Make author names bold in bibliography only

Question

I am using an adaption of the verbose-ibid citestyle (as suggested here) and a custom bbx file based on authoryear. One of the things it changes is that it makes the author names appear bold. The only problem is that the verbose-ibid style seems to use the same macro and the bold names therefore appear in footcites as well.

Here is the relevant part of the bbx:

\RequireBibliographyStyle{authoryear}

\ExecuteBibliographyOptions{dashed=false,firstinits=true}

\renewbibmacro*{author}{%
  \ifboolexpr{
    test \ifuseauthor
    and
    not test {\ifnameundef{author}}
  }
    {\usebibmacro{bbx:dashcheck}
       {\bibnamedash}
       {\usebibmacro{bbx:savehash}%
        \textbf{\printnames{author}}% THIS IS THE IMPORTANT LINE
        \iffieldundef{authortype}
          {\setunit{\addspace}}
          {\setunit{\addcomma\space}}}%
     \iffieldundef{authortype}
       {}
       {\usebibmacro{authorstrg}%
        \setunit{\addspace}}}%
    {\global\undef\bbx@lasthash
     \usebibmacro{labeltitle}%
     \setunit*{\addspace}}%
  \usebibmacro{date+extrayear}}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}
\DeclareNameAlias{default}{last-first}

How can I apply textbf in the bibliography ony, not touching citations and footnotes?

Answer 1

You can use the hook \AtBeginBibliography:

\AtBeginBibliography{%
   \renewcommand*{\mkbibnamefirst}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   \renewcommand*{\mkbibnamelast}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   \renewcommand*{\mkbibnameprefix}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   \renewcommand*{\mkbibnameaffix}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
}

Answer 2

Most biblatex styles use the name format sortname to print the author names in the bibliography, so we can redefine that format.

In particular sortname is the name format used for the authoryear- and authortitle-based bibliography styles (including the verbose family). If you want a similar effect for numeric and alphabetic styles you should redefine the name formats author, editor and translator directly.

First we define a new format: first-last-bold, it is based on first-last, but with an added \mkbibbold{

\DeclareNameFormat{given-family-bold}{\mkbibbold{%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiveni}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}}

similarly one could have

\DeclareNameFormat{family-given-bold}{\mkbibbold{%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiveni}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}}

or

\DeclareNameFormat{family-given/given-family-bold}{\mkbibbold{%
  \ifnumequal{\value{listcount}}{1}
    {\ifgiveninits
       {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiveni}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiven}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}%
     \ifboolexpe{%
       test {\ifdefvoid\namepartgiven}
       and
       test {\ifdefvoid\namepartprefix}}
       {}
       {\usebibmacro{name:revsdelim}}}
    {\ifgiveninits
       {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiveni}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiven}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}}

then we tell biblatex to use the new format

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{given-family-bold}

This last step might have to be

\DeclareNameAlias{author}{given-family-bold}
\DeclareNameAlias{editor}{given-family-bold}
\DeclareNameAlias{translator}{given-family-bold}

with some styles.

MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=verbose-ibid,backend=biber]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\DeclareNameFormat{given-family-bold}{\mkbibbold{%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiveni}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{given-family-bold}

\begin{document}
\cite{cicero,wilde,baez/article,knuth:ct,aristotle:physics}


\printbibliography
\end{document}

The answer has been updated to conform with the new name format in version 3.3, see Biblatex 3.3 name formatting.

Answer 3

You should be able to add the \textbf-command by using the xpatch-package.

In the preamble:

\usepackage{xpatch}

Then you have to write before the \printbibliography:

\xpatchbibmacro{author}{\printnames{author}}{\textbf{\printnames{author}}}{}{}

which will replace the command.

(untested)

Answer 4

Here's a version of moewe's answer that's updated to work with biblatex versions 3.3+. I'm not an expert with biblatex at all, but wanted to write down what what I did to update the name format.

On my machine at work, the system-wide installation of biblatex is version 2.8a. Section 4.4.2 of the documentation explains that \DeclareNameFormat takes an three arguments. Within the third argument, #1 through to #8 are used to refer to various components of a person's name. The odd numbers give the full string, whereas even numbers abbreviate this to just initials. Here they are. In brackets I've added what they'd be if my name was Richard Wayne "Dick" van Dyke Senior.

• #1 and #2: Surname(s), aka family names (Dyke, or D.)
• #3 and #4: First and middle name(s), aka given names (Richard Wayne ``Dick'')
• #5 and #6: Any name prefixes (van)
• #7 and #8: Any name suffixes, aka affixes (Senior)

More recent versions of biblatex don't pass this information around as positional arguments; instead they're available as named macros. (This certainly makes it easier for a novice to understand what the format is actually doing. Here's what the arguments numbers above need to be translated into. Notice that the abbreviated versions are the same macro with an i at the end.

• \namepartfamily and \namepartfamilyi
• \namepartgiven and \namepartgiveni
• \namepartprefix and \namepartprefixi
• \namepartsuffix and \namepartsuffixi

If we replace all instances of #1 through #8 in this way, we get a document that compiles happily with bold surnames in the bibliography. However, biblatex isn't completely happy with us.

Package biblatex Warning: '\iffirstinits' is deprecated, use '\ifgiveninits'.
Package biblatex Warning: 'name:first-last' is deprecated, please use 'name:given-family'.

I guess the change in terminology is to better support names where the family comes first, e.g. with Japanese names. After updating the macro and strings as requested, the MWE is as follows.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=verbose-ibid, backend=biber]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{first-last-bold}

\DeclareNameFormat{first-last-bold}{\mkbibbold{%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}{\namepartfamily}{\namepartgiveni}{\namepartprefix}{\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}{\namepartfamily}{\namepartgiven}{\namepartprefix}{\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}}

\begin{document}
\cite{cicero,wilde,baez/article,knuth:ct,aristotle:physics}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

The output from LaTeX is just as in moewe's answer.