Make numbers in table bold w/o changing width

Question

I want to highlight some numbers in a table using \bf{}. However, the bold numbers also get wider but I want them to neatly line up with the rest. How can I avoid this?

Welcome to TeX.SE. I am sure there is an exact question on this site about generating bold text using the same horizontal space, but haven't found it yet... — Peter Grill, Jan 02 '13 at 16:05
What typeface are you using? Is it the default Computer Modern? — egreg, Jan 02 '13 at 16:25
This is apparently known as known "Duplexing" and is a important feature of "Tabular Figures" (as contrasted to "Proportional Figures" used outside of tables). Maybe these keywords should be added to the question as this doesn't show up in google. — Frames Catherine White, Jun 20 '18 at 03:54

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-25T15:18:44.403

18

You can use "non extended bold face":

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\newcommand{\bftab}{\fontseries{b}\selectfont}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{lc}
\toprule
Class & Value \\
\midrule
A & 10 \\
B & 12 \\
C & \bftab 13 \\
D & 11 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Note. From your question I gather that you're using \bf{13} or something like that. It's wrong for two reasons:

\bf is an obsolete command;
it is not a command with argument.

Use \textbf{13} or {\bfseries 13} (the former is preferred for single snippets of boldface text, the latter is for longer passages or in the definition of environments).

edited Mar 25 '17 at 15:18

answered Jan 02 '13 at 16:32

egreg

1,121,712

1

Note that whether this works seems to depend on the font and the fontsize. E.g. scriptsize cmr b is too narrow (while bx is still too wide, and bsx doesn't exist). – oulenz Jun 12 '20 at 13:18
what if I want to use bold for multiple chunks of text? For example, \bftab 0.673 $\pm$ 0.017 only makes 0.017 bold. While {\bftab 0.673 $\pm$ 0.017} works but alters the alignment of the cell. – Luca Clissa Aug 06 '23 at 10:30
1

@LucaClissa You should use siunitx features, in this case those related to uncertainty. – egreg Aug 06 '23 at 12:42
@egreg Can you elaborate more? I can open a new post if you think it's better – Luca Clissa Aug 07 '23 at 08:54
@LucaClissa Did you look for “uncertainty” in the manual of siunitx? – egreg Aug 07 '23 at 09:52
@egreg I tried to, but it didn't help. Anyway I found out I can use \bftab in conjunction with detect-weight option to make the whole thing (number \pm uncertainty) bold. Specifically, I used something like \begin{tabular}{@{} l *{5}{S[detect-weight]} @{}} in the column definition and then bftab in the cell I wanted to make bold. – Luca Clissa Aug 08 '23 at 07:31

Make numbers in table bold w/o changing width

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