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I tried the following, but it loses all formatting when creating a question in mathematics. Is there a way to specify coloured text which retains some form of formatting ?

$\color{blue}{\text{So the Gowers essay says that the set of all different subsets of N, P(N), is meaningful (by the Power set axiom), however it is impossible to talk about specific subsets of N, since they are undefinable in general, and we don't know what is in them. However the axiom of extensionality says we compare two sets by determining their common elements. So taking any two undefinable subsets at random, A & B from P(N), as mentioned in Gower's essay, we can't determine whether they are the same subset by using the axiom of extensionality, since it is impossible to know what are the actual contents of A & B. Indeed is it actually possible to pick two different undefinable subsets from P(N) anyway (without just saying they are two different sets from P(N)) ?}}$

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    $\begingroup$ Why do you need to use colour? $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Feb 22 at 14:23
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila - I was asked to edit a question to make it clearer - so I added text that I thought would be easier to see if it was coloured. $\endgroup$
    – user239186
    Feb 22 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ Related (to some extent): Should the overuse of colored text be discouraged? $\endgroup$ Feb 22 at 14:40
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    $\begingroup$ Please do not use too much color, as it may be distracting and some people are colorblind. Boldface should suffice. $\endgroup$
    – bobeyt6
    Feb 22 at 19:13

1 Answer 1

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There is no way to put a line break inside the \text{} command. Therefore, the only solution to you is to manually break up your text into line-sized chunks, and wrap each chunk in their own text box, with a line break in between.

Furthermore, if you want the math formatting to appear within the \text{} box, you need to enclose it in $'s.

$$ \color{blue}{ \text{So the Gowers essay says that the set of all different subsets of $\mathbb N$, $P(\mathbb N)$, is meaningful} \\ \text{ (by the Power set axiom), however it is impossible to talk about specific subsets of $\mathbb N$,} \\ \text{ since they are undefinable in general, and we don't know what is in them. However the axiom of } \\ \text{extensionality says we compare two sets by determining their common elements.} } $$

$$
\color{blue}{
\text{So the Gowers essay says that the set of all different subsets of $\mathbb N$, $P(\mathbb N)$, is meaningful}
\\
\text{ (by the Power set axiom), however it is impossible to talk about specific subsets of $\mathbb N$,}
\\
\text{ since they are undefinable in general, and we don't know what is in them. However the axiom of }
\\
\text{extensionality says we compare two sets by determining their common elements.}
}
$$
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    $\begingroup$ But... please do not do this. Mathematics is semantically distinct from text, and using MathJax in this way could cause problems for, e.g., people who use screen readers. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Feb 23 at 13:57

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