Macro Definition for Including Image Files

Question

I have been trying to implement a macro for my team to be able to include images with a macro. With this macro:

• Size of the image
• Image path selection
• Caption of the image

can be defined by the end user. Macro has one default (hardcoded) argument (first argument) which is being used to defining the size of the image. In a default way, size of image fixed to the 0.75\textwidth, but user can overwrite it by using the [] brackets as most of us knows.

\newcommand{\addImageSeventyFive}[3][0.75]{
    \begin{figure}[H]
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=#1\textwidth]{#2}
        \caption{#3 (size of #1)}\label{fig:1}
    \end{figure}
}

For now everything was going fine.. As you can see, I need to define three different arguments for this macro.

The problem I have been facing is, even if the first argument should be the size of image (hardcoded value: 0.75) it is mapping with the path of the image. And the middle curly brackets are mapping with the caption. Thus, the last curly brackets are left empty which should be originally maps with caption.

\addImageSeventyFive{}{}{}

I do not why this argument shift happens but below given example works perfectly fine, which should not, right?

\addImageSeventyFive{example-image-a}{Caption\ Test}{}

In addition, overwrite function is also works perfectly fine, which should not, right?

\addImageSeventyFive[0.40]{example-image-a}{Caption\ Test}{}

So, why the last curly brackets are appearing empty even it should not. I hope my question is clear.

---

Used packages:

• \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
• \usepackage{babel}
• \usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
• \usepackage{float}
• \usepackage{graphicx}

Used editor:

• vscode with LaTeX Workshop extension.

Answer 1

If you do

\newcommand{\addImageSeventyFive}[3][0.75]{
    \begin{figure}[H]
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=#1\textwidth]{#2}
        \caption{#3 (size of #1)}\label{fig:1}
    \end{figure}
}

then the appropriate calls are of the form

\addImageSeventyFive{example-image}{Caption text}

if you're satisfied with the 75% size, or

\addImageSeventyFive[0.4]{example-image}{Caption text}

if you want to specify another fraction.

If your interface to LaTeX (VS Code, I guess from your question) adds a {} at the end of the calls, then it's an editor “feature”.

On the other hand, I'm not sure this is something I'd recommend doing for various reasons:

1. the [H] option is very inflexible and leads to poor typesetting, generally;
2. there is no way to set a \label, unless you type it inside the caption text;
3. the \label{fig:1} in the code is wrong and will just produce a load of warnings about duplicate labels.

However, you know better about your document, so I suggest some improvement

\newcommand{\addImageSeventyFive}[3][0.75]{%
    \par
    \begin{figure}[H]
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=#1\textwidth]{#2}
        \caption{#3 (size of #1)}
    \end{figure}
    \par
}

(figures are best placed between paragraphs, so LaTeX has at least some chance in doing the right page breaks).

If you need to label one of these figures, you can do

\addImageSeventyFive{example-image}{Caption text\label{fig:example}}

Answer 2

I recommend not to hardcode the name of the cross-referencing-label. Otherwise you will get warnings/error-messages about multiply-defined-labels.

About the empty brace-group:

Probably this is due to the initial intention being something like

\newcommand{\addImageSeventyFive}[4][0.75]{%%%
    \begin{figure}[H]{%%%
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=#1\textwidth]{#2}{%%%
        \caption{#3 (size of #1)}\label{#4}{%%%
    \end{figure}{%%%
}
...
\addImageSeventyFive{example-image-a}{Caption\ Test}{fig:1}
...
\addImageSeventyFive[0.40]{example-image-a}{Caption\ Test}{fig:2}