mjhjmtu

I want to remove a figure and its caption from a LaTeX file, but I want to keep the references to it in the text.

So far I kept the empty figure environment with a caption and a label. The problem is, I can not make the caption vanish without destroying the references.

I tried caption* as well as

setbox0=vboxcaptionsomecaption

as was suggested here.

However, as soon as the caption "Fig. 1" disappears, also my reference to the label disappears.

documentclass[superscriptaddress,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,aps,floatfix]revtex4-1
usepackagegraphicx
begindocument

I want to reference Fig.~reffig1. \

beginfigure
 %includegraphicsimage.pdf
 caption
 labelfig1
endfigure

enddocument

It would be nice if someone could help me, as I didn't find anything about this myself.

documentclass[superscriptaddress,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,aps,floatfix]revtex4-1
usepackagegraphicx
begindocument

I want to reference Fig.~reffig1. % never use \ at end of paragraph


refstepcounterfigurelabelfig1


enddocument

Possible solutions I can think of currently:

You could move the caption out of the page and smash it so it does have no height. The space occupied by the figure environment would still be taken but you'd still use the floating mechanism of LaTeX so that your reference would point to the correct page and you won't have to deal with correct numbering. This could be done with:

newcommandcaptionaway[1]
 %
 setbox0hboxvbox#1%
 null
 hspace*2paperwidth%
 smashusebox0%
 

Then you'd place your caption and the label command in the argument of captionaway. The caption would still show up in the list of figures.

Another possible solution is to only refstepcounter the figure counter and place a label. E.g. with:

makeatletter
newcommandonlylabel[2][@captype]
 refstepcounter#1label#2
makeatother

This would give you a macro onlylabel which, when used inside of a float (so figure or table) would place a label without a caption. If you use it outside of a float you could use it like onlylabel[figure]fig:label. If you use it outside of a float you'd have to watch out that you place it at the correct location if you have other floats of the same kind. Best would be to place it at the end of the previous float, to get numbering right (because if it were a float it would have been on the float stack for at least as long as the previous float isn't shipped).

Complete MWE using both methods:

documentclass[superscriptaddress,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,aps,floatfix]
 revtex4-1
usepackagegraphicx

newcommandcaptionaway[1]
 %
 setbox0hboxvbox#1%
 null
 hspace*2paperwidth%
 smashusebox0%
 
makeatletter
newcommandonlylabel[2][@captype]
 refstepcounter#1label#2
makeatother

begindocument

I want to reference Fig.~reffig1. \

beginfigure
 %includegraphicsimage.pdf
 captionaway
 %
 captionThis caption%
 labelfig1%
 %
 onlylabelfig:hidden
endfigure

I also reference Fig.~reffig:hidden. Note that Fig.~reffig1 does use some
space as the textttfigure environment was actually used and needs some space.

enddocument

I made a command so that just adding a star you can switch.

documentclass[superscriptaddress,reprint,amsmath,amssymb,aps,floatfix]revtex4-1
usepackagegraphicx
usepackagecleveref
usepackagexparse
NewDocumentCommandmyFigsmmm%
 IfBooleanTF#1%
 refstepcounterfigurelabel#4
 beginfigure
 #2
 caption#3
 label#4
 endfigure
 

begindocument

 I want to reference Fig.~reflabel1, creflabel2.

 myFigincludegraphics[width=linewidth]example-image-a.pdfCaption1label1
 myFig*includegraphicsexample-image-a.pdfCaption2label2
enddocument