Force figure placement in text

Question

I have a problem when a lot of figures are in question. Some figures tend to "fly around", that is, be a paragraph below, although I placed them before that paragraph. I use code:

\begin{figure}[ht]
\begin{center}
\advance\leftskip-3cm
\advance\rightskip-3cm
\includegraphics[keepaspectratio=true,scale=0.6]{slike/visina8}
\caption{}
\label{visina8}
\end{center}\end{figure}

to place my figures. How can I tell latex I REALLY want the figure in that specific place, no matter how much whitespace will be left?

Also, for the same reason I believe, \newpage doesn't work :( I put it before a \subsection, but it remains on current page...

Answer 1

The short answer: use the “float” package and then the [H] option for your figure.

\usepackage{float}

...

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\includegraphics{slike/visina8}
\caption{Write some caption here}\label{visina8}
\end{figure}

The longer answer: The default behaviour of figures is to float, so that LaTeX can find the best way to arrange them in your document and make it look better. If you have a look, this is how books are often typeset. So, usually the best thing to do is just to let LaTeX do its work and don't try to force the placement of figures at specific locations. This also means that you should avoid using phrases such as “in the following figure:”, which requires the figure to be set a specific location, and use “in Figure~\ref{..}“ instead, taking advantage of LaTeX's cross-references.

If for some reason you really want some particular figure to be placed “HERE”, and not where LaTeX wants to put it, then use the [H] option of the “float” package which basically turns the floating figure into a regular non-float.

Also note that, if you don't want to add a caption to your figure, then you don't need to use the figure environment at all! You can use the \includegraphics command anywhere in your document to insert an image.

Answer 2

do not use a floating environment if you do not want it float.

\usepackage{caption}
...
\noindent%
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
\makebox[\linewidth]{%
  \includegraphics[keepaspectratio=true,scale=0.6]{slike/visina8}}
\captionof{figure}{...}% only if needed
\label{visina8}
\end{minipage}