# Equation inside \framebox giving errors

I have the following code:

\framebox{
\begin{align*}
Something here
\end{align*}
}


which gives the following errors:

1. Missing \endgroup inserted
2. Missing } inserted
3. LaTeX Error: \begin{document} ended by \end{align*}
4. Missing $ inserted 5. Display math should end with $ 6. Extra \endgroup 7. Too many }s I'm new to Latex and don't understand why this is happening. Is this a Latex bug? How can I put an equation inside a box? • Another alternative to the ones in the existing answer: empheq. – E.P. Aug 11 '17 at 9:47 • if only a simple box is wanted, amsmath has \boxed{ \begin{aligned} ... \end{aligned} }. must be used in math mode. – barbara beeton Aug 11 '17 at 13:47 ## 4 Answers Not a bug, user error. \framebox is like \mbox and is a single line (horizontal mode) construct, align is a display construct that needs to be in vertical mode. There are several packages for boxed vertical material: mdframed and tcolorbox for example, or simply use \fbox{\parbox{5cm}{\begin{align}....\end{align}}}  OK so here is an example : firstly use package \usepackage{amsmath,mathtools}  \begin{align} \Aboxed{Nu_\text{m} &= \frac{\alpha_m \, L}{\lambda} \text{ \quad .}} \\ \Aboxed{Nu_\text{m} &= \frac{\alpha_m \, L}{\lambda} \text{ \quad .}} \end{align}  remove * and put \Aboxed . Output: here is my full code: \documentclass[ german, paper=a4, ]{scrbook} %KOMA- \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} \usepackage[ngerman]{babel} \usepackage[babel,german=guillemets]{csquotes} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage{amsmath,mathtools} \begin{document} \begin{align} \Aboxed{Nu_\text{m} &= \frac{\alpha_m \, L}{\lambda} \text{ \quad .}} \\ \Aboxed{Nu_\text{m} &= \frac{\alpha_m \, L}{\lambda} \text{ \quad .}} \end{align} \end{document}  • I think we don't have to define Aboxed . – Deepesh Meena Aug 11 '17 at 8:15 • \Aboxed is defined by mathtools – David Carlisle Aug 11 '17 at 8:22 • Sir, I respect you but my code is perfectly working. we can use package instead defining Aboxed – Deepesh Meena Aug 11 '17 at 8:22 • My comment was before you had posted code, your edit showed where it was defined, in mathtools, which you had not mentioned in the original answer:-) – David Carlisle Aug 11 '17 at 8:23 I guess you want to box the equations, but this cannot be done that way, because \framebox doesn't support line breaks (directly). You can avoid having to guess the width of the box by building the alignment beforehand. \documentclass{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{lipsum}% only for the example \newsavebox{\boxedalignbox} \newenvironment{boxedalign*} {\begin{equation*}\begin{lrbox}{\boxedalignbox}\begin{aligned}}
{\end{aligned}\$\end{lrbox}\fbox{\usebox{\boxedalignbox}}\end{equation*}}

\begin{document}

\lipsum*[2]
\begin{boxedalign*}
a &= b(x+y)\\
&= bx+by
\end{boxedalign*}
\lipsum[3]

\end{document}


• why bother with this? amsmath has \boxed, into which an aligned environment fits admirably. – barbara beeton Aug 11 '17 at 13:27
• @barbarabeeton Instead of \fbox one might want some different ornamentation. – egreg Aug 11 '17 at 13:33

It is very easy to have any custom box for any equation environment with empheq. Needless to loadamsmath, as it loadsmathtools, which loads amsmath.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{empheq}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}

\newcommand\mybox[2][black]{\fboxrule=1pt\fboxsep=1.2ex\fcolorbox{#1}{white}{\enspace#2\enspace}}

\begin{document}

\begin{empheq}[box={\mybox[IndianRed]}]{align}
(x + y)^3 & =x^3 + 3x^2y + 3xy^2 + y^3t\\%
x^3 + y^3 & = (x + y)(x^2-xy + y^2)
\end{empheq}

\end{document}