If LaTeX responds to a begin{figure} orbegin{table} command with the error message

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your figures (or tables) are not being placed properly. LaTeXhas a limited amount of storage for “floats” (figures, tables, orfloats you’ve defined yourself with the float package); ifsomething you have done has prevented LaTeX from typesettingfloats, it will run out of storage space.

This failure usually occurs in extreme cases of floats moving “wrongly”;LaTeX has found it can’t place a float, and floats of the same typehave piled up behind it.

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How does this happen? — LaTeX guarantees that caption numbers aresequential in the document, but the caption number is allocated whenthe figure (or whatever) is created, and can’t be changed. Thus, iffloats are placed out of order, their caption numbers would alsoappear out of order in the body of the document (and in the list offigures, or whatever). As a result, enforcement of the guaranteemeans that simple failure to place a float means that no subsequentfloat can be placed; and hence (eventually) the error.

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Techniques for solving the problem are discussed in the floats question already referenced.

For LaTeX releases prior to 2015, an alternative may be to use the morefloats package.The package will allocate more “float skeletons” than LaTeXdoes by default; each such skeleton may then be used to store afloat. Beware that even with morefloats, the number you canallocate is limited; even with the etex package.

LaTeX releases from 2015 onwards have an extrafloatscommand which (assuming an ε-TeX format is being used) willallow many more float boxes to be allocated (the upper limit being several thousand, rather more than can reasonably handledin tex macro lists.) Also the default number of floats that may be storedhas been increased from 18 to 52. Current LaTeX releases will run extrafloats{1}before giving this error, so it is highly unlikely that you get this error unlessover 32 thousand registers have been allocated.

The error also occurs in a long sequence of float environments, withno intervening text. Unless the environments will fit “here” (andyou’ve allowed them to go “here”), there will never be a page break,and so there will never be an opportunity for LaTeX to reconsiderplacement. Even though modern LaTeX releases will allow thousands,rather than just 18 floats to be held in this way, it is still a goodidea to avoid this situation which can make LaTex run slowly and inextreme cases cause other out of memory errors.

Of course, the floats can’t all fit “here” if thesequence is sufficiently prolonged: once the page fills, LaTeXwon’t place any more floats, leading to the error.

Techniques for resolution may involve redefining the floats using thefloat package’s [H] float qualifier, but you are unlikelyto get away without using clearpage from time to time.

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FAQ ID: Q-tmupfl