[XeTeX] mathspec and MnSymbol

[Andrew Moschou]

Hi Thierry,

I'm glad that you find mathspec useful.

To answer the first question, there is no critical difference between:
\usepackage{MnSymbol}\usepackage{mathspec} and
\usepackage[MnSymbol]{mathspec}: the MnSymbol option calls
\RequirePackage{MnSymbol}, which is synonomous to \usepackage{MnSymbol}.

For you second question, it is hard to judge what's going on without seeing
a complete example document. Something is obviously defining \mathfrak
before mathspec does (or attempting to define \mathfrak after mathspec
does).

I will say that LaTeX 2e permits only 16 maths fonts in a document, and by
attemping to use all alphabets, you've come up against this limitation
(loading MnSymbol and the AMS fonts doesn't help), although theoretically
many more can be used with XeTeX. I have tried, but have never successfully
extended this limit. This warning existed in the documentation for previous
mathspec versions, but I think I removed it for the current version, but it
still stands. If you get this error, it is likely that you have loaded more
fonts than is necessary for your document. But if you need all of these
fonts, then you probably shouldn't be using mathspec anyway. Please send a
complete example so that I can try to help you to optimise your document.

It can usually help to define and use commands similar to these:

\newfontfamily\blackboardboldfont{<blackboard bold font name>}
\newfontfamily\caligraphicfont{<caligraphic font name>}

\newcommand\bbR{\text{\blackboardboldfont R}}
\newcommand\calA{\text{\calligraphicfont A}}
\newcommand\calM{\text{\calligraphicfont M}}

instead of using \setmathbb{<bb font>} and \setmathcal{<cal font>}, which
frees up some alphabet slots. So:
Let $(X,\calA,\mu)$ be the Lebesgue measure space $(\bbR,\calM,m)$.
instead of:
Let $(X,\mathcal{A},\mu)$ be the Lebesgue measure space
$(\mathbb{R},\mathcal{M},m)$.

Andrew



2009/11/6 Thierry <rhomunu-list at yahoo.fr>

> Hello,
> I have installed a prerelease version of texlive 2009 to test it.
> Now I can play with a new version of xetex.
> (This is XeTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.2-0.9995.2 (TeX Live 2009))
>
> I would like to use the convenient package mathspec to choose my font in
> math mode, and at the same time MnSymbol to use their symbols.
>
> My first question: is there any difference between
> \usepackage{MnSymbol}
> \usepackage{mathspec}
> and
> \usepackage[MnSymbol]{mathspec}?
> Both works for me.
>
> Second question, which is in fact a problem:
> with one of these two commands, I can't use
> \setmathfrak{Lucida Blackletter}
> I have the error:
> ! LaTeX Error: Command `\mathfrak' already defined.
>
> I have made a test with all the other commands
> \setmathrm, \setmathbb, etc given in mathspec.pdf:
> Without MnSymbol, everything is fine.
> With MnSymbol, only \mathfrak 'is already defined', but using them all in
> the text gives me this error message:
> ! LaTeX Error: Too many math alphabets used in version normal.
>
> Is there a solution to that?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Thierry
>
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