# What's up with the spacing between letters inside $…$?

When I write $VSS$ in my LaTeX studio, it behaves it as if there is a space between V and S (i.e. V SS).

Is there a way to fix this? I tried \scalebox{.85}[1.0]{$VSS$}, but it did not work well. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

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For sure this is the right way to type VSS. Don't worry. – Sigur Jun 18 '14 at 22:37
tex.stackexchange.com/questions/129400/… and linked questions may be of interest. – Torbjørn T. Jun 18 '14 at 22:47

## 1 Answer

$VSS$ means $V$ times $S$ times $S$. If you need an italic text in math mode, you may use $\textit{VSS}$ or \$\mathit{VSS} (they are not equivalent).

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But the default font for math is italic isn't? – Sigur Jun 18 '14 at 22:42
@Sigur Not exactly. It is math italic, a bit wider. – Przemysław Scherwentke Jun 18 '14 at 22:43
@Sigur It's math italic; in well designed fonts it's not the same as text italic. – egreg Jun 18 '14 at 22:43
@Sigur No. The characters are wider. – Przemysław Scherwentke Jun 18 '14 at 22:45
The characters are wider in the case of Computer Modern or Latin Modern or maybe some other fonts specifically designed for that. As far as I know, the math italic from MinionPro, for instance, has the same characters as the text font, the difference is in the bounding box – Bernard Jun 18 '14 at 23:09