There are many uses of tiled symbol. But, the most important thing is to use the tilde symbol over a letter.
In latex, \tilde
and \~{}
are two important commands for this. And these are the default commands of LaTeX.
Symbol | Tilde symbol over a letter |
---|---|
Type | Multipurpose |
Package | No |
Commands | \tilde , \~{} |
Example | \tilde{a} → ã |
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\[ \tilde{a} \]
\[ \tilde{n} \]
\[ \tilde{o} \]
\end{document}
Output :
ã ñ õ
But, \~{}
command must be used in text mode. For example
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
tilde over a : \~{a} \\
tilde over o : \~{o} \\
tilde over n : \~{n}
\end{document}
Output :
tilde over a : ã tilde over n : ñ tilde over o : õ
Notice if you have knowledge of spanish and Portuguese, this tilde symbol is used over special n, a, and o letters. For example
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
% use tilde symbol in spanish
ara$\tilde{n}$a \\ [6pt]
ni\~{n}o \\ [6pt]
% use tilde symbol in Portuguese
canç$\tilde{a}$o \\ [6pt]
var\~{o}es
\end{document}
Output :
You look at the output above when you pass a character(n, a, and o) in the \tilde
command. Then, convert to italic style is not entirely accurate.
However, \~{}
command does not change the style of the font. and this is the best practice in the case of language.
Use responsive tilde symbol over a letter
However, there are some characters that are larger than the size of other characters, so it is best practice to use \widetilde
commands instead of \tilde
and \~{}
commands.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\[ \tilde{m} \]
\[ \tilde{w} \]
% use widetilde command
\[ \widetilde{m} \]
\[ \widetilde{w} \]
\end{document}
Output :
Because look at the output above, the size of the tilde symbol is also constant in the case of \tilde
and \~{}
commands. However, in the case of the \widetilde
command, the tilde symbol is responsibly placed over a letter.
In my opinion, the \widetilde
command is best for using tilde symbols on all capital letters.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\[ \tilde{N} \;\; \widetilde{N} \]
\[ \tilde{A} \;\; \widetilde{A} \]
\[ \tilde{O} \;\; \widetilde{O} \]
\end{document}
Output :
However, you must use the \widetilde
command for multiple characters. For example
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\[ \tilde{ac} \;\; \widetilde{ac} \]
\[ \tilde{pq} \;\; \widetilde{pq} \]
\[ \tilde{abc} \;\; \widetilde{abc} \]
\end{document}
Output :