The amsbsy package
Frank Mittelbach Rainer Schopf Michael Downes
Version v1.2d, 1999/11/29
This file is maintained by the LATEX Project team.
Bug reports can be opened (category amslatex) at
http://latex-project.org/bugs.html.
1 Introduction
The package amsbsy, first written in 1989, implements a few commands for
producing bold characters in the normal math version.
Note: It is recommended nowadays to use the bm package, which
became available in 1997.
If we have bold fonts which contain the character in question then we will
use these fonts to produce the wanted character. But sometimes math fonts are
\pmb only available in a certain weight (e.g. the AMS symbol fonts). For these cases
we provide a command which is called \pmb (an acronym for poor mans bold)
with one argument. The bolder weight is achieved by copying the argument
three times in slightly different positions which is better than nothing but no
match for a real bold font.
\boldsymbol There also exists the \boldsymbol command which is better in all cases
where bold fonts exists. This command will internally switch to the corre-
sponding bold math version typeset its argument in this version.
Both commands will preserve the nature of their arguments, i.e. if they get a
relational atom their result will again be a relation as far as TEXs mathspacing
is concerned.
Since it is good policy to make at least a small test we try to typeset the
infinity sign () first with \pmb and then with \boldsymbol.
= ?
Standard package info.
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}% LaTeX 2.09 cant be used (nor non-LaTeX)
[1994/12/01]% LaTeX date must December 1994 or later
\ProvidesPackage{amsbsy}[1999/11/29 v1.2d Bold Symbols]
1
2 THE AMSBSY PACKAGE
2 The implementation
We need some functions from the amsgen package.
\RequirePackage{amsgen}
\boldsymbol In implementing boldsymbol, we must take into account TEXs limitation of
only 16 mathgroups (math families, in Knuths terminology). If we wanted
to maintain mathgroups for both the bold and non-bold version of each math
font, it would not take long to run out of mathgroups. Therefore what we do
instead for a bold symbol is embed it in an \hbox; inside that \hbox, when we
start another math formula, we can change all the mathgroups to their bold
equivalents.
However, to get the correct math style inside the hbox (display, text, script
or scriptscript) we have to use \mathchoice. Since \mathversion{bold} has
a lot of overhead, and \mathchoice typesets the argument text four times, we
would rather not put the \mathversion command inside each \hbox in the
\mathchoice; on the other hand, \mathversion gives an error message if its
used in math mode. Therefore if we want to execute \mathversion{bold} be-
fore starting the \mathchoice we have to temporarily disable the \@nomath
error. (The error message is intended to keep people from accidentally embold-
ening a preceding part of a math formula, since only the mathgroups defined at
the end of a math formula will determine the fonts used in that formula; but
we are going to typeset our bold symbol not in the current formula but in an
embedded formula, so that this danger doesnt apply here.)
\DeclareRobustCommand{\boldsymbol}[1]{%
Start a group to localize the change of \@nomath:
\begingroup
Disable \@nomath so that we dont have to leave math mode before executing
\mathversion:
\let\@nomath\@gobble \mathversion{bold}%
\math@atom is a test macro which looks at its argument and produces a math
atom of the proper class.
\math@atom{#1}{%
Although it is tempting to use \text here, to save some main memory, that
caused a bug in the past due to some internal interactions with \mathversion.
\mathchoice%
{\hbox{$\m@th\displaystyle#1$}}%
{\hbox{$\m@th\textstyle#1$}}%
{\hbox{$\m@th\scriptstyle#1$}}%
{\hbox{$\m@th\scriptscriptstyle#1$}}}%
End the group we started earlier.
\endgroup}
\math@atom The macro \math@atom looks at its argument and produce a correct math atom,
i.e. a primitive like \mathopen. Until the day we have a real implementation for
2. THE IMPLEMENTATION 3
all cases we use the \binrel@ command from AMS-TEX which can distinguish
between binary, relation and ord atoms.
\def\math@atom#1#2{%
\binrel@{#1}\binrel@@{#2}}
\pmb Poor mans bold command, works by typesetting multiple copies of the given
argument with small offsets.
\DeclareRobustCommand{\pmb}{%
\ifmmode\else \expandafter\pmb@@\fi\mathpalette\pmb@}
\pmb@@ is called by \pmb in the non-math-mode case. Discard the first two
arguments which are for the math-mode case.
\def\pmb@@#1#2#3{\leavevmode\setboxz@h{#3}%
\dimen@-\wdz@
\kern-.5\ex@\copy\z@
\kern\dimen@\kern.25\ex@\raise.4\ex@\copy\z@
\kern\dimen@\kern.25\ex@\box\z@
}
\newdimen\pmbraise@
Note: because of the use of \mathpalette, if \pmb@ is applied to a single math
italic character (or a single character from some other slanted math font), the
italic correction will be added. This will cause subscripts to fall too far away
from the character in some cases, e.g., T 1 or T 1 .
\def\pmb@#1#2{\setbox8\hbox{$\m@th#1{#2}$}%
\setboxz@h{$\m@th#1\mkern.5mu$}\pmbraise@\wdz@
\binrel@{#2}%
\dimen@-\wd8 %
\binrel@@{%
\mkern-.8mu\copy8 %
\kern\dimen@\mkern.4mu\raise\pmbraise@\copy8 %
\kern\dimen@\mkern.4mu\box8 }%
}
\def\binrel@#1{\begingroup
\setboxz@h{\thinmuskip0mu
\medmuskip\m@ne mu\thickmuskip\@ne mu
\setbox\tw@\hbox{$#1\m@th$}\kern-\wd\tw@
${}#1{}\m@th$}%
The \noexpand here should be unnecessary, but just in case . . .
\edef\@tempa{\endgroup\let\noexpand\binrel@@
\ifdim\wdz@<\z@ \mathbin
\else\ifdim\wdz@>\z@ \mathrel
\else \relax\fi\fi}%
\@tempa
}
For completeness, assign a default value for \binrel@@.
\let\binrel@@\relax
4 THE AMSBSY PACKAGE
The usual \endinput to ensure that random garbage at the end of the file
doesnt get copied by docstrip.
\endinput
