How do I change the caption for a figure in Latex?

Question

I would like to change the caption from being:

Figure 1: ...

to

From left to right: ...

If I try and renewcommand the figurename, they still get numbered. This is unecessary as there is only a single image in the document.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Instead of using \caption you may consider putting your own content beneath the figure's content:

\includegraphics{...}

\small
From left to right: ...

Answer 2

Geoff's answer is basically correct. Within a figure or table environment, you can drop the caption if you don't want numbering, and just write plain text. From the book A Guide to LaTeX, 3rd edition (p.184):

The \caption command may be omitted if numbering is unwanted, since any text included in the float environment will accompany the contents. The advantages of \caption over simple text are the automatic numbering and entries in the lists of figures and tables.

Answer 3

If you want to use \caption{...} to specify the caption, you can use this hack in your document:

\makeatletter
\def\@makecaption#1#2{%
  \vskip\abovecaptionskip
  \hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil#2\hfil}%
  \vskip\belowcaptionskip}
\makeatother

With this instruction, your figures will display only what you have specified as \caption{...} and won't add any "Figure 1: " etc.

Answer 4

You could also use the caption package to remove the "Figure 1:" from the \caption{} command.

\usepackage{caption}
...
\begin{figure}
\caption*{A figure}
. . .
\end{figure}