# How to increase the horizontal spacing around =&' in the align environment?

I found it too squeezed around the operators when I use align for multiple lines of equations. See the example.

\begin{align*}
&a + b \\
=& c + d \\
=& e + f
\end{align*}


How to increase the space around =' to make something like

\begin{align*}
&a + b \\
= \ & c + d \\
= \ & e + f
\end{align*}

• ={}& is the right way. – egreg Feb 13 '19 at 23:15
• Yes, that works. But I have to add {} for each line. Is there a command for the whole document? – Alex Shen Feb 13 '19 at 23:18
• You shouldn't be using such a layout to begin with. – egreg Feb 13 '19 at 23:20
• If you want to do a "waterfall" like effect, see the \MoveEqLeft macro from mathtools – daleif Feb 14 '19 at 7:27

You need ={}& or the space after = will not be correct.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

This is a wrong display
\begin{align*}
&a + b \\
=& c + d \\
=& e + f
\end{align*}
This is a bit better
\begin{align*}
&a + b \\
={}& c + d \\
={}& e + f
\end{align*}
but the following is even better
\begin{align*}
\MoveEqLeft[1] a + b \\
&= c + d \\
&= e + f
\end{align*}

\end{document}


I'd use such a layout only in case the top expression is very long; otherwise

\begin{align*}
a + b
&= c + d \\
&= e + f
\end{align*}


is the way to go.