Typesetting vectors and matrices (\mathbf{x} vs \boldsymbol{x})

[Nathaniel Beck]

Hi
I edit a journal with a lot of econometric notation. Vectors are
indicated by lower case bold letters (latin or greek for differing
purposes), matrices by similar but uppercase letters.
Using ams stuff, one could use \boldsymbol{#1} to always get bold, but
the standards of econometrics, if they exist, seem to want latin
letters to be bold but not italic (that is, \mathbf).
Ideally I would like one construct, \vec, which would produce either
\mathbf or \boldsymbol as wanted. Does such a macro exist?

thanks in advance

neal

--
Neal Beck
Dept. of Political Science, UCSD
be...@ucsd.edu or http://weber.ucsd.edu/~nbeck
Visit Grace Elizabeth at http://weber.ucsd.edu/~nbeck/grace.html

[Hans Steffani]

I use

\DeclareRobustCommand{\vek}[1]{\hspace{0.9pt}\underline{\vphantom{q}#1}{}}

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathbfit}{OT1}{cmr}{bx}{it}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\mat}[1]{\hspace{0.9pt}\underline{\vphantom{q}\mathbfit{#1}}{}}

I like the \vphantom{q} to make \mat A \vek q not looking ugly
but maybe you want to omitt it.

h.f.s.
--
Hans Friedrich Steffani
Institut fuer Elektrische Maschinen und Antriebe, TU Chemnitz
mailto:hans.s...@e-technik.tu-chemnitz.de
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~hfst/

[bil kleb]

Nathaniel Beck wrote:
>
> Ideally I would like one construct, \vec, which would produce either
> \mathbf or \boldsymbol as wanted. Does such a macro exist?

i use david calisle's `bm' package:

% `bmuse.tex' - kleb's {mis)use of the bm package
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bm}% bold math symbol support (DPC/FMi)
\newcommand{\vectr}[1]{\ensuremath{\bm{\mathrm{#1}}}}% vector [bm]
\newcommand{\matrx}[1]{\ensuremath{\bm{\mathrm{#1}}}}% matrix [bm]
\begin{document}
\begin{displaymath}
\vectr{y} = \matrx{A}\vectr{x}
\end{displaymath}
\begin{displaymath}
\vectr{\mu} = \matrx{\Lambda}\vectr{\chi}
\end{displaymath}
\end{document}

--
bil <mailto:w.l....@larc.nasa.gov>

[Donald Arseneau]

In article <91938353...@news1.ucsd.edu>, nb...@weber.ucsd.edu (Nathaniel Beck) writes...

>I edit a journal with a lot of econometric notation. Vectors are
>indicated by lower case bold letters (latin or greek for differing
>purposes), matrices by similar but uppercase letters.
>Using ams stuff, one could use \boldsymbol{#1} to always get bold, but
>the standards of econometrics, if they exist, seem to want latin
>letters to be bold but not italic (that is, \mathbf).

>Ideally I would like one construct, \vec, which would produce either
>\mathbf or \boldsymbol as wanted. Does such a macro exist?

\usepackage{bm}
\newcommand\vm[1]{% Vector or matrix
\bm{\mathrm{#1}}}

This "works" because the currently-standard-and-hard-to-change math
font encodings only have lowercase greek in the math italic font.
(Traditionally, lowercase greek *is* italic-like, and upright greek
is a recent bastardization.) The \mathrm makes everything upright
except the lowercase greek, and \bm makes them all bold.

Donald Arseneau as...@triumf.ca