44

Is there a way to make math symbols bigger?

Reason: I've used \sfrac{q}{m}, and those symbols appear far to small, so I would like to make them a bit bigger.

edit: I just thought that \sfrac{q}{m} should look nicer if it is bigger when it is followed by =.

edit 2: Context:

some text
\[
  \dfrac{q}{m} \propto \frac{4\pi{r^2}}{\frac{4}{3}\pi{r^3}}\
  \propto 3{r^\alpha}\text{, \quad gdje je\quad}\;\alpha = -1 \text{.}
\]
some text
yo'
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  • Do you really mean \sfrac? I don't know this command. Moreover, a bit of context would help. – Hendrik Vogt Dec 20 '10 at 16:25
  • use \dfrac instead –  Dec 20 '10 at 16:28
  • @Hendrik Vogt: I thought that it would look nicer, but it doesn't... I'll use \dfrac –  Dec 20 '10 at 17:30
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    @an_ant: Well, you still didn't give us context (and you let me figure out myself that it's in the xfrac package ...). It might well be that in your context, using q/m would be better than \dfrac{q}{m}. Please be more specific by giving a complete example with not just the equation but also the surrounding text. – Hendrik Vogt Dec 20 '10 at 17:35
  • @Hendrik Vogt: Sorry! Fine now? –  Dec 20 '10 at 17:54
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    @an_ant: Better, but it doesn't show one important thing: Is the math formula in display style (on a line of it's own), or is it just within the text (so-called inline math)? – Hendrik Vogt Dec 20 '10 at 18:20
  • @Hendrik Vogt: Display style; but has some text in itself. –  Dec 20 '10 at 18:37
  • @an_ant: OK, I'll edit your question accordingly; hope that's OK. – Hendrik Vogt Dec 20 '10 at 18:41

3 Answers3

69

Another possibility are the \mathlarger and \mathsmaller commands provided by the relsize package.

These can be iterated to make bigger and bigger

 \documentclass{article}
 \usepackage{relsize}
 \begin{document}
 \[
    x+y=z \leftrightarrow \mathlarger{\mathlarger{\mathlarger{(x+y=z)}}}
 \]
 \end{document}

alt text

It doesn't always work well with large operators, though.

cmhughes
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frabjous
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15

It is really advisable to always provide a minimal example. The easiest way to scale it (you essentially scaling the font) is to use the \scalebox macro from the graphicx package as follows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xfrac}
\begin{document}
 Scale at 1.5 times  \scalebox{1.5}{\sfrac{3}{2}}

 This is much larger  \scalebox{3}{\sfrac{3}{2}}
\end{document}

You can place the whole thing in a new macro if you wish:

\newcommand\scaledfrac[2]{\scalebox{2}{\sfrac{#1}{#2}}}

\scaledfrac{3}{2}
yannisl
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  • 2
    One should add that only in very special contexts it is advisable to do this. But as no context is specified so far ... – Hendrik Vogt Dec 20 '10 at 16:42
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    @Hendrik Absolutely, the context is important and one should relax and let TeX\LaTeX help with the typography - that is their greater point. Also one should have some faith in the advice of people that designed packages around the difference of a solidus and a virgule! However, if you need to scale anything normally scalebox and scalefont are great tools. – yannisl Dec 20 '10 at 16:48
0

This is an answer to the version of edit 2 that I just produced myself ...

As your math formula is in display style, you can just use \frac{q}{m}; this will give you a large fraction. It's also OK to use \dfrac{q}{m}; this will yield the same result: \dfrac just puts a fraction in display style.

Hendrik Vogt
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