Fonts & Character Sets ⇒ \L in math mode?

[rvandegrift]

Hi everyone,

Is there any way to get an L with stroke (\L) in math mode? I've been using \mbox to date, but this causes botched formatting in some contexts (superscripts and subscripts are my particular pain points).

Thanks!

[frabjous]

I can use \L in math mode without the need for \mbox{...}, or \text{...} or anything similar.

Depending on your encoding you might also be able to use the character Ł directly. (E.g., with unicode/utf encoding and loading \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}, I can use it.)

If you're having trouble getting it work right in a particular context, it would be helpful to see a minimal working example showing the problem.

[localghost]

This is very strange. I can confirm the problem. In fact with MiKTeX 2.8 and TeX Live 2010. Input encoding and file encoding correspond. The log file (from TeX Live) is attached. Haven't yet tested with other fonts.

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\begin{document}
  \L
  \[
    \L
  \]

  Ł
  \[
    Ł
  \]
\end{document}

The curious thing about the log is that it contains characters which don't belong to the encoding. I will check the MiKTeX log as soon as possible.


Thorsten

[rvandegrift]

A simple minimal example. This fails on Tex Live 2009

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$\L$
\end{document}

I get the same error: "LaTeX Warning: Command \L invalid in math mode on input line 3." Log file is attached.

Ross

[frabjous]

Works just fine for me on TeXlive 2010.

I'm attaching my log and the output. (I added \listfiles to the beginning of the code to get a file list, but it's so minimal I doubt it will be useful.)

[rvandegrift]

No - it's not working for you either Check your log: "LaTeX Warning: Command \L invalid in math mode on input line 4."

Looks LaTeX kicks out the L with stroke as a non-math mode character. To see the difference, check out this:

Code: Select all

$x_L x_\L

The two subscripts should come out the same size.

Ross

[frabjous]

Ah, thanks, that's a good example.

This makes them the same size:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}

$x_{L} x_{\text{\L}}$
\end{document}

Change \text to \textit if you want it in italics.

[rvandegrift]

Aha, that seems to do the trick - sizing is correct for the few variations I just checked. Definite improvement on what I was doing before. Thanks!

[localghost]

Now that the problem is obviously solved, please be so kind and mark the topic (not the last post) accordingly as clearly written in the Board Rules (to be read before posting). Please keep that in mind for the future so that further reminders will not be necessary.