# [texhax] FW: Arrow head too large on \overarrowright

Donald Arseneau asnd at triumf.ca
Mon Dec 30 02:44:48 CET 2013

On Sun, December 29, 2013 6:29 am, Bob Tennent wrote:
>  >|\noindent We would write
>  >|\hspace{39pt}$\overrightarrow{AB}+\overrightarrow{BC}=\overrightarrow{AC}$
>  >|
>  >|The arrow head is much too big and touches the letters below -
>
> Following my own advice, I find that
>
>   \documentclass{article}
>   \begin{document}
>
>   $\overrightarrow{AB}+\overrightarrow{BC}=\overrightarrow{AC}$
>
>   \end{document}
>
> demonstrates the issue. And I agree that it's a valid issue. The
> current incarnation of arrows in LaTeX is a disaster. I always use
> arrows from the picture environment to avoid them.

It isn't "LaTeX" per se, but the computer modern font.

At one time Don Knuth found his arrow heads disappeared on
photocopying, so he revised the computer modern fonts to have
enlarged arrow heads, but didn't even change the character
dimensions to match.  This sort of misguided backwards compatability
is all too common, and makes a mess of things for years.

Donald Arseneau, TRIUMF CMMS, asnd at triumf.ca