How to add a massive bar on the letters?

Question

At the moment I have an output with \bar{...} command as

and I want something that extends over the entire term preferably without redefining the original command.

Use \overline instead of \bar. The \bar accent is meant to be used for single letters only. — Henri Menke, Nov 19 '15 at 15:42
@HenriMenke Sorry I should have mentioned overline is a bit too thick or is there a way to thin the overline? — SigniFicar, Nov 19 '15 at 15:55
By "massive", do you mean to refer to the length or the thickness of the bar? — Mico, Nov 19 '15 at 16:25
@QuantumDart You cannot thin \overline, because it is a primitive command. You can write a macro which does similar things with a variable line thickness, though. — Henri Menke, Nov 19 '15 at 16:28
@QuantumDart Maybe you should edit your question, so that people can directly see what you need without having to read through all these comments. — jarauh, Nov 19 '15 at 17:10

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 16:38

I wrote a macro \voverline which has a variable rule width and separation from the content. These parameters are called \voverlinesep and \voverlinewidth. They can be adjusted via \setlength.

\documentclass{article}
\newlength\voverlinesep
\newlength\voverlinewidth
\setlength\voverlinesep{1pt}
\setlength\voverlinewidth{.1pt}
\makeatletter
\newcommand\voverline[1]{%
  \mathpalette\@voverline{#1}%
}
\newcommand\@voverline[2]{%
  \sbox0{$\m@th#1#2$}%
  \rule[\dimexpr\ht0+\voverlinesep]{\wd0}{\voverlinewidth}%
  \llap{\box0}
}
\begin{document}
$\overline{\mathbf{M}_{\mathbf{2}}(\mathbf{q}_{\mathbf{b}})}$
versus
$\voverline{\mathbf{M}_{\mathbf{2}}(\mathbf{q}_{\mathbf{b}})}$
\end{document}

Actually, \setlength\voverlinesep{1.2pt} would fit better, because the separation to the formula is 3 times the line thickness (default 0.4pt) for \overline. — Henri Menke, Nov 19 '15 at 19:01

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '15 at 16:03

3

You could write

$\overline{\mathbf{M}_{\mathbf{2}}(\mathbf{q}_{\mathbf{b}})}$

answered Nov 19 '15 at 16:03

Mico

506,678

How to add a massive bar on the letters?

2 Answers2