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To show all chapter numbers as Roman numerals, I’m using


The fourth chapter, for instance, is therefore “Chapter IV” everywhere.

Is it possible to show the numbers as Arabic numerals only when referencing to chapters using \ref{...}?

Using the example above, \ref{chapter-four} would result in “Chapter 4” instead of “Chapter IV.”

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up vote 5 down vote accepted

Patching \@makechapterhead to print \Roman{chapter} instead of \thechapter allows you to have chapter headings formatting with Roman numerals yet have references inside your text to still be Arabic:

enter image description here

\patchcmd{\@makechapterhead}% <cmd>
  {\thechapter}% <search>
  {\Roman{chapter}}% <replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\chapter{A chapter}\label{chap-label}
See Chapter~\ref{chap-label}.

Note that numbering inside your ToC will also be Arabic. To change this, a patch to \@chapter is required (also wrapped inside a \makeatletter-\makeatother-pair):

\patchcmd{\@chapter}% <cmd>
  {\numberline{\thechapter}}% <search>
  {\numberline{\Roman{chapter}}}% <replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
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