How to add notes below a table in LaTeX?

In this tutorial, I will show you how to add one or multiple notes under a table in LaTeX.

In order to add notes under a table, you have to use the threeparttable package. This package provides threeparttable and tablenotes environment to get notes below a table.

Within the tablenotes environment, you can put one or more notes as a list item. And you have to put all of the environments and content inside the threeparttable except the table.  So, let’s see.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{threeparttable}
    \caption{Table with notes}
    \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
      \hline
      Column 1 & Column 2 & Column 3 \\
      \hline
      A & B & C \\
      D & E & F \\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \begin{tablenotes}
      \item[(a)] Note 1: This is a note.
      \item[(b)] Note 2: This is a note too.
    \end{tablenotes}
  \end{threeparttable}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Output:

In the above example, the threeparttable environment is used to create a table with notes. The tabular environment is used to create the table itself, and the tablenotes environment is used to add the notes.

The \item[ ] commands are used to add individual notes, and the labels within the square brackets (e.g., [(a)] and [(b)]) are used to reference the notes in the table. Also, you can leave the square bracket empty to not print the reference of the notes.

And if you feel that the font of the note is a little big, then, you can also reduce the font size using the \small command. Use it before \item[...] command.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{threeparttable}
    \caption{Table with notes}
    \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
      \hline
      Column 1 & Column 2 & Column 3 \\
      \hline
      A & B & C \\
      D & E & F \\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \begin{tablenotes}
    \small
      \item[] Note 1: This is a note.
      \item[] Note 2: This is a note too.
    \end{tablenotes}
  \end{threeparttable}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Output: