# CairoMakie.jl, MathTeXEngine.jl, Small Caps
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985
**Category:** Visualization
**Tags:** cairomakie
**Created:** [November 19, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985 "2025-11-19T09:39:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mpirke](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mpirke)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/1 "2025-11-19T09:39:04Z")
Hi there!
I have been struggling for the last hour with the following issue.
I want to have a word in small caps within my legend in a CairoMakie plot.
To get a word in small caps in Latex I just do `\textsc{Foo}`.
Here is what I have done in Julia
```julia
using CairoMakie, LaTeXStrings
set_theme!(theme_latexfonts())
fig = Figure()
ax = Axis(fig[1, 1])
lines!(1:5, label=L"\textbf{Foo}")
lines!(1:2:5, label=L"\textsc{Foo}")
axislegend(position=:lt)
```
EDIT: now the whole error.
This gives me the following error:
```julia
Failed to resolve arg1:
[ComputeEdge] arg1 = compute_identity((linesgments_shifted, ), changed, cached)
@ /Users/markuspirke/.julia/packages/ComputePipeline/03tW7/src/ComputePipeline.jl:737
[ComputeEdge] linesgments_shifted = (::MapFunctionWrapper(#2928))((linesegments, lineindices, preprojection, model_f32c, positions_transformed_f32c, model_clip_planes, space, ), changed, cached)
@ unknown method location
[ComputeEdge] glyphcollections, glyphindices, font_per_char, glyph_origins, glyph_extents, text_blocks, text_color, text_rotation, text_scales, text_strokewidth, text_strokecolor, linesegments, linewidths, linecolors, lineindices = #2906((input_text, fontsize, selected_font, align, rotation, justification, lineheight, word_wrap_width, offset, fonts, computed_color, strokecolor, strokewidth, ), changed, cached)
@ /Users/markuspirke/.julia/packages/Makie/4JW9B/src/basic_recipes/text.jl:333
with edge inputs:
input_text = LaTeXStrings.LaTeXString[L"$\textsc{Foo}$"]
fontsize = 14.0f0
selected_font = FTFont (family = NewComputerModern Math, style = Regular)
align = (:center, :center)
rotation = 1.0 + 0.0im + 0.0jm + 0.0km
justification = :left
lineheight = 1.0f0
word_wrap_width = -1.0f0
offset = Float32[0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
fonts = Attributes()
computed_color = RGBA{Float32}(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
strokecolor = RGBA{Float32}(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
strokewidth = 0.0f0
Triggered by update of:
position, text, arg1, fontsize, fonts, font, align, rotation, justification, lineheight, word_wrap_width, offset, fonts, color, colorscale, alpha, colorrange, colorscale, color, colorscale, alpha, colormap, alpha, nan_color, lowclip, colormap, alpha, highclip, colormap, alpha, colormap, alpha, strokecolor or strokewidth
Due to ERROR: TeXParseError: unexpected error
at position 2 (string index 2)
$\textsc{Foo}$
^
Stack
[4] TeXExpr :command
└─ "\\textsc"
[3] TeXExpr :inline_math
[2] TeXExpr :line
[1] TeXExpr :lines
Failed to show error:
UndefVarError: `tex` not defined in `MathTeXEngine`
Suggestion: check for spelling errors or missing imports.
Stacktrace:
[1] showerror(io::IOContext{IOBuffer}, e::MathTeXEngine.TeXParseError)
@ MathTeXEngine ~/.julia/packages/MathTeXEngine/dUSrK/src/parser/parser.jl:11
[2] showerror
```
If I only use `\textbf{Foo}` it works perfectly fine.
Any ideas how to solve this issues? Or what the problem is?
---
### Author:  [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/2 "2025-11-19T20:20:39Z")
What’s the actual error further down? Maybe this is just not a supported thing in MathTeXEngine, yet?
---
### Author:  [@mpirke](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mpirke)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2025, 7:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/3 "2025-11-20T07:01:12Z")
I added the complete error message. Maybe you are right, but for me that was not entirely clear from the error message.
---
### Author:  [@barucden](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/barucden)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2025, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/4 "2025-11-20T08:33:54Z")
MathTeXEngine does not support `\textsc`, and as far as I can tell, it is non-trivial to implement.
This is my understanding:
The supported text styles work because there are separate fonts for them. So when, e.g., bold text is requested, the text is rendered using a bold version of the selected font family (`NewCM10-Bold.otf`). If there was a small caps font, then it would not be that difficult to plug it in (I think), but New Computer Modern (the default font) provides small caps as an OpenType feature, not as a separate font, and applying OpenType features is not currently implemented.
Something related seems to be implemented in this fork [GitHub - manuelbb-upb/MathTeXEngine.jl at ssty](https://github.com/manuelbb-upb/MathTeXEngine.jl/tree/ssty). This fork deals with (sub/sup)-scripts in math notation using an OpenType feature, so maybe the same person would be able to implement small caps too.
---
### Author:  [@mpirke](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mpirke)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 7:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/5 "2025-11-21T07:29:09Z")
That sounds logical to me. Thank you for clarifying. I will take a look whether I find some hack to incorporate this, maybe with a font that explicitly has small caps.
---
### Author:  [@barucden](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/barucden)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/6 "2025-11-21T08:42:44Z")
Alternatively, you could cheat with rich text:
```julia
function smallcaps(s; fontsize=10)
s = uppercase.(s)
firstletter = s[begin:begin]
remaining = s[nextind(s, firstindex(s)):end]
smallersize = fontsize - 2
return rich(firstletter, rich(uppercase.(remaining);
fontsize=smallersize);
fontsize)
end
```
It does not look that terrible:
```julia-repl
julia> set_theme!(theme_latexfonts())
julia> fig = Figure()
julia> ax = Axis(fig[1,1], title=smallcaps("abcd"))
```
---
### Author:  [@mpirke](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mpirke)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 9:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/7 "2025-11-21T09:50:58Z")
Ah good idea. That is probably enough for what I need. This is just a workaround but I will mark this still as a solution to my problem 🙂
---
### Author:  [@tamasgal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tamasgal)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cairomakie-jl-mathtexengine-jl-small-caps/133985/8 "2025-11-26T20:35:54Z")
Actually, “small caps” is not a font feature (unlike e.g. ligatures), so I guess it’s a legit approach 😉