Apparently text is resized in one way and math in other way. However, the commands to resize math do not work well on a matrix; it appears barely smaller and unexpectedly shifted down. The commands to resize text also "work well" to resize a matrix except that it give a warning that you are doing it wrong.
LaTeX Font Warning: Command \scriptsize invalid in math mode on input line 16.
So, what is a proper way to resize a matrix that actually works?
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\begin{document}
Properly resize variable: $x$ $\scriptscriptstyle{x}$
Properly resize matrix: $\begin{bmatrix}a & b\\ c & d\end{bmatrix}$ $\scriptscriptstyle{\begin{bmatrix}a & b\\ c & d\end{bmatrix}}$
Improperly resize matrix: $\begin{bmatrix}a & b\\ c & d\end{bmatrix}$ $\scriptsize{\begin{bmatrix}a & b\\ c & d\end{bmatrix}}$
\end{document}
Best Answer
\small
or\scriptsize
are invalid in math mode.\scriptstyle
and\scriptscriptstyle
are not commands with an argument; writing$\scriptstyle<formula>$
or$\scriptstyle{<formula>}$
has exactly the same result.Neither
$\scriptsize\begin{bmatrix}...\end{bmatrix}$
nor$\scriptstyle\begin{bmatrix}...\end{bmatrix}$
work, as you experimentedIf you need small matrices there's the
smallmatrix
environment (with amsmath that you're already loading).Another way (not that I recommend it) is to say
\mbox{\scriptsize$\begin{bmatrix}...\end{bmatrix}$}
inside a math formula.