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When should I use \tfrac in formulas? I normally use it in power series, but are there other cases where it looks better with \tfrac instead of a full size fraction? Are there any general rules I can follow?

Joseph Wright
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Håkon Marthinsen
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  • Hi. Yes, there is \dfrac. – Sebastiano Dec 08 '16 at 13:23
  • @Sebastiano That doesn't really answer my question. I know about the different fraction styles, but are there any general typographical rules for when the smaller size fraction \tfrac should be used in display mode? – Håkon Marthinsen Dec 08 '16 at 13:36
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    I think this is a matter of opinion. Use \tfrac whenever the fraction is not the main part of a formula which has no other fractions. – egreg Dec 08 '16 at 14:11
  • Sorry for my bad help. – Sebastiano Dec 08 '16 at 20:44
  • Maybe it's also a matter of style. Of course, style is a matter of opinion, but sometimes there are more or less objective rules. Is there any "style guide" that addresses this question? – jarauh Oct 14 '19 at 07:43

1 Answers1

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Often it looks better to use \tfrac if you are just wanting a numeric fraction as part of an expression, when the display fraction can look a bit spacey. Conversely if the fraction is already a larger expression such as a polynomial the text style fraction can look cramped. For fractions (in some font families) there is also the possibility of using the font's fraction characters, although they are no so much used in math as they typically don't blend so well with constructed fractions, but if you only want (say) ½ it's a possibility.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[TS1,T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\begin{document}

(d)frac
\[\frac{1}{2}(x+6)^2\]

tfrac
\[\tfrac{1}{2}(x+6)^2\]


textonehalf
\[\text{\textonehalf}(x+6)^2\]


\bigskip


(d)frac
\[\frac{x^3+5x^2+4}{x^2-2}(x+6)^2\]

tfrac
\[\tfrac{x^3+5x^2+4}{x^2-2}(x+6)^2\]

\end{document}
David Carlisle
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