6

If I write \big( -1 \big), then I get largish spaces around the minus sign. It's as if TeX is treating the opening parenthesis as an operand, so I get the same spacing that I would get in a - b. Regular (-1) works fine, so it seems to be the "big" qualifier that's causing the trouble.

Is this the expected behavior? Is there some workaround that will give me the correct spacing?

Improve this question
3
  • Did you try \big({-1}\big)?
    – Johannes_B
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:25
  • I did now. It works, but I prefer David's approach below.
    – bubba
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:35
  • Understandable, it is correct :-)
    – Johannes_B
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
15

The markup should be \bigl( and \bigr) (almost) never use \big

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

$\big(-1\big)$

$\bigl(-1\bigr)$

\end{document}

Note that \bigl preserves the mathopen at the start of the term which affects the outer spacing, not just the inner spacing with the following binop.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

$\log(-1)$

$\log{(}{-}1{)}$

$\big(-1\big)x$

$\log\big({-}1\big)x$

$\log\bigl(-1\bigr)x$


\end{document}

enter image description here

Improve this answer
3
  • Thanks. Your suggestion of using {-} also worked, but I like the \bigl-\bigr approach better. I assume this also applies to \Big.
    – bubba
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:32
  • 1
    {-} locally just changes the interpretation of - but for all such size commands) the l-r forms also preserve the outer spacing as you have a math open and math close at each end of the term as if you had use ( and ) \big( like {(} is a mathord.
    – David Carlisle
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:36
  • 1
    @bubba I added some more examples
    – David Carlisle
    Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 9:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .