[Tex/LaTex] How would one design a math font

fontsmath-modepackage-writing

There are (some very nice) text fonts which do not have math support. Though there are ways to 'remedy' this, such as the mathastext package and some others, these are hardly satisfactory. All accents need to be manually adjusted every time they are used, spacing is a nightmare, and overall the document in general does not look professional. Leading to my

Question. How would one, given a text font, design a math package utilizing this font?

In particular, I am not interested (at the moment) in artistic font design issues like shape and slope of letters and such things. Some of the precise issues that I would like to solve are:

Positions for decorations like bars, tildes, etc.
Subscript / superscript size and positioning.
'Box' sizes and position (I believe this is correct terminology), for instance how much space around an italicized $f$ so that the tail does not overlap the previous letter (an issue that occurs frequently with the remedies mentioned above).

And of course, there is the issue of the math symbols (including arrows, binary operators, greek letters, script alphabets, etc.). Obviously it would be nice to create from scratch my own set of such symbols, but that is far in the future and not an issue for now. Right now, I have symbols I like from a variety of places and packages.

Example. The package fouriernc is new century schoolbook with fourier math. This is similar to what I want. To design a math font package that is equipped with math symbols from another. (Indeed, fourier is a math set I am considering.)

So, now that the proposal is (relatively, I hope) clear, we return to the question. I don't have experience programming in TeX (though I know C and python quite well) beyond the basics. In particular, I have never done anything beyond what is in document. Thus I haven't a clue on how to begin with this project. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

I suppose not the answer you want to hear:

It is really difficult to build or better create a good looking and working math font. Your question let me guess, that you are not a typographer. So please don't do it. Leave this job a typographer who has learned (tooks several years ...) to do this.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Replace several letters in math font

This uses Iwona for Greek, change the font family in \DeclareSymbolFont if you want a different font.

\documentclass{scrartcl}

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb}

\usepackage[default]{sourcesanspro}

\usepackage{sansmath}
\sansmath

\DeclareSymbolFont{Greekletters}{OT1}{iwona}{m}{n}
\DeclareSymbolFont{greekletters}{OML}{iwona}{m}{it}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Delta}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"01}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Theta}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"02}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Lambda}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"03}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Xi}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"04}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Pi}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"05}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Sigma}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"06}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Upsilon}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"07}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Phi}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"08}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Psi}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"09}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\Omega}{\mathord}{Greekletters}{"0A}

\DeclareMathSymbol{\alpha}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"0B}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\beta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"0C}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\gamma}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"0D}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\delta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"0E}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\epsilon}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"0F}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\zeta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"10}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\eta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"11}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\theta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"12}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\iota}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"13}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\kappa}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"14}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\lambda}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"15}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\mu}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"16}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\nu}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"17}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\xi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"18}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\pi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"19}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\rho}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1A}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\sigma}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1B}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\tau}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1C}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\upsilon}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1D}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\phi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1E}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\chi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"1F}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\psi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"20}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\omega}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"21}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varepsilon}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"22}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\vartheta}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"23}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varpi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"24}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varrho}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"25}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varsigma}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"26}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varphi}{\mathord}{greekletters}{"27}


\begin{document}


\noindent
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ \\
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz \\
$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz$ \\
$ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ$ \\
$a\alpha\beta\gamma\delta\epsilon\varepsilon\zeta\eta\theta\vartheta\iota\kappa\varkappa\lambda\mu\nu\xi o\pi\varpi\rho\varrho\sigma\varsigma\tau\upsilon\phi\varphi\chi\psi\omega$ \\
$\Gamma\Delta\Theta\Lambda\Xi\Pi\Sigma\Upsilon\Phi\Psi\Omega$ \\
$\mathbb{ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ}$
\[
  \frac{1}{2\pi i}\int_\gamma f = \sum_{k=1}^m n(\gamma;a_k) \cdot \text{Res}(f;a_k).
\]
\end{document}

enter image description here

Personal opinion Sans serif math can be justified only in a presentation.

[Tex/LaTex] Replace a few math symbols in the newtxmath font

The case \int is trivial, because there is an option cmintegrals for package newtxmath. In the other cases, the symbol fonts are overwritten by newtxmath. Therefore the example again defines them with a different name (CM appended):

 \documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\usepackage{newtxtext}
\usepackage[cmintegrals]{newtxmath}

%% \sum
\DeclareSymbolFont{largesymbolsCM}{OMX}{cmex}{m}{n}
\let\txsum\sum
\let\sum\relax
\DeclareMathSymbol{\sum}{\mathop}{largesymbolsCM}{"50}

%% \infty
\DeclareSymbolFont{symbolsCM}{OMS}{cmsy}{m}{n}
\SetSymbolFont{symbolsCM}{bold}{OMS}{cmsy}{b}{n}
\let\txinfty\infty
\DeclareMathSymbol{\infty}{\mathord}{symbolsCM}{"31}

%% \partial, \pi
\DeclareSymbolFont{lettersCM}{OML}{cmm} {m}{it}
\SetSymbolFont{lettersCM}{bold}{OML}{cmm} {b}{it}
\let\txpartial\partial
\DeclareMathSymbol{\partial}{\mathord}{lettersCM}{"40}
\let\txpi\pi
\DeclareMathSymbol{\pi}{\mathord}{lettersCM}{"19}

\begin{document}

\begin{align*}
  \text{CM} &= \text{TX} \\
  \int \\
  \sum &= \txsum \\
  \infty &= \txinfty \\
  \partial &= \txpartial \\
  \pi &= \txpi
\end{align*}

\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Replace several letters in math font

[Tex/LaTex] Replace a few math symbols in the newtxmath font

Related Question