Aligning a figure and table side by side

Question

I would like to place a figure side-by-side with a table, and have both of them aligned to the top. This is what I came up with:

\begin{figure}
  \begin{minipage}[b]{0.65\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{3_comparative/fig/pic.pdf}
  \end{minipage}
  \begin{minipage}[t]{0.35\linewidth}
      \begin{tabular}{| c | c |}
        \hline
        Contrast & value \\
        \hline
        I & 6 \\
        ... \\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Phylogenetic independent contrasts}
\end{figure}

But this doesn't work as I hoped, the two items are misaligned:

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

The answer to this common question is to be found in Keith Reckdahl's epslatex.pdf, page 36, "Minipage Vertical Alignment". I quote the particular solution here. Please note the "secret", the two \vspace{0pt}

\begin{center}
\begin{minipage}[t]{.25\linewidth}
\vspace{0pt}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1in]{graphic}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{.25\linewidth}
\vspace{0pt}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1in,angle=-45]{graphic}
\end{minipage}
\end{center}

In general, this document is a must for any LaTeX work with graphics.

/Leif Andersson