Customising the position of the integral limits

Question

So, I would like to write the following integral:

by writing

\int\limits_{\xi=\cos\cfrac{\pi}{3}}^{\xi=\cos 0}  \xi^2 d \xi

(please ignore the \cdot on the left of the image).

However, the lower limit is too low, is there a way to put it a little higher?

Answer 1

You might want to simply use \frac instead of \cfrac. That is,

\[ \int\limits_{\xi=\cos\frac{\pi}{3}}^{\xi=\cos 0}  \xi^2 d \xi \]

Answer 2

The only good use of \cfrac is for continued fractions. (Hence the name.)

I would like to recommend you use inline-style fraction notation in the lower limit and 1 (since cos 0 = 1) in the upper limit. I'd also use \smashoperator[r]{...} to snug up the integral symbol to the integrand.

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage{mathtools} % for '\smashoperator' macro
\begin{document}
\[
\int\limits_{\xi=\cos\cfrac{\pi}{3}}^{\xi=\cos 0}  \xi^2 d \xi
\quad\text{vs.}\quad
\smashoperator[r]{\int\limits_{\cos\pi/3}^{1}}  \xi^2 \,d\xi
\]
\end{document}

Answer 3

I think using the medium-sized fractions from nccmath (~80 % of display style), combined with \smash, and \smashoperator from mathtools, will look better:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nccmath, mathtools} %

\begin{document}
\[
\int\limits_{\xi=\cos\cfrac{\pi}{3}}^{\xi=\cos 0} \xi^2\, d \xi
\quad\text{vs.}\quad\int\limits_{\xi=\cos\smash[t]{\mfrac{\pi}{3}}}^{\xi=\cos 0} \xi^2\,d \xi
\]

\end{document}