# Increase the spacing of rows in equations

I have a formula and I want to increase the space between the rows to make the reading easier.

\begin{flalign*} \epsilon \bm{\Xi}_n & = M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{n-1}) = \\ &=M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) + M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1})-M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + M( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-2} ) +\epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-1}) - M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1}) \bm{\xi}_{n-1}+ M^2\left( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} + \epsilon \xibf_{n-2} \right) -M^n(\bm{x}) + O(\epsilon^2) \\ & = \epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1})\bm{\xi}_{n-1}+\epsilon DM^2( \bm{x}_{n-2}) \bm{\xi}_{n-2} + M^3( \bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} )-M^n(\bm{x}). \end{flalign*}


I read this post Temporarily increase line spacing but there are a lot of different methods. Some of ones works only for text.

I use the following packages:

\usepackage{ws-rotating}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{mathtools}

• Please help us to help you and add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. It will be much easier for us to reproduce your situation and find out what the issue is when we see compilable code, starting with \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document}. – user31729 May 28 '14 at 11:45
• flalign inside equation surely generates an error message? – David Carlisle May 28 '14 at 11:52
• the use of \jot is recommended in answers to this question: How to increase the spacing between equations in “gather”? – barbara beeton May 28 '14 at 12:28
• As @barbarabeeton mentions use \jot, since your are already mentioning mathtools, use the \begin{spreadlines}{dimen}...\end{spreadlines} env, dimen being a length, say 2em. – daleif May 28 '14 at 14:08
• @daleif -- em should always be thought of as a horizontal dimension. for vertical dimensions, better to use ex. and, by the way, \jot defaults (in latex.ltx) to 3pt, or (in a 10pt text environment) a quarter of the usual baseline distance. – barbara beeton May 28 '14 at 14:41

If you want to increase row spacing uniformly in a multiline group of equations without having to type [vertical spacing] at each line break, you can use \setstretch (from the \setspace package) at the beginning of such an environment. Btw, if you load mathtools, you don't have to load amsmath. Also, I think what you need is the aligned environment, rather than flalign*, which doesn't work with equation.

The second example in the example is typeset with \setstretch{2}:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage{heuristica}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{bm}
\usepackage{setspace}

\begin{document}

\begin{aligned} \epsilon \bm{\Xi}_n & = M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{n-1}) = \\ &=M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) + M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1})-M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + M( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-2} ) +\epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-1}) - M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1}) \bm{\xi}_{n-1}+ M^2\left( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} + \epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-2} \right) -M^n(\bm{x}) + O(\epsilon^2) \\ & = \epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1})\bm{\xi}_{n-1}+\epsilon DM^2( \bm{x}_{n-2}) \bm{\xi}_{n-2} + M^3( \bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} )-M^n(\bm{x}). \end{aligned}

\setstretch{1.5}\begin{aligned} \epsilon \bm{\Xi}_n & = M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{n-1}) = \\ &=M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) + M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1})-M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + M( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-2} ) +\epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-1}) - M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1}) \bm{\xi}_{n-1}+ M^2\left( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} + \epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-2} \right) -M^n(\bm{x}) + O(\epsilon^2) \\ & = \epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1})\bm{\xi}_{n-1}+\epsilon DM^2( \bm{x}_{n-2}) \bm{\xi}_{n-2} + M^3( \bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} )-M^n(\bm{x}). \end{aligned}

\end{document}


• This adds unwanted space between the last line of text and the first line of the equation. I'm using it with align*. Any way to avoid that? – Jeff Nov 19 '18 at 4:32
• @Jeff: You can use the \useshortskip directive, from nccmath, just before the equation, or something like \vspace{-0.5\baselineskip}. – Bernard Nov 19 '18 at 21:46

Just to collaborate on Ians suggestion, here is the same using spreadlines

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
\begin{flalign*}
A &= B \\
&= C \\
&= D
\end{flalign*}
\end{document}


Use a length as an optional argument to \\. Here I have used 1cm to exaggerate the effect.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
\begin{flalign*}
A &= B \\[1cm]
&= C \\[1cm]
&= D
\end{flalign*}
\end{document}


Use the (secret) built-in method:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage{heuristica}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{bm}
\usepackage{setspace}

\begin{document}

\begin{aligned} \epsilon \bm{\Xi}_n & = M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{n-1}) = \\ &=M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) + M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1})-M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + M( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-2} ) +\epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-1}) - M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1}) \bm{\xi}_{n-1}+ M^2\left( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} + \epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-2} \right) -M^n(\bm{x}) + O(\epsilon^2) \\ & = \epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1})\bm{\xi}_{n-1}+\epsilon DM^2( \bm{x}_{n-2}) \bm{\xi}_{n-2} + M^3( \bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} )-M^n(\bm{x}). \end{aligned}

\setstretch{1.5}\begin{aligned} \epsilon \bm{\Xi}_n & = M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{n-1}) = \\ &=M_\epsilon(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) - M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-1} ) + M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon,n-1})-M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + M( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-2} ) +\epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-1}) - M^n(\bm{x}) = \\ &=\epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1}) \bm{\xi}_{n-1}+ M^2\left( M(\bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} + \epsilon \bm{\xi}_{n-2} \right) -M^n(\bm{x}) + O(\epsilon^2) \\ & = \epsilon \bm{\xi}_n + \epsilon DM(\bm{x}_{n-1})\bm{\xi}_{n-1}+\epsilon DM^2( \bm{x}_{n-2}) \bm{\xi}_{n-2} + M^3( \bm{x}_{\epsilon, n-3} )-M^n(\bm{x}). \end{aligned}

\end{document}


Note that the trailing equals sign is not necessary; also, I changed your \left( and \right) into \bigl( and \bigr) in order to get slightly bigger parentheses.