Graphics

L^ATEX has a picture environment in which pictures can be drawn, but you'll find graph paper handy. xfig can create code for the picture environment but the resulting graphics still suffer several limitations: only certain slopes and circles can be reproduced. The best method presently available on Unix is to use xfig to produce postscript files, which have no such limitations, but require a postscript printer or equivalent.

Whatever graphics you want to add, you should use the figure environment so that L^ATEX can cope sensibly with situations where, for example, you attempt to insert near the bottom of a page a graphic that's half a page high. The figure environment will float the graphic to the top or bottom of the page, or on the next page, with preferences that you can provide.

h	here
t	top of page
b	bottom of page
p	on a page with no text

Putting ! as the first argument in the square brackets will encourage L^ATEX to do what you say, even if the result's sub-optimal. See the online hints about floats in LaTeX for further details.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
   \vspace{0.5in}
   \caption{0.5 inch of space}
\end{figure}

 

Figure 1: 0.5 inch of space

It's possible to have more than one graphic in a figure. See the example later on.