Floating block

For other uses of "figure", see figure.

A figure in writing and publishing is any graphic, text, table or other representation that is unaligned from the main flow of text. Another term for a figure is a floating block. Figures are commonly found in technical writing, including scientific and articles and books. They are said to be floating because they are not fixed in position on the page, but rather drift to the side of the page. An alternative name for figure is image or graphic. By placing pictures or other large items on the sides of pages rather than embedding them in the middle of the main flow of text, typesetting is more flexible and interruption to the flow of the narrative is avoided.

Some books will have a table of figures—in addition to the table of contents—that lists centrally all the figures appearing in the work.

Figures are normally labeled with a caption or title that describes its contents and a number that is used to refer to the figure from the main text. For example, an article on geography might have "Figure 1. Map of the world", "Figure 2. Map of Europe", "Table 1. Population of European countries", etc.

Variations on the figure structure also occur, for example:

Table : For text in tabular form.

Sidebar : For digressions from the main narrative. For example, a technical manual on usage of a product might include examples of how various people have employed the product in their work in sidebars.

Program : Articles and books on computer programming often place code and algorithms in a figure.