# [OS X TeX] \operatorname or \mathrm in multi-letter subscript labels

Herbert Schulz herbs at wideopenwest.com
Thu Jun 16 15:20:05 CEST 2011

On Jun 16, 2011, at 8:06 AM, Art Werschulz wrote:

> Hi.
>
> On Jun 15, 2011, at 10:13 PM, Victor Ivrii wrote:
>
>>>> However not sure why you chose to use \operatorname .
>>>> It is sufficient to use \mathrm or \text
>>> Somehow I got into the habit of doing that a very long time ago.  Maybe this was in Spivak's "Joy of TeX"; I don't remember.
>>
>> \operatorname provides some extra spacing which does not seem suitable
>> for labels
>
> Compare $c_{\operatorname{in-out}}$ with $c_{\mathrm{in-out}}$.  The first gives a hyphen, the second gives what appears to be a minus sign.
>
> Art Werschulz (8-{)}   "Metaphors be with you."  -- bumper sticker
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Howdy,

That is a minus sign since you are still in math mode. Assuming you're using the amsmath package try $c_{\text{in-out}}$.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)