Indenting the first line of figure captions

Question

I want to create a small indentation in the first line of figure captions, similar to the way LaTeX indents the first line of paragraphs.

The caption package does not seem to support this.

Is it doable?

Answer 1

Using caption package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{caption}
\newlength\myindention
\DeclareCaptionFormat{myformat}%
{\hspace*{\myindention}#1#2#3}
\setlength\myindention{1cm}
\captionsetup{format=myformat}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\caption{White sand beaches. The pink smoothness of the conch shell. A sea abundant
  with possibilities. Duty-free shops filled with Europe’s finest gifts and perfumes. Play
  your favorite game of golf amidst the tropical greens on one of the many championship
  courses.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}​

The above method is applicable to tables also.

As noted by Gonzalo, this can be also done by using the available options of caption package as:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{caption}
\captionsetup[figure]{format=hang,indention=-60pt,margin=20pt}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\caption{White sand beaches. The pink smoothness of the conch shell. A sea abundant
  with possibilities. Duty-free shops filled with Europe’s finest gifts and perfumes. Play
  your favorite game of golf amidst the tropical greens on one of the many championship
  courses.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}​

Answer 2

In the standard document classes, you can redefine the macro that prints the caption, called \@makecaption.

I've defined \captionindent to be the same as the default \parindent. The reason for storing it in a different length is because captions are usually set with no \parindent.

\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\newlength{\captionindent}\setlength{\captionindent}{\parindent}
\long\def\@makecaption#1#2{%
  \vskip\abovecaptionskip
  \sbox\@tempboxa{#1: #2}%
  \ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\hsize
    \hspace*{\captionindent}#1: #2\par% Added \captionindent
  \else
    \global \@minipagefalse
    \hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\box\@tempboxa\hfil}%
  \fi
  \vskip\belowcaptionskip}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\caption{White sand beaches. The pink smoothness of the conch shell. A sea abundant
  with possibilities. Duty-free shops filled with Europe’s finest gifts and perfumes. Play
  your favorite game of golf amidst the tropical greens on one of the many championship
  courses.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}​

This will hold for all captions. An alternative solution may be provided if you're using the caption package.