# overleftrightarrow

I'm not completely happy with the construction \overset\leftrightarrow{#1}. There is slightly too much spacing and the arrow heads are too big - making the line spacing a bit too much.

Does anyone have an alternative that they prefer?

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This answer, tex.stackexchange.com/questions/162337/double-headed-vector/…;, may be of interest, depending on your application. –  Steven B. Segletes Mar 28 at 11:50

amsmath provides a primitive \overleftrightarrow{...}, but it's even larger than \overset\leftrightarrow{#1}.

You could try the variant MnSymbol provides, which is smaller, but may have unwanted consequences elsewhere.

What about \overset{\text{\tiny$\leftrightarrow$}}{#1}? (That's awkward, and there's probably some way to do without the \text construction, but it seems to work...)

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Strange... I didn't know about the amsmath primitive. And you're right, it is even bigger than the one that I was complaining about! –  Simon Oct 8 '10 at 4:23
As you said, the final construct is a bit awkward but it does work and looks good enough for me. Thanks! –  Simon Oct 13 '10 at 8:08

With the fonts that I'm using I find that \overset{\text{\scriptsize$\leftrightarrow$}}{#1} is the best. The big problem is still that the line thickness is off.

It's quite annoying that there aren't any true solutions to this. For those curious, the possible size options are as follows:

1. \tiny
2. \scriptsize
3. \footnotesize
4. \small (this appears to be the standard size of \overset)
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I finally found something that looks decent. Using the bm package you can thicken the arrow out with \overset{\text{\tiny$\bm\leftrightarrow$}}{#1} –  Kevin Morse Apr 17 '13 at 1:08
Welcome to TeX.sx! You can also edit your answer instead of commenting on it. –  mafp Apr 17 '13 at 1:12