FloatSettings.tex

% These settings are partly from:
%  http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/latex/floats.html

% They give LaTeX more options on where to put your figures, and may
%  mean that fewer of your figures end up at the tops of pages far
%  away from the thing they're related to.

% Alters some LaTeX defaults for better treatment of figures:
% See p.105 of "TeX Unbound" for suggested values.
% See pp. 199-200 of Lamport's "LaTeX" book for details.

%   General parameters, for ALL pages:
\renewcommand{\topfraction}{0.9}	% max fraction of floats at top
\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.8}	% max fraction of floats at bottom

%   Parameters for TEXT pages (not float pages):
\setcounter{topnumber}{2}
\setcounter{bottomnumber}{2}
\setcounter{totalnumber}{4}     % 2 may work better
\setcounter{dbltopnumber}{2}    % for 2-column pages
\renewcommand{\dbltopfraction}{0.9}	% fit big float above 2-col. text
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.2}	% page must be at least 20% text, 
%                                  less than that and we get a floatpage

%   Parameters for FLOAT pages (not text pages):
\renewcommand{\floatpagefraction}{0.7}	% require fuller float pages
% N.B.: floatpagefraction MUST be less than topfraction !!
\renewcommand{\dblfloatpagefraction}{0.7}	% require fuller float pages

% remember to use [htp] or [htpb] for placement,
% e.g. 
%  \begin{figure}[htp]
%   ...
%  \end{figure}