# Should \left and \right almost be used for brackets? [duplicate]

Apart from automatically setting the size for brackets, the commands \left and \right also adds spacing around the corresponding brackets. The spacing in which one uses both \left( and \right) and parentheses without these commands the spacing might therefor be inconsistent. Is the intention behind this that the commands \left and right should always be used when parentheses are inserted into equations?

If not, what is good practice for when to use these?

• No, they shouldn't be used indiscriminately. – egreg Oct 1 '18 at 8:58
• You might find some insight in the answers to this question. I'm sure there are others, but I can't find them at the moment. – Harald Hanche-Olsen Oct 1 '18 at 9:50
• Anyhow, use \left and \right when \Biggl and \Biggr aren't big enough. In this case, the whole expression is probably so large that the extra spaces added by \left and right are desirable. (Or you can look in the latex2e source code and make your own \biggger macros.) – Harald Hanche-Olsen Oct 1 '18 at 10:23