6

I would like to have two macros that mimic \left( and \right), but limits the size of the parenthesis to \Bigl( and \Bigr) (allows smaller sizes), respectively. In the below MWE, one needs to extend two \newcommand lines. I am aware that this might be a difficult task, since you need to know the height of the object that you are enclosing.

MWE

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\leftc}[1]{ \left#1 }
\newcommand{\rightc}[1]{ \right#1 }

\begin{document}%

\begin{equation}%
\left( a/b \right), ~ \left( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \right), ~ \Bigl( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \Bigr)
\end{equation}%

\begin{equation}%
\leftc( a/b \rightc), ~ \leftc( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \rightc), ~ \Bigl( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \Bigr)
\end{equation}%

\end{document}%

Output of MWE

Current output

Desired output

Desired output

Ritz
  • 946
  • usually it's best simply not to use \left and \right which adds unwanted horizontal space and other effects. certainly I'd never use it here: \left( a/b \right) – David Carlisle Jan 04 '16 at 15:07
  • I would normally not use it in \left( a/b \right); this was done purely for demonstrative purposes. I have a different \newcommand, say \E, that uses \left( and \right) but sometimes creates parentheses that I feel are too large. So I would like to simply substitute \leftc( and \rightc) for the \left( and \right) in the definition of \E. – Ritz Jan 04 '16 at 15:16

1 Answers1

10

You can play with the parameters as below but it is almost always better to avoid \left \right and to use specific sizes such as \bigl( \bigr) which gives more control and better spacing.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{equation}
\left( a/b \right), ~ \left( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \right), ~ \Bigl( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \Bigr)
\end{equation}


\delimiterfactor=500
\delimitershortfall=20pt
\begin{equation}
\left( a/b \right), ~ \left( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \right), ~ \Bigl( \prod_{i = 1}^{100} \Bigr)
\end{equation}

\end{document}
David Carlisle
  • 757,742
  • Thank you for the answer. However, this does not really answer the question. I tried to elaborate in my comment on the opening post. – Ritz Jan 04 '16 at 16:06
  • 1
    @Ritz setting \delimitershortfall larger will stop brackets growing too big, which seems to be the main intent of the question (even though the control is not quite as you suggested, that is the control that there is) – David Carlisle Jan 04 '16 at 16:09
  • Okay, I understand. The problem is that in your output, also the \Bigl and \Bigr have changed size, which is an unwanted consequence. – Ritz Jan 04 '16 at 16:33
  • @Ritz hmm you could define \big and friends to locally set them back to their normal values (901 and 5pt) – David Carlisle Jan 05 '16 at 09:46
  • https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/38870/178369 defines different sizes of brackets – Nagabhushan S N Aug 18 '22 at 17:15