# Brackets of matrices don't size

I have a simple question. Switching from v9 to v10 I find that the brackets of matrices in text and input cells don't fit the size of the matrix, they are just small ordinary brackets. There must be some global option to be changed - I can't find it.

The CellExpression for an Input-cell is the same in both versions:

Cell[BoxData[
RowBox[{"(", GridBox[{
{"1"},
{"2"}
}], ")"}]], "Input"]


I assume the reason is some burried Option.

• Please add the actual Cell expression from the Notebook that exhibits this problem. Use menu Cell > Show Expression and then copy and paste the content into your Question. – Mr.Wizard Jul 14 '16 at 2:03
• I can't reproduce the issue, and have never observed it in any version of Mathematica on Mac OS X. Maybe your operating system info will help someone give an answer. – Jens Jul 14 '16 at 5:31

I think the most likely candidate for the "buried Option" is SpanMaxSize. Please tell me what this looks like on your system:

Format[paren[obj_]] :=
Style[DisplayForm @ RowBox[{"(", obj, ")"}], SpanMaxSize -> Infinity]

paren @ Column @ {1, 2, 3}


Format[paren2[obj_]] :=

If that does not work please also try the example with bracket from How stretch curly brace on multi-line text? I believe the explicit SpanMaxSize -> Infinity should override other possibly incorrect settings. If this does not work I think you may have a font problem; if Mathematica cannot find the extensible glyph it may have substituted a plain parenthesis glyph.