By default (in the article
class), a table caption (without letters with depth) is very close to a table with two or more rows. Only if the table has one row then the caption and the table will be at some distance (in this case letters with depth in the caption seem not to change anything).
- Why is the default distance so small (in Table 1)?
- Why does the distance increase if there is only one line (Table 2)?
The picture was created from the following MWE.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h]\caption{aaaa}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{r@{ }l}
\hline
Hardly any & distance\\
\hline
between &caption and table;\\ %second row is essential!
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[h]\caption{bbbb}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{r@{ }l}
\hline
Some distance between & caption and table;\\
\hline
%no second row!!
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Of course, there are different "workarounds" (but that is not my question):
by using
\usepackage{caption} \captionsetup[table]{skip=5pt}
see: The space between the table and its caption is very small
by setting
\belowcaptionskip
to some value\setlength\belowcaptionskip{5pt}
see a similar question: A style prevents me from setting \belowcaptionskip, how do I change that?
or simply by putting
\strut
inside the caption of Table 1.