# \bigl

Manual fixed-size opening delimiter paired with explicit closing commands when automatic \left...\right sizing is undesirable.

https://texform.dev/latex/commands/bigl

## Metadata

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Topic | [Delimiters](https://texform.dev/latex/topics/delimiters) |
| Packages | base |
| Allowed mode | math |
| Tags | presentation |
| Commonality | medium |
| Kind | prefix |

## Syntax

### base

Argument specification: `m:D`

Manual fixed-size opening delimiter paired with explicit closing commands when automatic \left...\right sizing is undesirable.

## Common tasks

### How to mark an opening delimiter as left-sized

\bigl / \bigr set the math class of the fence as well as its size.

```latex
\bigl( a+b \bigr)
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cbigl%28+a%2Bb+%5Cbigr%29)

### How to write a left-sized angle bracket

```latex
\bigl\langle \psi \bigr|
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cbigl%5Clangle+%5Cpsi+%5Cbigr%7C)

## Examples

```latex
\bigl(
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cbigl%28)

```latex
\bigl\langle
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cbigl%5Clangle)

```latex
\bigl{(}
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cbigl%7B%28%7D)

## Renderer support

| Package | MathJax | KaTeX | XeTeX |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| base | full | full | full |

## Usage frequency

0.99% of formulas in the measured corpus contain this entry, rank 50 of 263 entries with frequency data.

## In TeXForm

TeXForm parses this entry as prefix syntax; the package determines its argument specification.

### [base/big-class-variants-to-big](https://texform.dev/rules/base/big-class-variants-to-big)

Collapse \bigl, \bigr, \bigm to \big.

Level: corpus. Fidelity: reading.

```latex
\bigl #1
```

→

```latex
\big #1
```

```latex
\sin\bigl(x
```

→

```latex
\sin\big(x
```

## See also

- [\\big](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/big)
- [\\Big](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Big)
- [\\bigg](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/bigg)
- [\\Bigg](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Bigg)
- [\\biggl](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/biggl)
- [\\Biggl](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Biggl)
- [\\biggm](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/biggm)
- [\\Biggm](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Biggm)
- [\\biggr](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/biggr)
- [\\Biggr](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Biggr)
- [\\Bigl](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Bigl)
- [\\bigm](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/bigm)
- [\\Bigm](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Bigm)
- [\\bigr](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/bigr)
- [\\Bigr](https://texform.dev/latex/commands/Bigr)

## Test cases

### base

| Input | Case | MathJax | KaTeX | XeTeX |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| \bigl ( | Positive: baseline | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| \bigl a | Negative: neg:D[0] | Fail | Fail | Fail |