How to put 12 figures in 3 columns?

Question

Here is my effort: I want to put 12 figures in three columns and four rows. Can anyone demonstrate that how should do this correctly? Following gives 1 column with 4 figures. Need to generate another two columns.

\begin{figure} 
\minipage{0.50\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{20} 
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{30}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{37}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{40}
\endminipage\hfill
\end{figure}

After reading comments this got following

\begin{figure} 
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{m4crack30}\hfill%

\end{figure}

issue is to not getting in full size by removing minipage!

The question is still on pending! No helpful answer yet.

Answer 1

The OP requests an example, so here is one. I set each figure to .32\textwidth, so that 3 of them not quite fill up a line. I place \hfill between them to give even separation. I use \\ between lines.

All of this is within a minipage of .5\textwidth, though that doesn't necessarily make sense by itself inside a figure environment, unless you were going to add a second minipage to the same figure, so I added one as an example.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure} 
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=1cm]{40}
\end{minipage}%
\fboxsep=-\fboxrule%
\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
Here is a 2nd minipage in the same figure.
\end{minipage}}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

As Torbjorn suggests, if you want a full-width figure array, get rid of the minipage.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{30}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{40}\\
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{20}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{37}\hfill%
\includegraphics[width=.32\textwidth,height=2cm]{40}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Answer 2

With tcbraster from tcolorbox it's very easy to organize graphics (boxes) into an array form. Just decide number of columns and tcbraster will decide everything else.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{figure}
\begin{tcbraster}[raster columns=3, enhanced, blankest]
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\tcbincludegraphics{example-image}
\end{tcbraster}
\caption{This is my figure}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Answer 3

Here's a solution that uses three side-by-side minipage environments, each with width 0.33\textwidth.

\documentclass[demo]{article} % omit 'demo' option in real document
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure} 
\hfill a \hfill\hfill b \hfill\hfill c \hfill{} % fake header row    
\medskip

\begin{minipage}{0.33\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{a1} 
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{a2}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{a3}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{a4}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\begin{minipage}{0.33\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{b1} 
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{b2}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{b3}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{b4}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\begin{minipage}{0.33\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{c1} 
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{c2}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{c3}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{c4}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

---

Addendum: If placing the 12 pictures in 3 columns/4 rows results in making them too small to be useful and/or appealing, you may want to try placing them in 2 columns/6 rows instead (see below). This may work out quite well if the pictures are in landscape mode. If, however, they are in portrait mode, you may find it necessary to place the images across two pages, i.e., two figure environments each with 2 columns/3 rows of pictures.

\documentclass[demo]{article} % omit 'demo' option in real document
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[a4paper,margin=1in]{geometry} % set page parameters
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[p]
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{a1}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{a2}

\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{a3}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{a4}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{b1}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{b2}

\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{b3}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{b4}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{c1}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{c2}

\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{c3}\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth,keepaspectratio]{c4}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

---

Second addendum: Here's a possible solution for square-sized images: The code places 6 images per page, in 2 columns/3 rows per page.

\documentclass[demo]{article} % omit 'demo' option in real document
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[letterpaper,margin=1in]{geometry} % set page parameters

\newlength\mylength
\setlength\mylength{0.425\textwidth} % figure dimensions

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[p] % first figure
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a1}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a2}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a3}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a4}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a5}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{a6}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[p] % second figure
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b1}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b2}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b3}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b4}

\bigskip\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b5}
\hfill 
\includegraphics[width=\mylength,height=\mylength]{b6}
\end{figure}

\end{document}