Equation alignment

< Math

Be sure to also read the recent (2006-08-02) Using \startalign and friends written by Aditya Mahajan.

This set of math examples is taken from the comments in the core-mat.tex file, which contains most of the core ConTeXt math macros. The textwidth has been set to 8 cm in these examples so that the page isn't too wide (see Layout and <cmd>setuplayout}} for further information specific to layout).

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Normally a formula is centered, but in case you want to align it left or right, you can set up formulas to behave that way. Normally a formula will adapt its left indentation to the environment:

In the next examples we explicitly align formulas to the left (<cmd>raggedleft}}), center and right (<cmd>raggedright}}):

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
\setupformulas[align=left]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\setupformulas[align=middle]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\setupformulas[align=right]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

Or in print:

With formula numbers the code is:

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
\setupformulas[align=left]
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\setupformulas[align=middle]
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\setupformulas[align=right]
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

And the formulas look like:

When tracing is turned on (<cmd>tracemathtrue}}) you can visualize the bounding box of the formula,

As you can see, the dimensions are the natural ones, but if needed you can force a normalized line:

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
\setupformulas[align=middle,strut=yes]
\tracemathtrue
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

This time we get a more spacy result. [Ed. Note: For this example equation, there appears to be no visible change.]

We will now show a couple of more settings and combinations of settings. In centered formulas, the number takes no space

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
\tracemathtrue
\setupformulas[align=middle]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

You can influence the placement of the whole box with the parameters leftmargin and rightmargin.

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
Some example text, again, to show where the right and left margins of the text block are.
\tracemathtrue
\setupformulas[align=right,leftmargin=3em]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

\setupformulas[align=left,rightmargin=1em]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

You can also inherit the margin from the environment.

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
Some example text, again, to show where the right and left margins of the text block are.
\tracemathtrue
\setupformulas[align=right,margin=standard]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula

The distance between the formula and the number is only applied when the formula is left or right aligned.

\setuplayout[textwidth=8cm]
\tracemathtrue
\setupformulas[align=left,distance=2em]
\startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula
\placeformula \startformula c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \stopformula