# Parentheses with automatically increasing heights [duplicate]

To reflect the way I draw math by hand, and because I find this more readable, I would like to have \left and \right (or a custom pair of commands) render parentheses‐like symbols with an increasing size, even if their actual content does not get taller.

As is, the code:

\left(\left(\left(\left(a\right)\right)\right)\right)


renders as:

I am seeking something roughly looking like:

Of course, just as \left and \right, it would have to work automatically, that is, I wouldn’t have to specify any size information manually. My guess is that \left and \right measure the height of what is between them and compute an appropriate size for the parentheses. So, it might do the trick to alter their behaviour so that they pretend their parentheses to be slightly taller than how they are actually rendered — say, by a 1.2 factor, or whatever.

How can I achieve that?

## marked as duplicate by Steven B. Segletes math-mode StackExchange.ready(function() { if (StackExchange.options.isMobile) return; $('.dupe-hammer-message-hover:not(.hover-bound)').each(function() { var$hover = $(this).addClass('hover-bound'),$msg = $hover.siblings('.dupe-hammer-message');$hover.hover( function() { $hover.showInfoMessage('', { messageElement:$msg.clone().show(), transient: false, position: { my: 'bottom left', at: 'top center', offsetTop: -7 }, dismissable: false, relativeToBody: true }); }, function() { StackExchange.helpers.removeMessages(); } ); }); }); Apr 12 '17 at 13:19

• \delimiterfactor = 1200? – GuM Apr 12 '17 at 12:26
• @StevenB.Segletes Duplicate indeed. Sorry I didn’t found that question while browsing this website. – Maëlan Apr 12 '17 at 13:15
• @GustavoMezzetti: That is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! Shame on me for not having found it via my search engine. – Maëlan Apr 12 '17 at 13:19

This works:

% My standard header for TeX.SX answers:
\documentclass[a4paper]{article} % To avoid confusion, let us explicitly
% declare the paper format.

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}         % Not always necessary, but recommended.
% End of standard header.  What follows pertains to the problem at hand.

\usepackage{amsmath}

\delimiterfactor = 1200

\begin{document}

Text before.
$\left(\left(\left(\left(\left(\left( (a) \right)\right)\right)\right)\right)\right)$
Text after.

\end{document}


Note that changes to \delimiterfactor obey normal scoping rules.