Image not showing up when using figure environment

Question

I want to add an image to my paper but I have a problem.

When I add the image with just \includegraphics[]{} tag, everything works fine, and the picture shows up when I compile my document.

When I use \begin{figure} \includegraphics[]{} \end{figure} - syntax the image does not appear in the compiled document.

The relevant part of my header include is :

 \usepackage{graphicx}
 \graphicspath{ {pics/} }

And later on I add the image with this block:

%This does not work

\begin{figure}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\textwidth]{generalPolya}
  \label{generalPolya}
\end{figure}



%This works

\includegraphics[width=.4\textwidth]{generalPolya}

I guess it's some sort of issue in the graphics package, but I've copied the setup from a previous paper I had, so it should work. Any ideas on what's wrong? Thanks in advance.

Edit:

Thanks for all the responses. I created a minimal working example. Apparently multicols messes with the figure tag:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{multicol} % Used for the two-column layout of the document
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\graphicspath{ {pics/} }
\title{\vspace{-15mm}\fontsize{24pt}{10pt}\selectfont\textbf{Lorem ipsum}} % Article title
\begin{document}
\maketitle % Insert title
\begin{multicols}{2} %
%This does not show up
\begin{figure}[h]
    \includegraphics[width=.4\textwidth]{generalPolya}
\end{figure}
%This shows up.
\begin{center}
        \includegraphics[width=.5\textwidth]{chair}
\end{center}
\end{multicols}
\end{document}

What shows up after compiling the document is this

What is wrong with this syntax?

Answer 1

Try using a minipage as this:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}

\makebox[0pt][l]{%
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
\centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\textwidth]{example-image.pdf}
 \captionof{figure}{figure caption}
 \label{fig:fig1}
\end{minipage}
}

\medskip

I used Figure \ref{fig:fig1} above and referred to it.

\end{document}

Answer 2

This is why I like compiling on the command line and not with TeXMaker etc. stuff:

There is a clear warning in the .log file (and a often occurring error:) No floats inside multicols environment:

Package multicol Warning: Floats and marginpars not allowed inside `multicols' environment!.

This is documented behaviour, the multicol manual describes this warning and clearly states what will happen (emphasis mine):

Floats and marginpars not allowed inside ‘multicols’ environment!

This message appears if you try to use the \marginpar command or an unstarred version of the figure or table environment. Such floats will disappear!

If a figure (or table) with caption shall be used in a multicols environment, then use \captionof{figure}{Caption text} instead of \caption and omit the figure environment completely (or the table env.) In this sense, my answer is basically the same as the solution by AboAmmar, but without the box and minipage.

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{multicol} % Used for the two-column layout of the document
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\graphicspath{ {pics/} }
% I disable this since it's not relevant
%\title{\vspace{-15mm}\fontsize{24pt}{10pt}\selectfont\textbf{Lorem ipsum}} % Article title
\begin{document}
%  \maketitle % Insert title
\begin{multicols}{2} %
%This does not show up
%\begin{figure}[h]  % Drop this
    \includegraphics[width=.4\textwidth]{generalPolya}
    \captionof{figure}{My figure which should be inside the multicols}
%\end{figure} % Drop this
%This shows up.
\begin{center}
        \includegraphics[width=.5\textwidth]{chair}
\end{center}
\end{multicols}
\end{document}

Answer 3

I had a similar issue with a figure not showing up when using multicol

I fixed with the help of this answer: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/483689/152952

\usepackage{float}
[...]
\begin{figure}[H]
    [...]
\end{figure}

Answer 4

This is the thread that came up when I was looking for the same problem.

My issue was that I had defined the document class as:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,draft]{article} 

Removing the draft part finally allowed the images to show.

Answer 5

I had a similar problem trying to get a fig. showing in a PDF pre-view in LaTeX Workshop (Vscode). I couldn't get it to show no matter what scale I chose. No error messages occured, and I couldn't see any corresponding warnings in the log. But once I closed the preview and reopened it, all of a sudden the fig showed. Im thinking it was compiling all the time, but somehow the PDF preview wasn't able to show it. A simple reopening did the trick for me. Maybe this helps someone too.

Answer 6

Similar to Pablo, this thread came up while troubleshooting a similar issue.

For those using Overleaf - if a custom draft option is available in a document class it might be worth checking if it conflicts with Overleaf's Fast option (See picture). In my case setting draft = true, draft = false or enabling Fast mode were all different, with the Fast option preventing any image from showing.