Prevent full page image in multicols

Question

While placing a full-width image in the multicols environment using

\begin{figure*} ...
\end{figure*}

if the figure is larger than some fraction of the page, it takes up a whole page on its own, with copious white space above and below it. Is there a way to prevent the figure from taking a whole page, forcing the figure back to the top of the page and filling the white space below it with text?

Answer 1

if the figure is larger than some fraction of the page,

instead of only forcing the placement (btw, I suggest to use only [tb]), you can try to adapt the figure to the page width:

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{your-figure-file}
\end{figure*}