mathastext

mathastext is a package to allow to use the text font also in mathematics mode, thus giving a very unified look to the produced document. As a side-effect it alleviates somewhat the problem of the scarcity of free math fonts for TeX typesetting. Do not use it though if you hope to achieve optimal typographical results: the package originates in some (even worse) macros I had been using many years ago to produce handouts as if done on a typewriter, or better said, to produce documents with a somewhat rough, but unified look, done by a real human and meaning to convey some message to real humans. The hope was to coerce the reader into making a real effort at assimilating the entirety of the material, text and math, not knowing in advance which piece would prove to be more important than the others. In a well-crafted mathematical document, every single part is as important as any other one, or, rather, it is up to the reader to uncover the web of links between atoms.

The example on the left uses:

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[german]{babel}
\usepackage[variablett,lighttt]{lmodern}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\ttdefault}
\usepackage[eulergreek]{mathastext}
\MathastextEulerScale{0.92}

Related packages by the author:
- libgreek (use the Linux Libertine or Biolinum fonts for Greek in math mode)
- pxgreeks (select upright/italic shape for the Greek letters from the PX fonts)
- txgreeks (select upright/italic shape for the Greek letters from the TX fonts).
Using mathastext with Unicode fonts: mathastext can be used with the XeTeX and LuaTeX engines and Unicode fonts. It is recommended to load first the fontspec package, with its option no-math. As in this example:
```
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Bonum}
\usepackage{mathastext}
```
1. The \setmainfont should always come before loading mathastext (else it must be followed by the \Mathastext command, or \Mathastext[name_of_version] to declare a math version; see the PDF Documentation).
2. Without the option no-math given to fontspec, digits and some other characters would not be typeset (despite loading afterwards mathastext) with the font specified by \setmainfont. Without its option no-math, fontspec sets the \mathrm to refer to the text font (but mathastext does it also) and forces (except if some other package known to fontspec to deal with math fonts is detected) the digits to be typeset with CMR (or Latin Modern). So with no-math the first aspect is taken care of by mathastext itself and the second aspect is gotten rid of. (tested February 2011; as things such as fontspec or LuaTeX evolve quickly this kind of things may unpredictably change at any time.)
3. The options of mathastext for dealing with Greek letters make reference to fonts in the old-fashioned 8bits TeX format (Euler font, Symbol font, or LGR-encoded fonts). If the Greek letters are to come from a Unicode font, the set-up has to be done by another package. For the XeLaTeX engine a convenient one is mathspec. For example:
```
\usepackage{mathspec}
\setmathsfont(Greek)[Uppercase=Regular,Lowercase=Regular]{Arial}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Bonum}
\usepackage{mathastext}
```
  and then you can type directly αβγ in math mode to have the Greek letters, in upright shape, from the Arial font. Important: mathspec automatically loads fontspec, with option no-math. Thus, this is a good thing for mathastext. Of course as mathspec allows to specify the fonts for Latin letters and Digits as well, the rationale for using mathastext then is (quasi) reduced to its capabilities to deal with multiple math versions (and also to the fact that it manages also most other characters from the Basic Latin set, besides Letters and Digits). (tested May 2011)
4. The success of the mathastext option italic with a Unicode font depends on whether this font is provided with an italic variant: for example (tested on a Linux box with XeTeX) it works with Times New Roman but not with Arial Black or (tested on a Mac with LuaTeX) it works with Baskerville or Didot but not with American Typewriter. (tested May 2011)
5. The package amsmath has some problems with Unicode (or rather with packages aware of the Unicode context, such as mathastext). When using amsmath load mathastext (later) with option noendash and add the appropriate line below after \begin{document}: (tested May 2011)
```
\XeTeXmathcode`\- ="2 \symmtoperatorfont "2013 \relax % if XeTeX
\luatexUmathcode`\-="2 \symmtoperatorfont "2013 \relax % if LuaTeX
```
  Perhaps these problems of amsmath will auto-magically disappear with future versions of either amsmath, XeTeX or LuaTeX (or of packages loaded by default by the document classes), and this could make the above work-around superfluous.
Known limitations and bugs:
- Some characters from fonts having complex ligature rules may not display correctly in math mode (here is an example).
- All versions prior to 1.12b were afflicted by bugs, some being rather severe, so users of these versions are strongly advised to upgrade.
PDF documentation of the initial version