How to boldface a section header? (including title and number)

Question

I'm using class amsart, and I want to boldface each section's header.

That is, the part \section{whatever} - it appears as, for instance, <3. Whatever>

Now I wish to boldface the <3. Whatever> as a whole.

Writing as \section{\bf whatever}, or inserting

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\section}{\scshape}{\bf}{}{}
\makeatother

solve the problem partly by boldfacing the < Whatever> part, but not the <3.> part. Can somebody please tell me how to boldface the whole thing?

Regarding the use of \bf, see Does it matter if I use \textit or \it, \bfseries or \bf, etc. and Will two-letter font style commands (\bf, \it, …) ever be resurrected in LaTeX? — Werner, Jul 27 '12 at 14:40

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '12 at 14:36

9

The instruction for the font used for the number is called \@secnumfont:

\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\@secnumfont}{\bfseries}
\makeatother

So the complete input should be

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\patchcmd{\section}{\scshape}{\bfseries}{}{}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\@secnumfont}{\bfseries}
\makeatother

_{Never use the obsolete commands \bf (or similar two-letter ones for font changing).}

answered Jul 27 '12 at 14:36

egreg

For those who want to keeps small caps while adding boldface: Use the package "fontenc", then include egreg's input above, but replace the two instances of "{\bfseries}" with "{\scshape\bfseries}". – Lawrence Mouillé Oct 05 '20 at 13:15

1 Answers1