# How to bound delimiter size for inline math?

I am working on a text with inline math containing large delimiters:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\ sed diam
nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt $\left(I_A^B\right)$\\ ut labore et
dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.


At the same time, I would like to avoid disrupted line spacing. Is there a straightforward way of setting an upper bound to delimiter size (flexible size but only up to a certain limit)? Ideally, this would apply only to the above inline math situation but not to e.g. display math. I case of doubt I'd rather stick to (I_A^B) instead.

Edit: Font is Latin Modern with base size 12 and single line spacing.

Edit 2: Should have been neater with my MWE. So a real example from my text is something as blown-up as

$\left[\tau^{\left(a\right)}\left(k\right)\right]^{-1}=\left.k^{2} \gamma^{\left(a\right)}\right/\chi^{\left(a\right)}$

• in most fonts there will be at most two sizes that fit within the linewidth so it's quite simple, just don't use \left(\right) use () and \bigl(\bigr) Nov 18, 2016 at 20:30
• I don't see any line-spacing disruption in your current example. However, I'd suggest using \bigl(...\bigr) instead. In extreme cases, you could consider \smash{...}, but this may have the content stick into the surrounding lines.
– Werner
Nov 18, 2016 at 20:31
• I added an analysis of your new example. Nov 18, 2016 at 22:21

Your example doesn't show increased space between baselines. In the following code I set \lineskip to a big value (default is zero), in order to emphasize when the enlarging happens: you see that in example 2 it doesn't show.

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\lineskip}{10pt} % to magnify the effect

1. \textbf{Incorrect}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\ sed diam
nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt $\left(I_A^{B^\frac{2}{3}}\right)$\\ ut labore et
dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\bigskip

2. \textbf{Incorrect}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\ sed diam
nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt $\left(I_A^B\right)$\\ ut labore et
dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\bigskip

3. \textbf{Almost correct}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\ sed diam
nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt $\bigl(I_A^B\bigr)$\\ ut labore et
dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\bigskip

4. \textbf{Correct}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\ sed diam
nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt $(I_A^B)$\\ ut labore et
dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\end{document}


You can also clearly see that there is no need for the delimiters to cover the entire height: the fourth example is as clearly delimited as the third one.

Note: I had to resort to 10pt size, because at 12pt size \big is the same as normal, with Latin Modern. Here is the picture for 12pt.

Now that you have shown the real formula, here's the example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\lineskip}{10pt} % to magnify the effect

1. \textbf{Incorrect}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
$\left[\tau^{\left(a\right)}\left(k\right)\right]^{-1}= \left.k^{2} \gamma^{\left(a\right)}\right/\chi^{\left(a\right)}$\\
ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\bigskip

2. \textbf{Correct}\par
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,\\
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
$[\tau^{(a)}(k)]^{-1}=k^{2}\gamma^{(a)}/\chi^{(a)}$\\
ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\end{document}


The enlargement is still bigger than normal, just for better showing where it happens. It's a mistake using \left and \right everywhere: the “correct” formula is even better readable than the one with them.

• Grazie mille @egreg :) Nov 18, 2016 at 22:30