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Re: Capital subscript are too large

J"org wrote:

> We have an axial coupling constant, conventionally called $g_A$. However, 
> in this combination the `A' does not really look subscript. After some 
> experimenting, I came up with the following: $g_{\text{\sc A}}$ which looks 
> fine. That the `A' is now upright is not that bad in this case, in fact it 
> is not a mathematical symbol but has textual semantics.
> 
> I think this little problem should have a more general solution. I imagine 
> a style which prescribes different sizes for subscripts, depending if a 
> lowercase letter is subscripted or a capital one. Since I have not tried 
> it, I don't know how difficult to achieve this might be.

I would say, this is an important observation, but a general solution
would be very difficult because of the compromises involved.
If you make the capital letters smaller in subscripts, then what do
you do if the subscript contains a combination `Aa'? Now the decreased
`A' maybe looks too small next to the small `a'. In general this would
apply to all combinations of capital letter + something else in a
subscript. Also, consider what happens with letters like C or Z where
the lowercase form and the uppercase form are similar: how do you
distinguish if a subscript C or Z is lowercase or uppercase, after the
capital letters are made smaller?

Michael Downes                              mjd@math.ams.org (Internet)