My question is smiliar to Creating a matrix with column or row vectors as arguments: I would like to typeset a matrix by indicating just its column vectors.
However the answers in the linked questions suggest things like
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
\begin{pmatrix}
\vert & \vert \\
v_1 & v_2 \\
\vert & \vert
\end{pmatrix}
\]
\end{document}
The downside to this is that the matrix now is three rows high. I would like to have a solution that looks nice next to a 2x2 matrix. I then tried
\begin{pmatrix}
\shortmid & \shortmid \\[-1ex]
v_1 & v_2 \\[-1ex]
\shortmid & \shortmid
\end{pmatrix}
which is better, but not good. Also, it is absolutely not suitable for regular use, as it is basically just an ad-hoc solution.
\vert
with\phantom{}
?\textbf{v}_1
then you won't need to pad out columns.[-0.5ex]
as spacing parameter. It looks more centralized.