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What is the difference between \text, \textrm, \textnormal, and \mbox (and possibly other commands commonly used to produce text in math mode)?
Various (La)TeX tutorials teach different methods, and I am sure that there is either a best one or there are subtly different usage scenarios.
Update: Example added without amstext to show the effect of this package on the other \text... commands.
Example file without package amstext (or amsmath):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{tgpagella}
\newcommand*{\test}[1]{%
$\csname #1\endcsname{#1}^{\csname #1\endcsname{#1}}$%
}
\renewcommand*{\arraystretch}{1.5}
\begin{document}
\sffamily\bfseries\itshape Text mode: sans serif, bold, italics.
\bigskip
\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}}
\test{mbox}\\
\test{textrm}\\
\test{textnormal}\\
\test{mathrm}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
Example file with package amstext:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amstext}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{tgpagella}
\newcommand*{\test}[1]{%
$\csname #1\endcsname{#1}^{\csname #1\endcsname{#1}}$%
}
\renewcommand*{\arraystretch}{1.5}
\begin{document}
\sffamily\bfseries\itshape Text mode: sans serif, bold, italics.
\bigskip
\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}}
\test{mbox}\\
\test{text}\\
\test{textrm}\\
\test{textnormal}\\
\test{mathrm}
\end{tabular}
\bigskip
$ \textnormal{[a b c \"a \ss] becomes }
\mathrm{[a b c \"a \ss]}
\textnormal{ in mathrm}
$
\end{document}
\mbox uses the current text font. The size is constant and does not change in subscripts, superscripts, fractions, …
\text of package amstext (or amsmath) uses the current text font, but adapt the size according to the current math style. Therefore it needs \mathchoice that has an efficiency impact that the text is set four times for all math styles and later, when TeX knows the math style, it chooses the right version.
\textrm uses the text roman font, but the other font parameters like encoding, shape and series are taken from the current text font. Font size is only adapted to the current math style if package amstext (or amsmath) is loaded.
\textnormal uses \normalfont, the size is only adapted to the currrent math style if package amstext (or amsmath) is loaded.
\mathrm uses the math roman font that might differ from the text roman font. Also the spacing is done according to math and the encoding differs from the text encoding.
For text in math I would load package amstext (or amsmath) and use \text or \textnormal. \text is shorter to type, but the dependency on the current text font might be sometimes an advantage, sometimes a disadvantage. For subscripts I would prefer \textnormal:
v_{\textnormal{car}} \ge v_{\textnormal{bicycle}}
But additional text might be better set in the current text font:
a \stackrel{\text{according to \dots}}{=} \frac{b}{c} \quad \text{for $c \ne 0$}
\text can be noticeably slower than \hbox/\mbox. Is this so? Of course, when proper scaling is needed, choosing \text might simply be necessary.
Jun 7, 2013 at 21:45
\text needs the service of \mathchoice to get the right math style. I have updated the answer.
Jun 7, 2013 at 22:00
amstext contains \let\nfss@text\text. Thus all commands that use \nfss@text work with correctly sized text in math, e.g. all commands defined via \DeclareTextFontCommand.
Jul 4, 2013 at 12:56
latex.ltx the following commands are defined using \DeclareTextFontCommand: \textrm, \textsf, \texttt, \textnormal, \textbf, \textmd, \textit, \textsl, \textsc, \textup, \emph
Dec 26, 2013 at 18:46
\mbox or \nfss@text, both are using the unbreakable \hbox) or the material goes into a unbreakable math subformula (\mathrm).
Jul 23, 2015 at 13:30
I personally consider Herbert Voss' mathmode document one of the definitive guides to mathmode.
He covers the differences in Section 9, pg. 27
If you've installed TeX Live, you can access it on your machine using texdoc mathmode, in MiKTeX you will get it with texdoc voss-mathmode.
\textrm doesn't force upright shape, it only sets the "roman family" attribute and leaves the others as they were (using those holding outside the formula, if it appears in math mode). So \textit{abc $\textrm{def}$} will print "def" in italics.
\text: "The \text macro can be used at any place [..]" Or just read his answer to this very question :-)
Jan 12, 2016 at 7:23
without using any package.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$Math - \mathrm{upright} - \textrm{upright} - \mbox{upright}$ \par\Large
$A^{\mathrm{text}}_{\mathrm{text}}$ \quad $A^{\textrm{text}}_{\textrm{text}}$\quad
$A^{\mbox{text}}_{\mbox{text}}$ \quad $A^{\textnormal{text}}_{\textnormal{text}}$
\end{document}
However, for text one should use amsmath and the \text command which uses the correct font size
