Figure caption on the next page

Question

So I have some very large figures (~80-90%) of the page and large captions (~30%) of the page. Because of that I set up the figure to show the caption on the next page, looking something like this:

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{sample_image.png}
\caption[short caption for figure list]{Caption on next page.}
\label{fig:sample}
\end{figure}

\newpage

\addtocounter{figure}{-1}

% caption of the figure on the next page
\begin{figure}[t!]
    \caption[]{caption for the figure sample_image.png}
\end{figure}
\null
\vfill

I was wondering if anyone had a more elegant way to do this while still using hyperref (so ccaption doesn't work). Also with this set up, the caption is on the next page yet in the middle, not on the top the page even though I have the [t!] placement specifier.

Thank you!

Answer 1

This code uses hyperref and put the caption on the top of the page.

Note that in the LOF, the link goes to the page that contains the figure, not the caption.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{kantlipsum} % dummy text

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\makeatletter
\setlength{\@fptop}{0pt}% floats to the top
\makeatother

\begin{document}
    
\listoffigures
\newpage

\begin{center}
  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, height=0.8\textheight]{example-image}
  \medskip
  \emph{(Caption on next page.)}\label{fig:sample}
  \addcontentsline{lof}{figure}{Short caption of  figure sample image}% short caption to LOF
\end{center}

\begin{figure}
  \caption[]{\kant[1]}%very long caption
\end{figure}

\end{document}