Hide Subfigure Caption Label (and Its Counter) in LaTeX
Oct. 23, 2025 in Buffalo, United States • Updated Oct. 23, 2025
In LaTeX, we can use command \captionsetup[subfigure]{labelformat=empty} to hide the subfigure caption label, and meanwhile use \addtocounter{subfigure}{-1} to make subfigure counter not count the current subfigure. Next, don’t forget using \captionsetup[subfigure]{labelformat=parens} to reactive subfigure caption label. Here is an example (the source code is basically from blog 1):
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\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{graphicx,subfig}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure*}[htp]
\centering
% Fig 1
\captionsetup[subfigure]{labelformat=empty} % Hide subfigure caption
\begin{minipage}{0.32\linewidth}
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig1.jpg}}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\addtocounter{subfigure}{-1} % Roll back the subfigure counter by 1
\captionsetup[subfigure]{labelformat=parens} % Reactive subfigure caption
% Fig 2
\begin{minipage}{0.32\linewidth}
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig2.jpg}}
\end{minipage}\hfill
% Fig 3
\begin{minipage}{0.32\linewidth}
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig3.jpg}}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\vspace*{1em}
% Fig 3 & Fig 4 (NOTE HERE, two figures are put in one minipage)
\begin{minipage}{0.32\linewidth}
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig4.jpg}}\\
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig5.jpg}}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\begin{minipage}{0.67\linewidth}
\vspace*{1.5em}
\subfloat[xxx]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig6.jpg}}
\end{minipage}
\caption{xxx}
\end{figure*}
\end{document}
Note that command \captionsetup[subfigure]{labelformat=empty} can only cancel subfigure caption LABEL, not including caption per se. Of course, we can choose not input caption when creating subfigure by \subfloat command:
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% ...
\subfloat[]{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{fig1.jpg}}
% ...
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