minipage

Minipage is a LaTeX environment that creates a boxed region of fixed width within the text. It is not a floating element, so it appears exactly where it is declared and does not move to optimize page layout. The contents inside a minipage behave like normal text and graphics, but are confined to the specified width, making it useful for side-by-side layouts and isolated blocks of material.

The syntax is \begin{minipage}[pos]{width} ... \end{minipage}. The width is the horizontal size of the box, commonly given as a fraction of \textwidth, for example 0.5\textwidth or 0.25\textwidth. The optional pos argument can be t, c, or b to control the vertical alignment relative to the surrounding line (top, center, or bottom).

Minipages placed on the same line will appear side by side if their combined widths do not exceed \textwidth; add horizontal space between them with \hfill or \hspace as needed. Inside a minipage you can include standard LaTeX content such as text, lists, figures, and tables. Captions and footnotes inside a minipage are confined to that box; if you need captions outside, you may rely on additional packages or structural arrangements within a surrounding float.

Common uses include creating two-column sublayouts within a single page, placing a figure with its caption alongside descriptive text, or organizing supplementary material in a compact, non-floating block. Minipages offer a simple way to control local layout without introducing a new float.