Scale maths character horizontally

Question

I'm trying to horizontally scale the letter Λ (Greek letter Lambda), as I am unhappy with its current width. After reading How to Vertically Stretch a Block of Text?, I tried using the command \scalebox{1.2}[1]{$\Lambda$} which works really well outside of mathmode. But, because of the $'s, it doesn't compile properly whenever I use it in a math environment. Are there any tricks around this?

I would prefer an answer that does not include a required package, but instead provides the command that the package implements to stretch the letter (I try to use as little packages as possible and instead pick and choose the commands I need from particular ones) -- but this isn't a strict requirement.

the scalebox you show works the same in math mode as not, so if you got an error something else was wrong. (to make it smaller in subscripts you need mathpalette/mathchoice as egreg showed) — David Carlisle, Mar 04 '17 at 20:51
Very similar question, rotating - Rotated math with correct font size - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange — user202729, Oct 06 '22 at 09:21

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '17 at 20:25

4

I wouldn't do it, but it's a standard application of \mathpalette:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\mathchardef\normalLambda=\Lambda

\renewcommand{\Lambda}{{\mathpalette\scaledLambda\relax}}
\newcommand{\scaledLambda}[2]{\scalebox{1.2}[1]{$#1\normalLambda$}}

\begin{document}

$X\normalLambda Y_{\normalLambda}$ (normal)

$X\Lambda Y_{\Lambda}$ (scaled)

\end{document}

answered Mar 04 '17 at 20:25

egreg

1,121,712

This is exactly what I was after! May I ask why you wouldn't do it (and what you would do instead)? – Bilbottom Mar 04 '17 at 20:30
@BillWallis I'd keep the Lambda as is. – egreg Mar 04 '17 at 20:30

Scale maths character horizontally

1 Answers1