Clearpage without pagebreak?

Question

Is there a command which does the same like \clearpage (typesetting all floats which have not been typeset yet) but then does not insert a pagebreak but continues with the following text/graphics on the same page?

Answer 1

Yes, and this is discussed as one of the advantages of the afterpage package. Use

\afterpage{\clearpage}

This will flush all processed floats after the current page has been completely set, technically avoiding a visible \clearpage. See the first use-case in the afterpage documentation (page 1):

Sometimes LaTeX's float positioning mechanism gets overloaded, and all floating figures and tables drift to the end of the document. One may flush out all the unprocessed floats by issuing a \clearpage command, but this has the effect of making the current page end prematurely. Now you can issue \afterpage{\clearpage} and the current page will be filled up with text as usual, but then a \clearpage command will flush out all the floats before the next text page begins.

Answer 2

I believe you may be after the \FloatBarrier command from the placeins package. It forces Tex to typeset all remaining floats at that point and doesn't include a \clearpage afterwards.

Answer 3

I had success by combining the two previous answers, i.e., \afterpage{\FloatBarrier} (to be used directly after the float, maybe even within) in a case where a page-size table was pushed at the very end of an acmart document. This was inspired by a completely different question. Naturally this requires both packages (placeins and afterpage). The alternatives have not - for some reason - not produced nice/acceptable results.

Answer 4

I made a MWE to compare different solutions.

Code

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{placeins}

\begin{document}

\section{foo}

\lipsum[1-2]

\begin{figure}[htb]
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, height=40mm]{example-image-a}
\end{figure}

\lipsum[4]

\begin{figure}[htb]
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, height=\textheight]{example-image-b}
\end{figure}
%\clearpage % (variant 1)
%\afterpage{\clearpage} % (variant 2)
%\FloatBarrier % (variant 3)
%\afterpage{\FloatBarrier} % (variant 4)

\lipsum[3]

\section{bar}

\lipsum[5-7]

\end{document}

Result

Variant 0: nothing

• Image B is moved to the end.

Variant 1: \clearpage

• Image B is placed before anything after \clearpage.

Variant 2 \afterpage{\clearpage}

(see answer by Werner)

• Image B is placed after the current page ends.

Variant 3: \FloatBarrier

(see answer by Max)

Note, in this specific example variant 3 behaves as variant 1, but that's not the case in general (see example below).

Variant 4: \afterpage{\FloatBarrier}

(see answer by stefanct)

Note, in this specific example variant 4 behaves as variant 2, but that's not the case in general (see example below).

Difference between \clearpage and \FloatBarrier

Another example without Fig. B.

Code

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{placeins}

\begin{document}

\section{foo}
\lipsum[1-2]
\begin{figure}[htb]
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, height=40mm]{example-image-a}
\end{figure}
\lipsum[4]
\clearpage % (variant 1)
%\FloatBarrier % (variant 3)

\section{bar}
\lipsum[5-7]
\end{document}

Result

Variant 1: \clearpage

Variant 3: \FloatBarrier

• \FloatBarrier does not insert a page break if there are no floats to insert.