# Re: [NTG-context] slithering captions

```Sanjoy Mahajan wrote:
> So the first step in doing the placement automatically is to get the
> width of the figure.  Assuming that I've done
>
>   \useexternalfigure[fig_a][f-1.pdf]
>
> is there an easy way to get fig_a's dimensions?  After using the figure,
> e.g. with
>
>   \placefigure[margin][]{some caption}{\externalfigure[fig_a]}
>
\getfiguredimensions[...] % same args as \externalfigure```
```
after that you have

\figureheight
\figurewidth

> And, but this is trying to do too much at once, the next problem is that
> margin caption below the widest figures (case 3 above) shouldn't overlap
> other floats in the margin and also shouldn't count toward the figure's
> height in the text block.  But maybe that's done automatically -- I'll
> make some experiments.
>
limit the caption widths -> maxwidth

best use closed floats and set their characteristics (see details.pdf)

Hans

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