# Symbols for > and < inside text

Code

Area $> 50 \, \si{\mu m}$.


which does not look nice according to my assist with > being too big:

Command $\g$ does not exist. There many ways to fix this problem. I heard some command \lt{>} but cannot find package. There should be also other ways.

How can type type the greater and smaller symbols inside text?

• It's not clear what you're meaning by “too big”. – egreg May 4 '15 at 15:42
• I wonder why it's not possible after almost 4 years being on TeX.SX to provide a working sample code ;-) (No, I am not the downvoter) – user31729 May 4 '15 at 15:51
• @Masi, tell your assistant that LaTeX is correct and this is the right way to type. – Sigur May 4 '15 at 15:53
• You can just use > out of the current text font so long as you are using usepackage[T1]{fontenc} but it isn't necessarily different from the math glyph (impossible to tell as you have provided no example) – David Carlisle May 4 '15 at 15:53
• the only complaint i would have is that, in this context, there really shouldn't be any space between the less-than and the value. the assistant has apparently been looking at material of inferior typographic quality. – barbara beeton May 4 '15 at 16:32

There's no reason whatsoever for making the “greater than” symbol smaller.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage{textgreek}
\sisetup{math-micro=\text{\textmu}}

\begin{document}

\noindent
of the magnetization at diffraction limited resolution
(\SI{500}{\nano\meter}) simultaneously over a large
area (\SI{>50}{\micro\meter}). This is possible because
the system uses a high-{\parfillskip=0pt\par}
$1>x-1>0$

\end{document}


Note the usage of \SI with a comparator.

I would find very strange making the symbol smaller in a different context.

I do not understand your assistant as your version looks just right. This is the normal way. However, here are two solutions for smaller symbols. Not my recommendations, but you may do so:

% arara: pdflatex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage{relsize}
\usepackage{tipa}
\parindent=0pt

\begin{document}
% standard approach in math
Area $> \SI{50}{\mu\metre}$.

% standard approach in text
Area \textgreater{} \SI{50}{\mu\metre}.

% some other smaller versions which I think ugly
Area ${}\mathbin{\raisebox{1pt}{$\mathsmaller{>}$}} \SI{50}{\mu\metre}$.\\
Area ${}\mathbin{\raisebox{1.2pt}{$\mathsmaller{\mathsmaller{>}}$}}☺ \SI{50}{\mu\metre}$.\\
Area \raisebox{-3.3pt}{\textrptr} \SI{50}{\mu\metre}.
\end{document}


of course you should define a macro for this in order to keep the possibility of changing it back (and for nicer syntax... the code looks just ugly as well...).