Preventing "boldification" of glossary items

Question

Is there a way to prevent "boldification" of the glossary entry names and symbols in the Glossary chapter?

I have managed to produce newglossarystyle similar to altlist based on list that includes the symbol property in the glossaryentryfield.

However, some of my entries have symbol and name formatted in plain text (e.g. "Ss") but other entries include math (e.g. "\ensuremath{N_s}").

In the main text the above are nicely displayed, however the in the Glossary chapter plain text entries are getting bold, but math aren't. This looks inconsistent and ugly.

Is there a way to prevent this "boldification" of the glossary entry names and symbols in the Glossary chapter?

\makeatletter
\newglossarystyle{altlistSymbol}{%
    \glossarystyle{list}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryentryfield}[5]{%
        \item[\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{##4}]%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##2}%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##3}\glspostdescription\space {##5}}%
    \renewcommand{\glossarysubentryfield}[6]{%
        \par
        \glssubentryitem{##2}%
        \glstarget{##2}{\strut}##4\glspostdescription\space {##6}}%
}
\makeatother

Moving the \glstarget{##1}{##4} outside the item[...] seems to be a dirty trick and it changes the left-positioning of the text.

\item[\glsentryitem{##1}]\glstarget{##1}{##4}%

Also, changing all of may entries to mathmode is unfeasible.

MWE:

% arara: xelatex
% arara: makeglossaries
% arara: xelatex
% arara: makeglossaries
% arara: xelatex
% arara: xelatex

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage{glossaries}
\newglossary[slg]{symbols}{sym}{sbl}{Symbols}
\makeglossaries

\newglossaryentry{number}{
type            = {symbols},
name            = {number, glossary entry name},
symbol          = {\ensuremath{N_s}},
sort            = {n},
description     = {number, glossary entry description}
}

\newglossaryentry{subject}{
type            = {symbols},
name            = {subject},
plural          = {subjects},
symbol          = {S},
symbolplural    = {Ss},
sort            = {s},
description     = {plural \glsentrysymbolplural{subject}, glossary entry description}
}   

\makeatletter
\newglossarystyle{altlistSymbol}{%
    \glossarystyle{list}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryentryfield}[5]{%
        \item[\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{##4}]%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##2}%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##3}\glspostdescription\space {##5}}%
    \renewcommand{\glossarysubentryfield}[6]{%
        \par
        \glssubentryitem{##2}%
        \glstarget{##2}{\strut}##4\glspostdescription\space {##6}}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\null
\glsaddall

\printglossary[type=symbols,style=altlistSymbol]

\end{document}

It's probably a {description} list so you could try and add a redefinition of \descriptionlabel to the definition of the glossary style: \renewcommand*\descriptionlabel[1]{\hspace\labelsep\normalfont#1} (this is the standard definition but without \bfseries) — cgnieder, Jul 01 '13 at 09:37
Just redefine \glsnamefont as described in the glossaries FAQ — Nicola Talbot, Jul 01 '13 at 14:14
@nicola-talbot : yup, but this takes effect on name only and if a symbol is contained in the item as in my example (glstarget{##1}{##4}), then unfortunately it will still be in bold
So far I have found using: \renewcommand\descriptionlabel[1]{\hspace\labelsep\normalfont #1} \printglossaries \renewcommand\descriptionlabel[1]{\hspace\labelsep\normalfont\bfseries #1}

(as proposed by @cgnieder) working quite fine.

But, the hint with \glsnamefont is still very useful, handy, insightful and "general understanding broadening" — NeuroTeX, Jul 01 '13 at 19:00
@NeuroTeX Sorry, I didn't notice you also had the symbol in the item. — Nicola Talbot, Jul 01 '13 at 20:05

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '13 at 10:20

The list glossary style uses description; you can modify it by resetting the environment with enumitem:

% arara: xelatex
% arara: makeglossaries
% arara: xelatex
% arara: makeglossaries
% arara: xelatex
% arara: xelatex

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{glossaries}
\newglossary[slg]{symbols}{sym}{sbl}{Symbols}
\makeglossaries

\show\glsgroupheading

\newglossaryentry{number}{
type            = {symbols},
name            = {number, glossary entry name},
symbol          = {\ensuremath{N_s}},
sort            = {n},
description     = {number, glossary entry description}
}

\newglossaryentry{subject}{
type            = {symbols},
name            = {subject},
plural          = {subjects},
symbol          = {S},
symbolplural    = {Ss},
sort            = {s},
description     = {plural \glsentrysymbolplural{subject}, glossary entry description}
}   

\makeatletter
\newglossarystyle{altlistSymbol}{%
    \glossarystyle{list}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryentryfield}[5]{%
        \item[\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{##4}]%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##2}%
        \mbox{}\newline%\mbox{}\par\nobreak\@afterheading%
        {##3}\glspostdescription\space {##5}}%
    \renewcommand{\glossarysubentryfield}[6]{%
        \par
        \glssubentryitem{##2}%
        \glstarget{##2}{\strut}##4\glspostdescription\space {##6}}%
\renewenvironment{theglossary}
 {\begin{description}[font=\normalfont]}
 {\end{description}}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\null
\glsaddall

\printglossary[type=symbols,style=altlistSymbol]

\end{document}

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Preventing "boldification" of glossary items

1 Answers1