[OS X TeX] phantom-like trick?

Ross Moore ross at ics.mq.edu.au
Tue Sep 8 00:27:00 EDT 2009

On 08/09/2009, at 1:59 PM, david craig wrote:

>
> Is there an easy trick to getting the SUBSCRIPTS in a expressions like
>
> \Psi_{\overline{\Delta\nu^*}}
>
> and
>
> \Psi_{\Delta\nu^*}
> to share the same baseline?

Have you experimented with  \smash ?

These should come out with the same baseline:

\Psi_{\smash{\overline{\Delta\nu^*}}}

\Psi_{\smash{\Delta\nu^*}}

but it need not be exactly the same as either without
the \smash .

In the attached image, the middle two use \smash
whereas the outer two do not:
$\Psi_{\overline{\Delta\nu^*}} \Psi_{\smash{\overline{\Delta\nu^*}}} \Psi_{\smash{\Delta\nu^*}} \Psi_{\Delta\nu^*}$

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The asterisk is a teensy bit higher in the 3rd instance.

> (Inner products and things of objects like these just look weird
> with the subscripts on such different levels.) I often use \phantom
> for jobs like this, but I don't see how to make it work in this
> instance without something very kludgy and likely to break like
>
> \Psi_{\phantom{\overline{\Delta\nu^*}}\hspace{-15pt}\Delta\nu^*}
>
> Thanks,
> David Craig
>
>
> <http://www.panix.com/~dac/>

Hope this helps,

Ross

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Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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