UK TeX FAQ -- question label mcfloat

### Floats in multicolumn setting

If you use

>     \begin{figure}
>       ...
>     \end{figure}

in a `multicols` environment, the figure won’t appear. If instead you use

>     \begin{figure*}
>       ...
>     \end{figure*}

the figure will stretch right across the page (just the same as a `figure*` in standard LaTeX’s `twocolumn` option).

It’s possible to have single-column figures and tables with captions, using the ‘`[H]`’ placement option introduced by the float package but you might have to fiddle with the placement because they won’t ‘float’, and exhibit other strange behaviours (such as silently running off the end of the column at the end of the `multicols` environment).

`float.sty`
  macros/latex/contrib/float (or browse the directory); catalogue entry
`multicol.sty`
  Distributed as part of macros/latex/required/tools (or browse the directory); catalogue entry

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