mathastext README

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        +                mathastext                 +
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        +     'Use the text font in math mode'      +
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This Work may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions of the LPPL 1.3c

The Author of this Work is Jean-Francois Burnol (jfbu at free dot fr)

  Source: mathastext.dtx 1.4e 2024/10/26

DESCRIPTION

Optimal typographical results for documents containing mathematical symbols can only be hoped for with math fonts specifically designed to match a given text typeface. Although the list of freely available math fonts (alongside the Computer Modern and AMS extension fonts) is slowly expanding (fourier, kpfonts, mathdesign, pxfonts, txfonts, newpx, newtx, ...) it remains limited, and the situation is even worse with Unicode fonts (XeTeX/LuaTeX). So if you can't find a math font which fits well with your favorite text font, and wish to still be able to typeset mathematical documents, perhaps not of the highest typographical quality, but at least not subjected to obvious visual incompatibilities between your text font and the math fonts, try out mathastext: it will simply use the text font also for the math!

USAGE

mathastext is a LaTeX package

  \usepackage{mathastext}

The document will use in math mode the text font as configured at package loading time, for these characters:

  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
  0123456789
  !?,.:;+-=()[]/#$%&<>|{}\

Main options: italic, frenchmath, subdued, LGRgreek.

Use the italic option to get the Latin letters in math mode be in italics. Digits and log-like operator names (pre-defined as well as user-defined) will be in the same shape as the text font (usually this means upright).
each \Mathastext[<name>] in the preamble defines a math version to be later activated in the document body via the command \MTversion{<name>}.
With the subdued option, mathastext will be active only inside such math versions.
For documents needing Greek letters the following is possible:
- no option: Greek letters defined by other packages,
- eulergreek: use the Euler font for the Greek letters,
- symbolgreek: use the Postscript Symbol font for the Greek letters.
- LGRgreek: use the document text font in LGR encoding. Further options specify the shape of the lowercase and uppercase Greek glyphs; starting with v1.15c it is possible to use multiple distinct LGR fonts in the same document.
Commands are provided to scale the Euler and Symbol fonts by an arbitrary factor to let them fit better with the document text font.
\MTsetmathskips allows to set up extra spacings around letters.

RECENT CHANGES

1.4e [2024/10/26]

Fix a bug dating back to 1.3y which caused under LGRgreek or LGRgreeks options an \MTversion{normal} to raise an Extra \else error (not if subdued). The unit test which could have shown this had been left aside at 1.4d because it was so old that some matters unrelated to the package prevented its immediate use... alas...
Fix one more 1.4 regression: the (not really recommended) option unimathaccents was broken. Again a test file existed but it had been left apart from those automatically built, for some unknown reason...

1.4d [2024/10/26]

Fix one more 1.4 regression (the worst one by far): $f''$ caused a crash. Fortunately, the everymath option which re-enacts legacy code could be used as a temporary emergency work-around. Thanks to Enrico Gregorio for report.
The 1.4b option noletters did not prevent the package from defining math mode symbols \inodot and \jnodot. It now does.
Fix a longstanding legacy bug which would have caused a crash if \MTnonlettersobeymathxx had been used with XeLaTeX in a document with the character - being a Babel shorthand.
Usage of \Mathastext or \MTDeclareVersion to declare a math version associated with an exotic non-text font encoding such as OML is theoretically possible (although of dubious practical use except for stress tests) but was broken since 1.3u due to internals relying on LaTeX commands associated with text font encodings (for example to define \inodot using \i, or the \hbar with the help of the accent command \=) and which are not available in such context. This release handles such situation gracefully via warnings, rather than causing low level errors.
Improve looks in the PDF of this Change log.

1.4c [2024/10/21]

Fix a regression at 1.4: under XeLaTeX, loading mathastext caused an error if unicode-math and its \setmathfont had been used prior ("Extended mathchar used as mathchar" in relation to the minus sign character). Thanks to Michael Roland for report.

Keep in mind though that the documentation (see 1.4.15 Unicode engines) has always said that the package "is expected to be most definitely incompatible with unicode-math".
Fix another regression at 1.4, related to the same code and also avoided with everymath option, but showing with all engines. It caused \MTnonlettersdonotobeymathxx, if used, to reset the minus sign to its status as prior to the loading of mathastext, whereas it should have used the (by default) mathversion dependent one (which defaults to the en-dash in the font encoding as stored by mathastext in the extended math version).
\Relbar and \relbar redeclarations (needed as they are used by LaTeX for arrows, and the equal and minus signs if picked from the text font may not work well in-there) are now done via \DeclareRobustCommand also with package amsmath to match the current behavior of the latter. Note though that they will use the equal and minus signs as in place at package loading time, the documentation does say that mathastext should be loaded last.

1.4b [2024/07/27]

Fix a regression at 1.4 regarding option nodigits.
New option: noletters. I am in old age now so I can provide an option completely antithetical to my life work.
Option everymath which is destined to be removed at next major release warns user about it. As major releases tend to happen once per decade I think the constant nagging will become insufferable and you will adapt to the 1.4 changes rather than persisting into using this option.

1.4a [2024/07/20]

There was a documentation glitch in 1.4 and also a problem with the \MTprimeskip feature being lost under the emergency fall-back everymath option.

1.4 [2024/07/20]

Since 1.2 of 2012/12/20, mathastext has used mathematically active characters to propose certain advanced functionalities. For reasons half lost in the mists of time but whose main one was surely to keep the meaning of the active shape of characters unchanged outside of math mode, this mathematical activation, and (in most cases) the definitions of what active characters do, were done again at each entrance into math mode. At this 1.4 release, mathastext does not inject any code whatsoever into the \everymath and \everydisplay toks registers anymore (except for one font-related hack needed under LuaLaTeX, see below). Your documents will compile a tiny bit faster.
In (unsual) documents where users play with catcodes and mathcodes it is impossible to keep exact backward compatibility, because documented user commands which acted formerly as toggles with delayed action now will enact changes immediately if in the document body. In practice consequences are expected to be few, because catcode active characters are (as was already the case with earlier releases) hacked only when they are Babel shorthands and they are then modified in a way altering only their action in math mode. The precise description of what mathastext does when mathematically activating (or not) a character, depending on circumstances, is to be found among small-print comments in the section "Extended scope of the math alphabets commands". See also the documentation of the \MTmathactiveletters command for some specifics regarding ascii letters.
New option: everymath. It instructs mathastext to revert (partially) to its legacy code which uses \everymath/\everydisplay. This reversal is partial, the handling of ascii letters not being included into it. The everymath option is there only to try as a quick fix in case transition to this release causes a major problem in a user document and time is lacking to investigate. Please report to the author such issues. Option everymath is destined to be removed at next major release.
New option: activedigits. Enjoy.
It is now easier to hook into the mathastext architecture for mathematically activated ascii letters. See the new section "Hacking letters (and even digits) for special tasks".
Bugfix: do not override special behavior of the math mode dot in babel-spanish.
Bugfix: A desperate hack related to LuaLaTeX font matters and dating back to 1.3o 2016/05/03 had been for some years in dire need of an update regarding fonts using Renderer=HarfBuzz. This is done now. Thanks to tex.sx user691586 for report. This is currently the sole remaining usage of \everymath/\everydisplay.
Bugfix: \MTexplicitbracesobeymathxx (which is related to \{ and \}) was without effect since an upstream LaTeX change at its 2020-02-02 release.
With option symbolmisc, those math symbol macros formerly defined via \DeclareRobustCommand are now declared via \protected\def.
Removal of legacy branches previously kept to support LaTeX earlier than 2020-02-02.
Removal of support for EU1 and EU2 font encodings.
Option noasterisk deprecated at 1.2d 2013/01/02 has (finally) been removed.
Four test files previously included and auto-extracted from the distributed dtx have been dropped. One of them is still available on the package homepage.
Some parts of the documentation have been massively re-ordered and even to some extent improved. But there may be some occasions where obsolete statements will be found having the legacy \everymath/\everydisplay situation as background.