# Prevent large line spacing on lines containing “high” symbols

I am using the notation $\widetilde{\mathcal{F}_K}$ quite extensively in my paper. In each line where it appears, because the tilde makes the symbol a little higher than the other symbols, the line spacing between this line and the previous line is increased. This is both unaesthetic, and also probably wastes a space-worth of a few lines (I am limited in place). Is there any way to alleviate this?

Try using \smash (no package needed).

\smash{$\widetilde{\mathcal{F}_K}$}


Or

$\smash{\widetilde{\mathcal{F}_K}}$


It will not rescale your symbol, but still fix those ugly varying line heights. Watch out for overlapping characters though!

• Might be easier to just add the smash inside math mode instead of around it. Sometimes you just want to smash part of an equation – daleif Mar 27 '18 at 16:08

You can use the scalerel package (see How to horizontally merge two symbols? for sty file) to scale the size your expression to match something smaller. I found that making it the same vertical height (and fit to the same descender) as the expression j^2 worked pretty good

$\scalerel*{\widetilde{\mathcal{F}_K}}{j^2}$


If that was too big or small, you could change the j^2 to some other blob to which your widetilde would be scaled.

Edited to here show an example, using the above definitions. The larger version is your original, but the smaller symbol is the scaled one. At the end, I put them side by side. I have to say, I don't see the line spacing change, at least for my example.

• the adjusted symbol drops below the baseline. i don't think you really meant that. i'm not familiar with scalerel, but this makes me think its implementation needs to be looked at. – barbara beeton Feb 28 '13 at 14:08
• @barbara beeton: Yes, the adjusted symbol drops below the baseline, because I scalerel'ed it to j^2, which also drops below the baseline. I could have scalerel'ed it to a capital A, for example, but it might make the symbol look too small. My goal was not to place the symbol on the baseline, but to place it in a way which did not create larger line spacing. – Steven B. Segletes Mar 1 '13 at 13:40
• @barbarabeeton I'm still trying to master the @ direction of the comment feature. Please read my prior comment. – Steven B. Segletes Mar 1 '13 at 14:00
• your first comment did reach me with notification. i think that if some initial number of letters before a space is unique, it will get through. my practice is to type in a couple of letters, and if the prompt is correct (it usually is), hit the tab and it fills in by itself. (better than my own typing, and doesn't have to be proofread.) regarding "informative" comment, i now understand the rationale. thanks. – barbara beeton Mar 1 '13 at 14:08