Three 'side to side' figures using minipage

Question

I'm trying to set up a main figure containing three sub figures. The idea is to split them in such way that it shows a two columns figure where the second column is made out of two sub figures located in a row configuration. This might be hard to imagine, but the idea is to get something like this:

where each sub figure has its own label and caption.

My closest attempt consisted in an array/minipage configuration. This was:

 \documentclass[11pt,a4paper,oneside]{article}
    \usepackage{array}
    \usepackage{caption}
    \usepackage{subfigure}
    \begin{document}
        \begin{center}
\begin{figure}
\begin{array}{cc}
\multirow{2}{*}{
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.6]{smiley.eps}
\caption{Happy Smiley}
\label{fig:minipage1}
\end{minipage}} 
& 
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.3]{smiley.eps}
\caption{Happy Smiley}
\label{fig:minipage1}
\end{minipage}\\
&
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.3]{smiley.eps}
\caption{Happy Smiley}
\label{fig:minipage1}
\end{minipage}
\end{array}
\end{figure}
\end{center}
    \end{document}

but the result wasn't good.

So, is this a right approach or should I try something different?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I understand that the three subfigures should be numbered a, b, and "c". This can be done with the help of the subcaption package.

The following is a mock-up of what's possible. Obviously, you'll need to decide things such as the relative widths of the subfigures.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
%% left-hand side: a single subfigure
\begin{subfigure}{0.33\textwidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=4in]{fig1}
\caption{First subfigure} \label{subfig:left}
\end{subfigure}
%% horizontal separation between the left and right hand sides
\hspace*{\fill}
%% right-hand side: a minipage that contains two more subfigures
\begin{minipage}{0.64\textwidth}
\begin{subfigure}{\linewidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=1.75in]{fig2}
\caption{Second subfigure} \label{subfig:upper-right}
\end{subfigure}

\vspace*{0.6cm}
\begin{subfigure}{\linewidth}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=1.75in]{fig3}
\caption{Third subfigure} \label{subfig:lower-right}
\end{subfigure}
\end{minipage}

\caption{A complicated figure}
\end{figure}

A cross-reference to subfigure \ref{subfig:upper-right}.
\end{document}

---

Addendum: If you wanted to get the reverse layout, i.e., place the two stacked subfigures on the left and the single, tall subfigure on the right, all you'd have to do is exchange the order of the left- and right-hand groups of code in the example above.

Answer 2

Following the idea of using minipages you can simply use two minipages as the two columns and in the right hand one include two images:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption,subcaption}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=135pt]{image1}
        \caption{figure1}
    \end{minipage}
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=50pt]{image2}
        \caption{figure2}\par
        \vspace{\baselineskip}
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=50pt]{image3}
        \caption{figure3}
    \end{minipage}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Or with only a single caption: \documentclass{article} \usepackage[demo]{graphicx} \usepackage{caption,subcaption}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=106pt]{image1}
    \end{minipage}
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\linewidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=50pt]{image2}\par\vspace{5pt}
        \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=50pt]{image3}
    \end{minipage}
    \caption{some black boxes}
\end{figure}

\end{document}