Figures enumeration in wrong order

Question

is there a way to enumerate figures in the order they actually appear in the document, and not in the order they were declared in the source file?

I have the following source:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{float}
\begin{document}
TEXT1
\begin{figure}[p]
\caption{Figur A}
\end{figure}
TEXT2
\begin{figure}[H]
\caption{Figur B}
\end{figure}
TEXT3
\end{document}

which yields the following two pages:

TEXT1
TEXT2

+++++++++++++++
+             +
+   FIGUR B   +
+             +
+++++++++++++++
Fig 2: Figur B

TEXT3

---new page---

+++++++++++++++
+             +
+   FIGUR A   +
+             +
+++++++++++++++
Fig 1: Figur A

So, how these two figures appear is exactly what I want, but it is really bad that in the output document, figure 2 comes before figure 1. This is also ugly in the table of figures:

Fig 2 "Figur B" page 1
Fig 1 "Figur A" page 2

What I want is, that iff tex decides to put figure B after figure A, then it should give figure B the number 1 and figure A the number 2.
I know there are some dirty hacks (setcounter; move figures in source), but obviously I'd like to have an elegant solution.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Under normal circumstances, LaTeX always outputs floats of a given type -- say, figure -- in the sequence in which they are encountered in the document. However, the H location specifier falls outside of "normal" circumstances. To achieve its objective, H deliberately steps outside of what is normal.

There are only two possible remedies:

• Don't use the [H] location specifier. Consider using [ht!] instead.

• Or, as @Zarko has already commented, if you insist on using [H] anyway, be prepared to insert \clearpage before typing \begin{figure}[H].