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Unable to bold and italicize letters in LaTeX equation

  • August 26, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 32 views

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I want to bold a letter that represents a vector in a LaTeX equation. But when I use \bf to make it bold, it changes the letter to normal, non-slanted type. Is there a way to have letters bolded and italicized in an equation? This is what I enter: {\bf x} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ \vdots \\ x_n \end{bmatrix}.

 

 

Best answer by Leianne C

Hi ​@Steven, thank you for posting in the community! You should be able to make the x in your equation a bold cursive one by using the following LaTeX equation:

\boldsymbol{\mathcal{x}} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ \vdots \\ x_n \end{bmatrix}
 


Would you mind giving this a try and let us know if you have any questions? Cheers! 

Comments

Leianne C
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  • Lucid support team
  • Answer
  • August 27, 2025

Hi ​@Steven, thank you for posting in the community! You should be able to make the x in your equation a bold cursive one by using the following LaTeX equation:

\boldsymbol{\mathcal{x}} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ \vdots \\ x_n \end{bmatrix}
 


Would you mind giving this a try and let us know if you have any questions? Cheers! 


Forum|alt.badge.img+1
  • Author
  • August 27, 2025

Yes, this works great. Thank you so much!!


Leianne C
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  • Lucid support team
  • August 28, 2025

Hi ​@Steven, thank you for the update! I’m glad to hear that worked for you. Feel free to create a new post if you have any questions or new topics you’d like to discuss - we love hearing from everyone!