Make equations large

I'm including some equations in my document, but want them to appear very large. I have them in display mode, as opposed to inline mode, but can't seem to find any way to make them larger.

I've tried using \huge but that seems to make all of the text in that section large (even when using it with {'s).

Is there a simple way to do this?

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3 Answers

Two thoughts come to mind.

Put a \scalebox command from the graphicx package

$\scalebox{2}{2+2=4}$


will make an equation twice as big as normal.

Another option would be to use the \mathlarger and \mathsmaller commands from the relsize package.

I'm sure there are other options too.

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You could use \DeclareMathSizes to specify the font sizes for math mode. The first argument is a text size, the further arguments set the corresponding math sizes in display/text style, script style and scriptscript style.

Example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\DeclareMathSizes{12}{30}{16}{12}
\begin{document}
\noindent
This is regular text. An equation should be really big:
$2x^2 + y^{2^2} = 1$
The text continues.
\end{document}


Output:

So, by just one command you may adjust the math font sizes consistently for all styles.

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Didn't know about \DeclareMathSizes. This is interesting, but can only be used in the preamble, so it affects all the math. Moreover, my comment to Will's answer also applies: If you use the default CM fonts then it doesn't work for large operators such as \int. –  Hendrik Vogt Oct 3 '10 at 8:10
This can be repaired for integrals by loading the esint package. Loading exscale allows scaling of the standard math extension font cmex and results in larger \int and \sum symbols. –  Stefan Kottwitz Oct 3 '10 at 14:57
I was hoping that this allows for changing display math size only; but as said in the answer, the second argument controls "display/text style", both. It may be good to update the example to reflect this, maybe as in: "... is regular text (but see $a^{2}$). An equation should ..." –  sdaau Feb 14 '14 at 11:36

This example doesn't work with the default CM fonts, but \Huge and friends should be able to do the job for you. Try:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
\section{foo}
some text
{\Huge$\int_0^\infty e^{-x} dx$}%
more text
\section{bar}
more text
\end{document}

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I would add that it does work with the default CM fonts as long as you don't use large operators such as \int. –  Hendrik Vogt Oct 3 '10 at 8:15