This collection of commands simplifies writing mathematical expressions with LaTeX while automatically respecting the rules of mathematical typography. The commands were developed to write math in economics, but they might also be helpful to write math in other fields.
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Main features
The commands introduce the following functionalities:
- Easily insert brackets (parentheses, square brackets, absolute values, and so on) that scale automatically
- Easily write functions and operators (exponential, log, expectation, probability, min, max, and so on) with brackets that scale automatically
- Easily write partial and total derivatives and elasticities
- Easily type statistical relations (iid variables, various limits)
- Easily insert accents that scale automatically
- Easily type Greek letters
- Easily type blackboard-bold letters
- Easily type bold letters
- Easily type calligraphic letters
Brackets
The commands below produce brackets that scale automatically.
| Bracket | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Parentheses | \bp{x} | $\left( x\right)$ |
| Square brackets | \bs{x} | $\left[x\right]$ |
| Curly brackets | \bc{x} | $\left\lbrace x\right\rbrace$ |
| Angle brackets | \ba{x} | $\left\langle x\right\rangle$ |
| Absolute value | \abs{x} | $\left\lvert x \right\rvert$ |
| Norm | \norm{x} | $\left\lVert x \right\rVert$ |
| Floor | \floor{x} | $\left\lfloor x\right\rfloor$ |
| Ceiling | \ceil{x} | $\left\lceil x\right\rceil$ |
| Function argument1 | f\of{x} | $f(x)$ |
Functions and operators
The commands below produce functions and operators with parentheses that scale automatically. All the commands work with and without arguments, and many also have an option to add a subscript.
| Function or operator | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Logarithm | \ln | $\ln$ |
\ln{x} | $\ln(x)$ | |
| Exponential | \exp | $\exp$ |
\exp{x} | $\exp(x)$ | |
| Indicator | \ind | $\mathbb{1}$ |
\ind{X} | $\mathbb{1}(X)$ | |
| Trace | \tr | $\operatorname{tr}$ |
\tr{M} | $\operatorname{tr}(M)$ | |
| Probability | \P | $\mathbb{P}$ |
\P[t] | $\mathbb{P}_t$ | |
\P{X} | $\mathbb{P}(X)$ | |
\P[t]{X} | $\mathbb{P}_t(X)$ | |
| Expectation | \E | $\mathbb{E}$ |
\E[t] | $\mathbb{E}_t$ | |
\E{X} | $\mathbb{E}(X)$ | |
\E[t]{X} | $\mathbb{E}_t(X)$ | |
| Variance | \var | $\operatorname{var}$ |
\var{X} | $\operatorname{var}(X)$ | |
\var[t]{X} | $\operatorname{var}_t(X)$ | |
| Standard deviation | \sd | $\operatorname{sd}$ |
\sd{X} | $\operatorname{sd}(X)$ | |
\sd[t]{X} | $\operatorname{sd}_t(X)$ | |
| Standard error | \se | $\operatorname{se}$ |
\se{X} | $\operatorname{se}(X)$ | |
\se[t]{X} | $\operatorname{se}_t(X)$ | |
| Covariance | \cov | $\operatorname{cov}$ |
\cov{X,Y} | $\operatorname{cov}(X,Y)$ | |
\cov[t]{X,Y} | $\operatorname{cov}_t(X,Y)$ | |
| Correlation | \corr | $\operatorname{corr}$ |
\corr{X,Y} | $\operatorname{corr}(X,Y)$ | |
\corr[t]{X,Y} | $\operatorname{corr}_t(X,Y)$ | |
| Maximum | \max | $\max$ |
\max{x,y} | $\max(x,y)$ | |
\max[n]{y_n} | $\max_n(y_n)$ | |
| Argmax | \argmax | $\operatorname{argmax}$ |
| Minimum | \min | $\min$ |
\min{x,y} | $\min(x,y)$ | |
\min[n]{y_n} | $\min_n(y_n)$ | |
| Argmin | \argmin | $\operatorname{argmin}$ |
| Supremum | \sup | $\sup$ |
\sup{S} | $\sup(S)$ | |
\sup[n]{y_n} | $\sup_n(y_n)$ | |
| Infimum | \inf | $\inf$ |
\inf{S} | $\inf(S)$ | |
\inf[n]{y_n} | $\inf_n(y_n)$ |
Derivatives
The commands below produce various derivatives. Some commands produce derivatives for displays while others produce derivatives for text. Some commands have an option to indicate the order of the derivative.
| Derivative | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary derivative | \od{y}{x} | $\frac{d y}{d x}$ |
\od[n]{y}{x} | $\frac{d^n y}{d x^n}$ | |
\odx{y}{x} | $d y/d x$ | |
\odx[n]{y}{x} | $d^n y/d x^n$ | |
| Partial derivative | \pd{y}{x} | $\frac{\partial y}{\partial x}$ |
\pd[n]{y}{x} | $\frac{\partial^n y}{\partial x^n}$ | |
\pdx{y}{x} | $\partial y/\partial x$ | |
\pdx[n]{y}{x} | $\partial^n y/\partial x^n$ | |
\pd{y}{x}{z} | $\left.\frac{\partial y}{\partial x}\right\vert_{z}$ | |
\pdx{y}{x}{z} | $\left.\partial y/\partial x\right\vert_{z}$ | |
| Ordinary elasticity | \oe{y}{x} | $\frac{d\ln y}{d\ln x}$ |
\oex{y}{x} | $d\ln(y)/d\ln(x)$ | |
| Partial elasticity | \pe{y}{x} | $\frac{\partial\ln(y)}{\partial\ln(x)}$ |
\pex{y}{x} | $\partial\ln(y)/\partial\ln(x)$ | |
\pe{y}{x}{z} | $\left.\frac{\partial\ln(y)}{\partial\ln(x)}\right\vert_{z}$ | |
\pex{y}{x}{z} | $\left.\partial\ln(y)/\partial\ln(x)\right\vert_{z}$ |
Statistical relations
The commands below are shortcuts to produce statistical relations.
| Relation | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Independent and identically distributed variables | \iid | $\overset{iid}{\sim}$ |
| Almost sure convergence | \asto | $\overset{as}{\to}$ |
| Convergence in probability | \pto | $\overset{p}{\to}$ |
| Convergence in distribution | \dto | $\overset{d}{\to}$ |
Accents
The commands below are shortcuts to produce accents that scale automatically.
| Accent | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Overline | \ol{x} | $\overline{x}$ |
| Overarrow | \oa{x} | $\overrightarrow{x}$ |
| Underline | \ul{x} | $\underline{x}$ |
| Hat | \wh{x} | $\widehat{x}$ |
| Tilde | \wt{x} | $\widetilde{x}$ |
Complex numbers
The commands below designate parts of complex numbers.
| Part | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Real part | \Re(z) | $\operatorname{Re}(z)$ |
| Imaginary part | \Im(z) | $\operatorname{Im}(z)$ |
Greek letters
The commands below are shortcuts to produce lowercase Greek letters.
| Lowercase letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| alpha | \a | $\alpha$ |
| beta | \b | $\beta$ |
| chi | \c | $\chi$ |
| delta | \d | $\delta$ |
| epsilon | \e | $\epsilon$ |
| varepsilon | \ve | $\varepsilon$ |
| phi | \f | $\phi$ |
| varphi | \vf | $\varphi$ |
| gamma | \g | $\gamma$ |
| eta | \h | $\eta$ |
| iota | \i | $\iota$ |
| kappa | \k | $\kappa$ |
| lambda | \l | $\lambda$ |
| mu | \m | $\mu$ |
| nu | \n | $\nu$ |
| omega | \o | $\omega$ |
| varpi | \vp | $\varpi$ |
| psi | \p | $\psi$ |
| rho | \r | $\rho$ |
| sigma | \s | $\sigma$ |
| theta | \t | $\theta$ |
| vartheta | \vt | $\vartheta$ |
| xi | \x | $\xi$ |
| zeta | \z | $\zeta$ |
And the commands below are shortcuts to produce uppercase Greek letters.
| Uppercase letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| delta | \D | $\Delta$ |
| phi | \F | $\Phi$ |
| gamma | \G | $\Gamma$ |
| lambda | \L | $\Lambda$ |
| omega | \O | $\Omega$ |
| sigma | \S | $\Sigma$ |
| theta | \T | $\Theta$ |
| upsilon | \U | $\Upsilon$ |
| xi | \X | $\Xi$ |
Blackboard-bold letters
The commands below are shortcuts to produce blackboard-bold letters.
| Letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| R | \R | $\mathbb{R}$ |
| N | \N | $\mathbb{N}$ |
| Z | \Z | $\mathbb{Z}$ |
| Q | \Q | $\mathbb{Q}$ |
| C | \C | $\mathbb{C}$ |
Bold letters
The commands below are shortcuts to produce bold lowercase letters.
| Letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| q | \q | $\mathbf{q}$ |
| u | \u | $\mathbf{u}$ |
| v | \v | $\mathbf{v}$ |
| w | \w | $\mathbf{w}$ |
| y | \y | $\mathbf{y}$ |
The commands below are shortcuts to produce bold uppercase letters.
| Letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| A | \A | $\mathbf{A}$ |
| B | \B | $\mathbf{B}$ |
| H | \H | $\mathbf{H}$ |
| J | \J | $\mathbf{J}$ |
| K | \K | $\mathbf{K}$ |
| M | \M | $\mathbf{M}$ |
| V | \V | $\mathbf{V}$ |
| W | \W | $\mathbf{W}$ |
| Y | \Y | $\mathbf{Y}$ |
Calligraphic letters
The commands below are shortcuts to produce calligraphic letters.
| Letter | Command | Output |
|---|---|---|
| A | \Ac | $\mathcal{A}$ |
| B | \Bc | $\mathcal{B}$ |
| C | \Cc | $\mathcal{C}$ |
| D | \Dc | $\mathcal{D}$ |
| E | \Ec | $\mathcal{E}$ |
| F | \Fc | $\mathcal{F}$ |
| G | \Gc | $\mathcal{G}$ |
| H | \Hc | $\mathcal{H}$ |
| I | \Ic | $\mathcal{I}$ |
| J | \Jc | $\mathcal{J}$ |
| K | \Kc | $\mathcal{K}$ |
| L | \Lc | $\mathcal{L}$ |
| M | \Mc | $\mathcal{M}$ |
| N | \Nc | $\mathcal{N}$ |
| O | \Oc | $\mathcal{O}$ |
| P | \Pc | $\mathcal{P}$ |
| Q | \Qc | $\mathcal{Q}$ |
| R | \Rc | $\mathcal{R}$ |
| S | \Sc | $\mathcal{S}$ |
| T | \Tc | $\mathcal{T}$ |
| U | \Uc | $\mathcal{U}$ |
| V | \Vc | $\mathcal{V}$ |
| W | \Wc | $\mathcal{W}$ |
| X | \Xc | $\mathcal{X}$ |
| Y | \Yc | $\mathcal{Y}$ |
| Z | \Zc | $\mathcal{Z}$ |
Naming logic
The shortcut assignment for letters follows a fixed priority: Greek letters first, blackboard-bold letters second, and bold letters last. This keeps the most common symbolic objects available with the shortest commands.
For Greek letters, one-letter shortcuts are used whenever possible by matching the closest Roman letter. When conflicts arise, one symbol keeps the one-letter form and the other is left in standard form: \p is used for $\psi$ so $\pi$ is not given a one-letter shortcut; and \t is used for $\theta$ so $\tau$ is not given a one-letter shortcut. The $\upsilon$ shortcut is intentionally omitted because the letter is visually close to u and v. Uppercase Greek $\Pi$ and $\Psi$ are not assigned one-letter shortcuts because \P is reserved for probability.
For blackboard-bold letters, only the most commonly used letters are assigned: \R for $\mathbb{R}$, \N for $\mathbb{N}$, and so on.2
Finally, remaining one-letter macros are allocated to bold Roman letters—to be used for vectors and matrices. These macros provide convenient shortcuts for the Hessian matrix (\H for $\mathbf{H}$) and for the Jacobian matrix (\J for $\mathbf{J}$) and for a typical matrix (\M for $\mathbf{M}$). They also provide convenient shortcuts for a typical vector (\v for $\mathbf{v}$) and other typical vector names (\y for $\mathbf{y}$ and \q for $\mathbf{q}$).
Command overrides
The short one-letter macros are intended for math-heavy documents and prioritize fast math typing. But they override a small set of LaTeX text commands, which may create conflicts in text-heavy documents, especially with multilingual text workflows. In modern Unicode-first workflows, many users type accented characters and non-English letters directly from the keyboard (for example é, è, ê) instead of using LaTeX text macros. This reduces the practical risk of conflicts from overridden commands—but of course conflicts can still appear in legacy sources, bibliographic data, or documents that rely on accent commands.
Some accent commands no longer produce their usual text output: \b (underbar accent), \c (cedilla accent), \d (dot-under accent), \H (double-acute accent), \i (dotless i), \k (ogonek accent), \r (ring accent), \t (tie-after accent), \u (breve accent), and \v (caron accent). A few non-English letters are also overridden: \l (Polish letter ł), \L (Polish letter Ł), \o (Scandinavian letter ø), \O (Scandinavian letter Ø), and \oe (ligature œ). Finally, some text symbols are overridden: \P (paragraph sign ¶) and \S (section sign §).
If your document needs these text symbols and accents in their original meaning, please rename these macros in the style file.
Command extensions
Several standard math operators are also extended with optional argument syntax while preserving normal LaTeX usage. In particular, commands such as \ln, \exp, \max, \min, \sup, and \inf still work in their usual forms (for example \ln x, \max_n x_n, \exp x). Additionally, they accept compact argument forms (for example \ln{x}, \max[n]{x_n}, \exp{x}) to produce clean notation with minimal source code.
Code snippets
The LaTeX commands are collected in a LaTeX style file. This section shows how some of the most commonly used commands are defined. Some of the definitions require specific packages (xparse, amsmath, amssymb, and so on), which are loaded in the style file.
For instance, the commands for parentheses are defined as follows:
% Regular parentheses
\newcommand{\bp}[1]{\left( #1 \right)}
% Parentheses for function arguments
\newcommand{\of}[1]{{\left( #1 \right)}}
The command for maximum and minimum are defined as follows:
% Maximum
\let\oldmax\max
\RenewDocumentCommand{\max}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\oldmax\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\oldmax\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
% Minimum
\let\oldmin\min
\RenewDocumentCommand{\min}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\oldmin\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\oldmin\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
Another set of commonly used commands are expected value and probability, which are coded as follows:
% Expectation
\NewDocumentCommand{\E}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{\mathbb{E}}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{\mathbb{E}}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
% Probability
\RenewDocumentCommand{\P}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{\mathbb{P}}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{\mathbb{P}}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
The commands for variance, covariance, correlation, and standard deviation are all coded in a similar way:
% Variance
\NewDocumentCommand{\var}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{var}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{var}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
% Covariance
\NewDocumentCommand{\cov}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{cov}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{cov}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
% Correlation
\NewDocumentCommand{\corr}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{corr}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{corr}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
% Standard deviation
\NewDocumentCommand{\sd}{o g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#2}{\operatorname{sd}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}}%
{\operatorname{sd}\IfValueT{#1}{_{#1}}\!\of{#2}}}
The argmin and argmax functions are easy to define:
\DeclareMathOperator*{\argmax}{argmax}
\DeclareMathOperator*{\argmin}{argmin}
The commands for almost sure convergence, convergence in probability, and convergence in distribution are coded as follows:
% Almost sure convergence
\newcommand{\asto}{\overset{as}{\to}}
% Convergence in probability
\newcommand{\pto}{\overset{p}{\to}}
% Convergence in distribution
\newcommand{\dto}{\overset{d}{\to}}
Finally, the exponential and logarithm functions are defined as follows:
% Logarithm
\let\oldln\ln
\RenewDocumentCommand{\ln}{g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#1}{\oldln}%
{\oldln\!\of{#1}}}
% Exponential
\let\oldexp\exp
\RenewDocumentCommand{\exp}{g}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#1}{\oldexp}%
{\oldexp\!\of{#1}}}
Spacing between the function
fand the argument(x)is appropriate.f\bp{x}gives $f\left( x\right)$, which introduces too much space between the functionfand the argument(x). ↩︎Coincidentally, none of the blackboard-bold letters are used for uppercase Greek letters, so there is no conflict here. ↩︎