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From: bjr@clarity.Princeton.EDU (Brian J. Reiser)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: LaTeX figure \caption question
Message-ID: <BJR.90Aug30155525@clarity.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 30 Aug 90 19:55:25 GMT
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cognitive Science Lab.  Princeton University.
Lines: 29

Is there any simple way to modify the formatting of latex figure
captions?  I have some longish captions (approx 3-4 sentences) that
are associated with some graphs included in the document as figures.
The default formatting for \caption is apparently the normal text
size, and if the text is longer than one line, it is in a paragraph
the same width as the text.  I would like to have the captions printed
slightly smaller, and in a width indented from the width of the text.

At the suggestion of a colleague, I tried defining my own version of \caption:

\newcommand{\figcaption}[1]{\begin{center}
\parbox[t]{5in}{\caption{\protect\small #1}}
\end{center}}

But this is not ideal because (1) only the text of the caption is made
the smaller size, but the words "Figure 11" are the regular text size,
and (2) extra vertical space is skipped above the parbox, so that the
caption is further from the picture in the figure than it would
otherwise be.

Does anyone have a better suggestion?  Are there some size and
indentation parameters I could simply adjust that are used by
\caption, or is there a better way to define my own caption?

Thanks,
Brian J. Reiser
Princeton University
Cognitive Science Laboratory
Internet: reiser@princeton.edu