The distance between the superscript and the subscript for the character of parenthesis, for example, grows in group mode, while the equivalent behavior does not occur for the character of "x", for example, and the distance remains the same! Why is that?
I suppose it's possibly related to the character itself, but I want a convincing reason.
${)}^{a}_{b}$\quad $)^{a}_{b}$\\
${x}^{a}_{b}$\quad $x^{a}_{b}$
The output produced using the report class with no options.
I've depicted my investigations on the matter through the figure. The boxes for each character are drawn in red, and the blue lines are the baselines to the sub- and superscripts, and the green lines are the baselines.
Since the non-paired case, the following:
x^{a}_{b}
doesn't differ with the followings:
^{a}_{b}
{}^{a}_{b}
then, which one is more preferable to use?
)is greater than those ofx. You can achieve the same spacing forxif you use{x\mathstrut}^a_b.\mathstruthas the height and depth of)without taking any horizontal space. On the other hand you can do something like{\smash{)}\vphantom{x}}^a_bto get the spacing ofxafter a closing parenthesis. The last version looks quite odd which is why latex increases the spacing for larger letters. – nox Dec 08 '19 at 13:35TeXhandles superscripts after\mathordand\mathclose. – campa Dec 08 '19 at 13:37