# [Xy-pic] Thicker arrows

Ross Moore ross at ics.mq.edu.au
Sat Jul 12 12:32:25 CEST 2003

Hello Vadim and Christian,

> On Tue, 8 Jul 2003, Christian Stork wrote:
>
> > How can I increase the thickness of arrows?
>
> I believe you cannot (unless you want to imitate it with a kind of

This is definately not true.

> poor-man's-bold trick).  Xypic uses certain fonts for arrow heads
> and stems and they do not have heavy versions.

That may be the only way that you have used Xy-pic, but it is certainly
not the only way to use it.

The Xy-pic Reference manual covers the topics of line-thickness
and using the various PostScript back-ends that are available with
modern TeX systems. With a PS back-end, you can do almost anything
that you would expect from a 2D graphics package.

about what software programs can or cannot do.

As for the other question, regarding width of the graphic from
an \xymatrix command, there are many ways to affect the overall
width, which is determined by the width of the entries and the
extra 'column-spacing' amount.
(There is no 'matrix-width' parameter from which other dimensions
are calculated, as this could over-constrain the relationships
between the variable quantities, and does not follow the usual
TeX/LaTeX philosophy of adapting grid-like layouts to match the
size required to display the contents to best effect.)

e.g.
\xymatrix @C=<dimen>
\xymatric @C+<dimen>

2.   use larger font-sizes for the <object>s being
set within the matrix cells:
\renewcommand{\objectstyle}{\Large}
\renewcommand{\labelstyle}{\large}

3.  pad-out specific cells with extra space
&\hspace{4cm}&
to force extra width where you may want it to occur

4.  scale-up the complete diagram:
\begin{xy}*[*1.5]\xybox{\xymatrix .....  }}\end{xy}

using the scaling' <object-modifier>   [*<num>]
which requires use of a PostScript back-end.

Another way to get larger layouts for slides is to think laterally.
*Reduce* the size of your paper so that normal-size fonts suffice,
then use "Scale to Fit" in the slide-viewing software (e.g. Acrobat

use 12pt fonts on A6 width.
(or 10pt fonts on something even smaller).

As well as helping with typesetting issues (whereby you may not have
all the settings needed to get all of your material at the larger
size, or there may be incompatibility with spacings vertically and/or
horizontally), this also gives you an easy way to printout your
whole slide-show on paper -- 4 or 6 slides per page, say.

Hope this helps,

Ross Moore

>
> Yours,
`