For latex output, this filter uses the attribute short-caption for figures so that the attribute value appears in the List of Figures, if one is desired.

Where you would have a figure in, say, markdown as

![The caption](foo.png ) 

You can now specify the figure as

![The long caption](foo.png){short-caption="a short caption"} 

If the document metadata includes lof:true, then the List of Figures will use the short caption. This is particularly useful for students writing dissertations, who often have to include a List of Figures in the front matter, but where figure captions themselves can be quite lengthy.

pandoc --lua-filter=short-captions.lua article.md -o article.tex

pandoc --lua-filter=short-captions.lua article.md -o article.pdf

@Fig:shortcap is an interesting figure with a long caption, but a short caption in the List of Figures.

{#fig:shortcap short-caption="A short caption with math $x^n + y^n = z^n$" width="50%"}

• The filter will process the short-caption attribute value as pandoc markdown, regardless of the input format.
• It does not work for tables and listings yet.
• But it works with pandoc-crossref, regardless of the order of application.