# How to “globally” reduce space in equation to get compact or narrow formed equations?

The above one is done by Word, the below equation is done by LaTeX. How can I get the compact form like Word "globally"?

Here's my code: Please take a look at and give me some advice ....

## thank you

\documentclass[a5paper, 10pt, twoside]{book}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{voffset=10pt, tmargin=1.2cm, bmargin=1.5cm, lmargin=2cm, rmargin=1.5cm }

\begin{document}

The equation is given as:

$$\frac{1}{2} \left[ \frac{h_{\underline j}}{h_{\underline i}} \left\{ \frac{\partial}{\partial q^i} \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline j}}{h_{\underline j}} \right) + \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline m}}{h_{\underline m}} \right) \Gamma^j_{mi} \right\} + \frac{h_{\underline j}}{h_{\underline i}} \left\{ \frac{\partial}{\partial q^i} \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline j}}{h_{\underline j}} \right) + \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline m}}{h_{\underline m}} \right) \Gamma^j_{mi} \right\} \right]$$

\end{document}


Some suggestions:

• Use a more tightly spaced (math) font. Since your MS Word reference example uses Times Roman, I suggest you do the same for the LaTeX version by loading the newtxtext and newtxmath packages.

• Load the mleftright package and issue the instruction \mleftright in the preamble. This will cut down on the whitespace added to each \left-\right pair of round, square, and curly fences.

• Reduce the spacing around the + symbols by issuing the instruction \medmuskip=1mu,

• Last and definitely least, insert a negative thinspace, \!, in the subscript arguments of the \Gamma terms. This will "tuck in" the subscript.

For comparison, here's the output produced by the unmodified code:

and here's the output produced with just the Times for Computer Modern substitution, but without the other three suggestions implemented:

\documentclass[a5paper, 10pt, twoside]{book}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{voffset=10pt,
tmargin=1.2cm, bmargin=1.5cm,
lmargin=2cm,   rmargin=1.5cm }

\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}

\usepackage{mleftright}
\mleftright

\medmuskip=1mu
\begin{document}

The equation is given as:

$$\frac{1}{2} \left[ \frac{h_{\underline j}}{h_{\underline i}} \left\{ \frac{\partial}{\partial q^i} \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline j}}{h_{\underline j}} \right) + \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline m}}{h_{\underline m}} \right) \Gamma^j_{\!mi} \right\} + \frac{h_{\underline j}}{h_{\underline i}} \left\{ \frac{\partial}{\partial q^i} \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline j}}{h_{\underline j}} \right) + \left( \frac{\hat{u}^{\underline m}}{h_{\underline m}} \right) \Gamma^j_{\!mi} \right\} \right]$$

\end{document}

• Wow!!!! Wonderful!!! Dr. Mico. Thank you so much!!! – jaehyun Jan 8 '16 at 11:33
• it would be interesting to see the difference with only the substitution of times. – barbara beeton Jan 8 '16 at 18:40
• @barbarabeeton - I've added an extra screenshot to show the effect of implementing just the first of the four suggestions (i.e, switch to Times). – Mico Jan 8 '16 at 23:28
• great -- this is a really good demonstration of the difference between times and computer modern with respect to character width. it's clearly narrow enough to fit in the available page width, and looks much better to me than the version with the spaces also narrowed. notice that the spaces inside the curly brackets changed hardly at all, and thus the balance compared with the space outside those brackets is much nicer. – barbara beeton Jan 9 '16 at 14:44