caption - manages markdown captions

caption manages captions by applying style and auto-numbering to markdown content. It works on Figures, Tables and Other content such as Listings but is flexible and should work for nearly any content.

caption is a fork of yafg - yet another figure generator plugin for Python's Markdown. It's written and tested with Python 2.7 and Python 3.6 as well as Markdown 3.1.1, but aims at supporting as many versions as possible. If you encounter any problems with caption please raise an issue, or use the profile contact details.

The functionality is split into three separate python-maskdown plugins:

• image_captions for images
• table_captions for tables
• caption for general listings.

image_captions

It uses the title attribute given to an image within Markdown to generate a <figure> environment with a <figcaption> containing the title's text, e.g.:

![Alt text](/path/to/image.png "This is the title of the image.")

becomes

<figure id="_figure-1">
<img alt="Alt text" src="https://github.com/flywire/caption/raw/major-refactor/path/to/image.png" />
<figcaption><span>Figure&nbsp;1:</span> Captioned figure</figcaption>
</figure>

table_captions

A paragraph starting with "Table" before a table is turned into a caption:

Table: Example with heading, two columns and a row

| Syntax      | Description |
| ----------- | ----------- |
| Header      | Title       |
| Paragraph   | Text        |

becomes

<table id="_table-1">
<caption><span>Table&nbsp;1:</span> Example with heading, two columns and a row</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Syntax</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Header</td>
<td>Title</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Paragraph</td>
<td>Text</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

caption

Generic listings captioning is supported, using the "Listing: " prefix:

Listing: Example listing

becomes

<caption><span>Listing&nbsp;1:</span> Example listing</caption>

How?

Install

caption can be installed via pip3 install git+https://github.com/flywire/caption

Standard Usage

Python markdown extensions are incorporated into other applications.

MkDocs

MkDocs users can add caption to their generator process by adding it to the mkdocs.yml markdown_extensions section:

# ...
markdown_extensions:
  - image_captions:
      numbering: true
  - table_captions:
      numbering: true
      caption_top: false
  - caption
# ...

Python

Python will parse input to Markdown with caption as follows:

import markdown
from caption import CaptionExtension, ImageCaptionExtension, TableCaptionExtension

# ...

outputString = markdown.markdown(
    input_string, extensions=[
        CaptionExtension(numbering=False),
        ImageCaptionExtension(),
        TableCaptionExtension(),
    ]
)

Options

Currently supported options are listed below:

• caption_prefix:

  The text to show at the front of the caption. A final non-breaking space is inserted between the content of caption_prefix and the actual figure number.

• numbering:

  Adds a caption number like "Figure 1:" in front of the caption. It's wrapped in a <span /> for easier styling.

• content_class:

  The CSS class to add to the generated <content /> element.

• caption_class:

  The CSS class to add to the generated <caption /> element.

• caption_prefix_class:

  The CSS class to add to the <span /> element generated for the caption prefix.

• caption_top:

  Whether the caption should be on the top of the element.

The default values for each type of content is synthesised in the following table:

Why?

Captions are used on a range of content, not just figures. For figures, yafg arose from the dissatisfaction with the existing solutions, namely:

• markdown_captions which uses the alt attribute for the <figcaption>.
• markdown-figcap which uses a cryptic syntax that doesn't integrate well into Markdown, IMHO.
• figureAltCaption which cannot handle multi-line descriptions and uses the alt attribute for the <figcaption>.

Using the alt attribute to fill the <figcaption> is not correct as described in the standard (https://www.w3.org/wiki/Html/Elements/img).

[...] the alternative text is a replacement for the image, not a description [...]

for the most common case of a text accompanied by an augmenting image. It should be used for an exact reproduction of what can be seen on the image for those who cannot see it, for example because they're blind or their internet connection is too slow. A figure's caption in turn should provide a description helping to understand the content of the image.

The title attribute on the other hand should contain "advisory information associated with the element (W3C Core Attribute List). This is rather vague and often used by browser vendors to show tooltips containing the title. Since tooltips are highly problematic for a11y reasons and the browser support varies, "[r]elying on the title attribute is currently discouraged" (HTML Living Standard). This makes it an ideal candidate to store the wanted figcaption inside of the standard Markdown syntax.

CSS

caption fully supports CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) by adding tags to style your content. CSS can be placed against the image eg {: style="height:200px"}, in the settings eg: {: style="width: 100%"} or in a CSS file linked in the HTML eg .

figcaption span:first-child {
    font-weight: bold;
}

There are further examples in the wiki.

Customisable

If the settings aren't flexible enough the source code can be changed and reinstalled. Many of the settings are easily identifiable in the source code and the the wiki has build instructions.

License

caption has been published under a GPL 3.0 or later license. See the LICENSE file for more information.