auctex: Fontification of math
3.1.3 Fontification of mathematical constructs
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In LaTeX mathematics can be indicated by a variety of different methods:
toggles (like dollar signs), macros and environments. Math constructs
known by font-latex are displayed with the face 'font-latex-math-face'.
Support for dollar signs and shorthands like '\(...\)' or '\[...\]' is
built-in and not customizable. Support for other math macros and
environments can be adapted by customizing the variables
'font-latex-match-math-command-keywords' and
'font-latex-math-environments' respectively.
In order to make math constructs more readable, font-latex displays
subscript and superscript parts in a smaller font and raised or lowered
respectively. This fontification feature can be controlled with the
variables 'font-latex-fontify-script' and 'font-latex-script-display'.
-- User Option: font-latex-fontify-script
If non-nil, fontify subscript and superscript strings. Concretely,
this means that the scripts are raised or lowered.
Another possiblity is setting this variable to the symbol
'multi-level'. In this case, in a formula x^{y^z}, y is raised
above and smaller than x, and z is raised above and smaller than y.
With many script levels, the text might become too small to be
readable. (See 'font-latex-fontify-script-max-level' below.)
Lastly, you can set this variable to 'invisible' whose behavior is
like 'multi-level', and in addition the super-/subscript characters
^ and _ are not displayed.
-- User Option: font-latex-fontify-script-max-level
Maximum scriptification level for which script faces are applied.
The faces 'font-latex-superscript-face' and
'font-latex-subscript-face' define custom ':height' values < 1.0.
Therefore, scripts are displayed with a slightly smaller font than
normal math text. If 'font-latex-fontify-script' is 'multi-level'
or 'invisible', the font size becomes too small to be readable
after a few levels. This option allows to specify the maximum
level after which the size of the script text won’t be shrunken
anymore.
For example, in the expression x^{y^{z^a_b}}, x has scriptification
level 0, y has level 1, z has level 2, and both a and b have
scriptification level 3.
If 'font-latex-fontify-script-max-level' was 2, then z, a, and b
would have the same font size. If it was 3 or more, then a and b
were smaller than z just in the same way as z is smaller than y and
y is smaller than x.
The script characters '^' and '_' themselves are also fontified with
an own face named 'font-latex-script-char-face'.
-- User Option: font-latex-script-display
Display specification for subscript and superscript content. The
car is used for subscript, the cdr is used for superscript. The
feature is implemented using so-called display properties. For
information on what exactly to specify for the values, see 
Other Display Specifications (elisp)Other Display Specs.
Info Catalog
auctex: Fontification of quotes
auctex: Font Locking
auctex: Verbatim content