# Multiple panel figure, with caption in one of the panels?

I want to put three figures inside a multi-figure with a single caption. If you imagine a 2x2 table, I want to place the three figures in three of the table cells, and the caption in the remaining cell.

Each subfigure should have its own label, and small captions (like (a), (b), and (c), to number the figures inside the panel). Then inside the caption for the whole figure, I want to reference the subfigures, but without using the figure number (that is, just (a) instead of Fig.3(a)), but outside the panel, I'll reference the subfigures as Fig.3(a), etc.

For example,

\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{subfigure}{.4\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig_a.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_a}
\end{subfigure} %
\begin{subfigure}{.4\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig_b.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_b}
\end{subfigure} %
\begin{subfigure}{\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig_c.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_c}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{Some general caption of all the figures. In (\subref{fig:fig_a}) you can see a green square....}
\end{figure}


But this puts two figures ((a) and (b)) side by side on the first row, then (c) alone on the second row, and the caption appears below. The second row has much space unused. The following is a picture of what I expect to get:

How can I do this?

• You should try the floatrow package. There's an example on p. 74 of the doc. – Bernard Jan 7 '15 at 17:06
• Particularly in light of your meta question about your account, I'd suggest you edit in a minimal example here showing how your input should look in general terms. That tends to help get answers but also usually leads to positive question votes! – Joseph Wright Jan 7 '15 at 18:07
• @JosephWright I added an example figure. – becko Jan 7 '15 at 18:20
• @becko I meant an example of the code you are hoping to use: indicate with comments or invented command names where there are things you don't know how to do. – Joseph Wright Jan 7 '15 at 18:51

This may give you some ideas.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering

\begin{subfigure}[t]{.4\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image-a.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_a}
\end{subfigure}
%
\begin{subfigure}[t]{.4\textwidth}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image-b.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_b}
\end{subfigure}

\medskip

\begin{subfigure}[t]{.4\textwidth}
\centering
\vspace{0pt}% set the real top as the top
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{example-image-c.pdf}
\caption{}\label{fig:fig_c}
\end{subfigure}
%
\begin{minipage}[t]{.4\textwidth}
\caption{Some general caption of all the figures. In (\subref{fig:fig_a}) you can see a
green square....}
\end{minipage}

\end{figure}

\end{document}