Floating block

Floating block

A floating block in writing and publishing is any graphic, text, table, or other representation that is unaligned from the main flow of text. The use of floating blocks to present pictures and tables is a typical feature of academic writing and technical writing, including scientific articles and books. Floating blocks are normally labeled with a caption or title that describes its contents and a number that is used to refer to the figure from the main text. A common system divides floating block into two separately numbered series, labeled figure (for pictures, diagrams, plots, etc.) and table. An alternative name for figure is image or graphic.