# Bold math symbol in caption

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[font=bf]{caption}
\begin{document}
\listoffigures
\newpage
\begin{figure}[H]
\caption{Line plot of SE of $\pmb{\hat\beta_0}$ at cp\pmb{=}0.1, 0.2, 0.3}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


I am trying to bold the math symbol\hat\beta_0 by using \pmb but doing this will cause \hat\beta_0 in my list of figures appear to be bold too. is there a way to bold the math symbol in caption without affecting the caption appear in the list of figures? My caption need to be bold, but to bold the math symbol in caption, I have to use \pmb.

• you could use \caption[no bold]{bold} but better would be to configure your caption to use \boldmath as well as \bfseries so the math is bold by default where the text is bold (only use \bmb as a last resort, better to use \boldmath – David Carlisle Apr 24 '18 at 17:30
• Use the option argument of \caption. B.t.w. is there any reason to use \pmb rather than \boldsymbol? – Bernard Apr 24 '18 at 17:30
• @DavidCarlisle where should i add the \caption[no bold]{bold}? i tried using \boldmath but the \hat\beta_0 in list of figures still appear in bold. – yap Apr 24 '18 at 17:41
• @Bernard. what argument should i add in \caption? – yap Apr 24 '18 at 17:42
• I suggested to replace \pmb with \boldsymbol, but if all you captions are bold, it's much better to follow David Carlisle's advice to add the \boldmath directive in \captionsetup and use the option [nobold]. – Bernard Apr 24 '18 at 17:54

You should use \boldmath:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{caption}

\DeclareCaptionFont{xbf}{\bfseries\boldmath}
\captionsetup{font=xbf}

\begin{document}
\listoffigures
\clearpage
\begin{figure}
\caption{Line plot of SE of $\hat\beta_0$ at $\mathrm{cp}=0.1, 0.2, 0.3$}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


For producing the image, I used \usepackage[paper=a6paper,landscape]{geometry}.