Graphic elements in figure environments

Question

I would like to establish a little bit more of a border between figures and the flow of text in my documents and therefore would like to introduce some graphic elements to a figure enviroment, either in the general definition or each time manually, if necessary. What would be the most advisable way of doing this?

At least, I would like to add a simple black line above and under the figure. Using a simple command like \hline prints a line, but doesn't look good and throws errors as well.

\begin{figure}%
  \begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{./2014_Gini_Index2.pdf}
    \label{fig:Gini_index}
    \caption{Gini-Masterflow}
    \vspace{7pt}
    \hline
 \end{center}
\end{figure}

Ideally, I would like to have something more sophisticated, like the one depicted below with the red rectangle and the line.

Anyways, I am also open to other example and ideas on how to emphasize figures futher!

Answer 1

Something like this?

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx, booktabs, lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{figure}[!htb]%
\centering
\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}
\addlinespace
\toprule
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{2014_Gini_Index2}\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\caption{Gini-Masterflow}
\label{fig:Gini_index}
\end{figure}
\lipsum[1-4]

\end{document} 

Answer 2

Ok, for now I'm quite satisfied with the following solution:

Putting ...

\newcommand\crule[3][black]{\textcolor{#1}{\rule{#2}{#3}}}

\newcommand\newfig[3]{\begin{figure}
\centering
\crule[red]{4pt}{10pt}\raisebox{9.5pt}{\crule[red]{\columnwidth-4pt}{.5pt}}
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{#1}%
\caption{#2}
\crule[red]{\columnwidth-4pt}{0.5pt}\crule[red]{4pt}{10pt}
\label{#3}
\vspace{-2em}
\end{figure}%
}

in the preamble and ...

\newfig{./2014_Gini_Index2.pdf}{Overview of Gini-Indices in the World in the year of 2006 - 2011, respectively}{fig:Gini_index}

in the document body gives me this:

There are still little flaws to it. Like it's a little bit high on the page it seems and the white space below does crazy stuff, but it'll do for now.

Still, any remarks are very welcome!