1]{}{}
\placefigure[tblr:2]{}{}

\input tufte

\stopcolumnset

This will place the floats on top of the first and second column; an 
alternative usage is:

\placefigure[tblr]{}{}
\placefigure[tbrl]{}{}

Think of tb meaning flush from top to bottom, and lr to mean from left to 
right; so, there are quite some ways to place/flush a graphic.

(also play with: \placefigure[fxtb:2*3] and [fxbt:1*18] which gives you 
absolute placement; big floats will span columns, so something:

\definecolumnset[chinese][n=10]

\startcolumnset[chinese]

\placefigure{}{}

\stopcolumnset

should work ok

Hans
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