# How can I write multiple lines in a subscript?

Is there a way to force a line break inside a math mode text?

My example:

$\underbrace{....}_\text{Some long text that should be multiline}$


Trying

\text{Some long text that\\ should be multiline}


Didn't do the trick.

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While it is not an answer, I thought you might like to know why \ fails inside \text. If you look through the code, \text will insert an \hbox for the content when in math mode. TeX sets \hbox material in a mode where paragraphs are ignored, so there will never be a break inside the argument of the \text macro. –  Joseph Wright Dec 21 '10 at 13:55
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## 6 Answers

You can use the \substack command, from the amsmath package, just like \text.

$\underbrace{....}_{\substack{\text{Some long text that}\\\text{should be multiline}}}$

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• \substack, mentioned by Carsten, probably fits best to your \underbrace because of the centered alignment.

• subarray is similar but offers customizable alignment:

Example:

$\underbrace{....}_{\begin{subarray}{l}\text{Some long text that}\\ \text{should be multiline}\end{subarray}}$

• \parbox also works in math mode. You could use a font size command inside.
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Another possibility:

$\underbrace{some equation}_{\text{Some long text that}\atop\text{should be multilined}}$

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\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\newcommand\myText[1]{\text{\scriptsize\tabular[t]{@{}l@{}}#1\endtabular}}

\begin{document}

$\underbrace{....}_\myText{Some long text that\\ should be multiline}$

\end{document}

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A simple \parbox with a certain width should also do.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}   % loads »amsmath«

\begin{document}
$\underbrace{ax^3+bx^2+cx+d}_{\text{\parbox{10em}{Some text that should be multi-lined}}}$
\end{document}

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One more, for a very long text:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newlength{\mysum}
\settowidth{\mysum}{$1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9$}
\begin{document}
$$\underbrace{1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9}_{ \begin{minipage}{\mysum}\lipsum[2]\end{minipage}}$$
\end{document}

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