The subcaption package provides three ways to build your subfigures:
1) Using the \subcaption
command inside, for example, minipage
s; the syntax:
\subcaption[<list entry>]{<document caption>}
2) Using the subfigure
environment.
3) Using the \subcaptionbox
command. The syntax:
\subcaptionbox[<list entry>]{<document caption>}[<width>][<inner-pos>]{<contents>}
where <width>
is the width of the resulting \parbox
; the default value is the width of the contents. <inner-pos>
specifies how the contents will be justified inside the resulting \parbox
; it can be either c
(for \centering
), l
(for \raggedright
), r
(for \raggedleft
), or s
(for no
special justification). The default is c
.
Here's a little example, illustrating the three approaches, and the use of \ref
and \subref
to cross-reference the (sub)figures:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\begin{minipage}[b]{.5\linewidth}
\centering
\rule{3cm}{1cm}% to simulate a figure
\subcaption{Test subfigure one}
\label{fig:sub11}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[b]{.5\linewidth}
\centering
\rule{3cm}{1cm}% to simulate a figure
\subcaption{Test subfigure one}
\label{fig:sub12}
\end{minipage}
\caption{A figure with two subfigures}
\label{fig:testfig1}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\begin{subfigure}[b]{.5\linewidth}
\centering
\rule{3cm}{1cm}% to simulate a figure
\subcaption{Test subfigure one}
\label{fig:sub21}
\end{subfigure}%
\begin{subfigure}[b]{.5\linewidth}
\centering
\rule{3cm}{1cm}% to simulate a figure
\subcaption{Test subfigure one}
\label{fig:sub22}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{Another figure with two subfigures}
\label{fig:testfig2}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subcaptionbox{Test subfigure one\label{fig:sub31}}[4cm]{\rule{3cm}{1cm}}%
\subcaptionbox{Test subfigure two\label{fig:sub32}}[4cm]{\rule{3cm}{1cm}}
\caption{Another figure with two subfigures}
\label{fig:testfig3}
\end{figure}
As we can see in Figure~\ref{fig:sub22}...
Subfigure~\subref{fig:sub32} of Figure~\ref{fig:testfig3} shows...
\end{document}

\ref{whole}
and then refer to the subfigures like\ref{a}
and\ref{b}