# Size commands do not work in mathmode

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$\wedge{\small\wedge}{\tiny\wedge}$
\end{document}


All the \wedges have the same size...

• I don't think \small works in math mode at all. – mafp Dec 30 '12 at 18:30

\small and \tiny are text font macros (just like \large, \huge, ...). You most likely received the following font warnings in your .log file:

LaTeX Font Warning: Command \small invalid in math mode on input line 3.

LaTeX Font Warning: Command \tiny invalid in math mode on input line 3.


Inside math mode, in order to use a different (smaller) font, you could/should use \scriptstyle or \scriptscriptstyle:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$\wedge{\small\wedge}{\tiny\wedge}$\par
$\wedge{\scriptstyle\wedge}{\scriptscriptstyle\wedge}$
\end{document}


\scriptstyle denotes the font size of super-/subscripts, while \scriptscriptstyle denotes the font size for super-/subscripts of super-/subscripts. Thereafter (higher scripting), the font size remains at \scriptscriptsize. See

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$x\ x^x\ x^{x^x}\ x^{x^{x^x}}\ x^{x^{x^{x^x}}}$
\end{document}


That's why there's a suggestion to use \scalebox (and possibly some height adjustment using \raisebox) - it allows you to have a little more variation in the fonts in smaller/larger sized.

• I find \scalebox a good solution for my problem, which may be different from the original question... – Yan King Yin Apr 24 '16 at 5:46

use

 $\wedge$\small$\wedge$\tiny$\wedge$\normalsize

• or $\wedge${\small$\wedge$\tiny$\wedge$} so that it's not necessary to return explicitly to \normalsize, since that may or may not actually be the current size (say, in a footnote). – barbara beeton Dec 30 '12 at 19:42
• @barbarabeeton: yes, you're right. As usual :-) – user2478 Dec 30 '12 at 19:51
• Can this technique be transferred to environments like equation? – bluenote10 Jan 17 '14 at 16:42
• @bluenote10: try it ... ;-) – user2478 Jan 17 '14 at 17:36
• @Herbert: I did and I failed :). That is why I'm asking whether there is a trick to "temporarily leave" the equation environment to achieve the same. – bluenote10 Jan 17 '14 at 19:36

Whenever you want to choose to have a small-sized equation in math mode, I would suggest the following

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath, amsthm, amssymb}
\begin{document}
$3+3=\text{\footnotesize{$$x^2-13 =$$} \tiny{$$y^3-26$$} }$
\end{document}


Just be careful with parenthesis and spacing!