Time for action – including a picture

We shall create a short document. Between two paragraphs, we would like to insert a picture. If there's no picture file available, we will use the demo mode of graphicx:

1. Begin a new document and load babel and blindtext to print some filler text:

   \documentclass[a5paper]{article}
   \usepackage[english]{babel}
   \usepackage{blindtext}
   \usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
   \pagestyle{empty}
   \begin{document}
   \section{Including a picture}
   \blindtext

2. Open a figure environment and declare centering:

   \begin{figure}
   \centering

3. Use the command \includegraphics with the filename as the argument:

   \includegraphics{test}
   

4. Declare a caption, close the figure environment, and end the document with filler text:

   \caption{Test figure}
   \end{figure}
   \blindtext
   \end{document}

5. Typeset and have a look at the output:

   

What just happened?

The most important command is \includegraphics. We specified a filename. This file would be loaded if it exists. Otherwise an error would occur. LaTeX supports the...