# How to make a vector bold and italic inside an equation

I want all my equations to be in italics and the vectors to be bold as well. When I write the following LaTeX code it gives italic equations:

$$F = kx$$

But when I re-write to make the vectors bold, the vectors become bold but don't stay italic anymore:

$$\mathbf{F} = k\mathbf{x}$$

How can I keep the whole equation in italics with vectors appearing as bold?

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You could use the bm package and its command \bm. One of the very nice things about this package is that \bm works equally well on letters and symbols; thus, one doesn't have to remember to use \mathbf on letters and \boldsymbol on symbols. Another nice aspect -- especially useful for your setup -- is that you get bold-italic rather than bold-upright output.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bm}
\begin{document}
$$\bm{F} = k\bm{x}$$
\end{document}
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You can also use the \bm command, from the bm package, which seems preferable in a number of cases. See: \bm package versus \boldsymbol

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\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\abovedisplayskip=0pt\relax%don't use this line in your production
$$\boldsymbol{F} = k\, \boldsymbol{x}$$
\end{document}

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Who cancelled the upvote? – kiss my armpit Oct 27 '13 at 0:54