Series on Blogging with LaTeX

This is the 4th post in the series. Previous ones:

• Basics and overview
• Use of mathematical symbols in formulas and equations
• Multiline equations, systems and matrices

Many of the examples shown here were adapted from the Wikipedia article Displaying a formula, which is actually about formulas in Math Markup. .

Spacing in formulas

There are some modifiers that can add some spaces between LaTeX constructs displayed in mathematical expressions:

\, small space

\: medium space

\; large space

\! negative space

\quad – large separation

\qquad – very large separation

Examples:

• \forall x,y \, \exists z gives
• \forall x,y \, \exists z gives
• \forall x,y \: \exists z gives
• \forall x,y \; \exists z gives

• \sum_i \; \sum_j x_{i,j} gives
• \sum_i \; \sum_j x_{i,j} gives
• \sum_i \! \sum_j x_{i,j} gives

• \sum_i x_i q\quad \sum_j y_j gives
• \sum_i x_i \qquad \sum_j y_j gives

.

Font styles

Supported font styles:

• {\rm Roman}
• {\bf Bold}
• {\it Italic}
• {\sf Sans Serif}
• {\sl Slanted}
• {\cal A B C D E F}
• {\frak A} {\frak B} {\frak C} {\frak d} {\frak e} {\frak f}

Examples:

a) default style
\oint_C \nabla \phi \cdot dl = \iint_S rot \, E \cdot dS gives

b) some changes: nabla to triangledown, fonts in rot and E
\oint_C \triangledown \phi \cdot dl = \iint_S {\bf rot} \, {\sf E} \cdot dS

.

Some extra symbols

Some Hebrew characters, Greek characters and some miscellaneous stuff . Some special symbols. There are many more in Wikipedia article.

\aleph \beth \gimel \daleth

\varpi \varrho \varsigma \varphi \varepsilon \vartheta \varkappa

\pi \rho \sigma \phi \epsilon \theta \kappa (compare with the ones above)

\alpha \beta \gamma \delta \zeta \eta \iota \lambda \mu \nu \xi \tau \upsilon \phi \chi \psi \omega

\Theta \Upsilon \Phi \Psi \Omega

\Gamma \Delta \Lambda \Xi \Pi \Sigma

\digamma \Finv \varpropto

\flat \natural \sharp \hbar \Bbbk

\diamondsuit \heartsuit \clubsuit \spadesuit \Game

.

Parenthesizing big expressions, brackets, bars

Examples of several types of constructions with parenthesizing

\big( \Big( \bigg( \Bigg( … \Bigg] \bigg] \Big] \big]

\big\{ \Big\{ \bigg\{ \Bigg\{ … \Bigg\rangle \bigg\rangle \Big\rangle \big\rangle

\big\| \Big\| \bigg\| \Bigg\| … \Bigg| \bigg| \Big| \big|

\big\lfloor \Big\lfloor \bigg\lfloor \Bigg\lfloor … \Bigg\rceil \bigg\rceil \Big\rceil \big\rcei

\big\uparrow \Big\uparrow \bigg\uparrow \Bigg\uparrow … \Bigg\Downarrow \bigg\Downarrow \Big\Downarrow \big\Downarrow

\big\updownarrow \Big\updownarrow \bigg\updownarrow \Bigg\updownarrow … \Bigg\Updownarrow \bigg\Updownarrow

\big / \Big / \bigg / \Bigg / … \Bigg\backslash \bigg\backslash \Big\backslash \big\backslash

More constructions

Parentheses ( \frac{a}{b} ) \quad \left ( \frac{a}{b} \right )

Brackets \left [ \frac{a}{b} \right ] \quad \left \lbrack \frac{a}{b} \right \rbrack

Braces \left \{ \frac{a}{b} \right \} \quad \left \lbrace \frac{a}{b} \right \rbrace

Angle brackets \left \langle \frac{a}{b} \right \rangle

Bars and double bars \left | \frac{a}{b} \right \vert \quad \left \Vert \frac{c}{d} \right \|

Floor and ceiling functions \left \lfloor \frac{a}{b} \right \rfloor \quad \left \lceil \frac{c}{d} \right \rceil

Slashes and backslashes \left / \frac{a}{b} \right \backslash

Up, down and up-down arrows \left \uparrow \frac{a}{b} \right \downarrow \quad \left \Uparrow \frac{a}{b} \right \Downarrow \quad \left \updownarrow \frac{a}{b} \right \Updownarrow

Observations:

Delimiters can be mixed, as long as: \left and \right match

\left [ 0,1 \right )

( 0,1 ) [ 0,1 ] ( 0,1 ] [ 0,1 ) also work , without the need of \left and \right

\langle \psi | …….\langle \psi | \phi \rangle \ ….. and

\langle \psi | \, A^TBA \, | \phi \rangle ……. also work

Use \left. and \right. if you don’t want a delimiter to appear:

\left . \frac{A}{B} \right \} \to X