How to get a little frac

Question

I am wondering how to make a fraction in LaTeX small enough to fit on a line, or at least just a little larger. I could have sworn I had seen this before but I just cannot find it.

In particular, I would like to use it in an equation environment, and have it maintain this size.

I am sure there is a simple solution, but I cannot find it.

Answer 1

If you want the numerator on top of the denumerator, and have it appear smaller, the way it typically does in inline math mode as opposed to displayed math style, then use \tfrac{x}{y} (requires amsmath or similar package). If you want a diagonal-style fraction, then check out the xfrac package (with sfrac command).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{xfrac}

\begin{document}
Equation:

    frac: \[\frac{x}{y}\]
    
    tfrac: \[\tfrac{x}{y}\]
    
    sfrac: \[\sfrac{x}{y}\]
    
Inline math:

    frac: $\frac{x}{y}$

    tfrac: $\tfrac{x}{y}$

    sfrac: $\sfrac{x}{y}$
\end{document}