matplotlib mathtext \frac is too small

Question

When I give matplotlib a annotation string such as ``` '$\frac{A}{B} = C$' ``` and I specify a fontsize of 18, the A and B are rendered at 12.6 pt, while the C is rendered at 18 pt. I want A, B, and C to all be the same size. How do I do this? In a LaTeX document, if you give the commands ``` \begin{equation} \frac{A}{B} = C \end{equation} ``` you get a fraction, where A, B, and C are all the same size, but if you do ``` $\frac{A}{B} = C$ ``` inline with text, you get the A and B rendered at 12.6 pt, while the C is rendered at 18 pt. Thus it appears matplotlib's mathtext is emulating LaTeX's inline mode. In LaTeX you can write ``` $\displaystyle\frac{A}{B} = C$ ``` and then A, B, and C are all the same size, even in inline mode. I tried this in matplotlib, but mathtext did not recognize the command \displaystyle. =( Is there a way to get this to work in Matplotlib's mathtext, or am I stuck changing text.usetex to true in my .matplotlibrc file? (If possible I would like to stay with ma…

Accepted Answer

For anyone stumbling on this and also not wanting to set `"text.usetex"` to `True`, matplotlib now supports the `\dfrac` macro (equivalent to `\displaystyle\frac` in LaTeX) to replace `\frac` since version 2.1

matplotlib mathtext \frac is too small

Solution

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