# Get a thicker \bar

How to get a \bar more thicker (0.8pt for example) than usual and fit all character?

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The normal syntax formatting like backticks don't work in titles and should be avoided there. Please also make sure to start the title and the text with an uppercase letter. Thanks. – Martin Scharrer Apr 25 '11 at 12:24
@Martin Thanks for point out my mistakes – Stufazi Hoqckt Apr 25 '11 at 12:49
Sure. I hope I'm not to annoying. :-) – Martin Scharrer Apr 25 '11 at 13:55
Related Question (with tikz solution): a bolder \overline [duplicate] – Peter Grill Mar 9 '14 at 22:53

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{accents}
\newcommand\thickbar[1]{\accentset{\rule{.4em}{.8pt}}{#1}}
\begin{document}

$\bar A$ VS $\thickbar A$

\end{document}


You can change the width and height of the rule as you wish.

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But when I added a \Large command, the thickness of thickbar turned thiner than in normalsize... – Stufazi Hoqckt Apr 26 '11 at 2:28
You can use em as height unit. – Leo Liu Apr 26 '11 at 6:04
Am I wrong or the accents package is not available in Miktex? Is there a substitute for Miktex? – Juan Bermejo Vega Apr 18 '12 at 12:59
@JuanBermejoVega: I have accents package in MiKTeX. – Leo Liu Apr 18 '12 at 14:18
Thanks, it's solved. The problem was that accents is inside a bundle called bezos, which is the one that features in the Package Manager: original link. And +1 for the help, it is nice to have this symbol if you use overline for complex numbers. – Juan Bermejo Vega Apr 18 '12 at 15:26
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\thickbar}{\mathpalette\@thickbar}
\newcommand{\@thickbar}[2]{{#1\mkern1.5mu\vbox{
\sbox\z@{$#1\mkern-1.5mu#2\mkern-1.5mu$}%
\sbox\tw@{$#1\overline{#2}$}%
\dimen@=\dimexpr\ht\tw@-\ht\z@-.8\p@\relax
\hrule\@height.8\p@ % adjust for the desired rule thickness
\vskip\dimen@
\box\z@}\mkern1.5mu}
}
\makeatother


With \mathpalette we make a macro that will do the right thing in all sizes. The first \sbox command sets the argument in the desired size (display, text, script or scriptscript); the second one sets the argument overlined; then we measure the difference, thus computing the clearance between the symbol and the bar above it. Then we draw a rule with the desired thickness, leave the computed clearance and print the symbol.

It's not exactly as wide as \bar, but it should be close enough.

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Compare the \thickbar and the \bar, you'll find their aren't similar in length. – Stufazi Hoqckt Apr 25 '11 at 12:53
@Stufazi: see edit. – egreg Apr 25 '11 at 14:01
The \thickbar{A} get a undesirable accent. – Stufazi Hoqckt Apr 25 '11 at 23:42