[XeTeX] XITS Math font - first beata

[Khaled Hosny]

On Sat, Jun 05, 2010 at 01:58:10PM +0930, Will Robertson wrote:
> On 2010-06-05 11:40:28 +0930, wodzicki at math.berkeley.edu said:
> 
> >On the other hand, with
> >
> >\setmathfont{XITS Math}
> >\setmainfont[Numbers=OldStyle,Mapping=tex-text]{STIXGeneral}
> >
> >I get improved STIX in Math, and the regular STIX in text with *no* Old
> >Style figures, plus unnecesssary duplication of fonts (as XITS Math is
> >just improved STIXGeneral upright Roman), but with 'fontspec' recognizing
> >that for italic and bold it has to look up the corresponding 'Italic' and
> >'Bold' font files.
> 
> 
> I have an alternative suggestion :)
> Instead of trying to use STIX Math as a text font, let's leave it
> doing what it does best and instead use a matching Times-clone for
> the text. This is what I would recommend:
> 
> \setmainfont[
>    Extension=.otf,
>    UprightFont=*-regular,
>    ItalicFont=*-italic,
>    BoldFont=*-bold,
>    BoldItalicFont=*-bolditalic,
>    Numbers=OldStyle,
>    Mapping=tex-text
>  ]{texgyretermes}
> \setmathfont{XITS Math}
> 
> (If you install TeX Gyre Terms in your system then you don't need
> the long-winded \setmainfont options.)
> 
> When you think about it, it doesn't exactly make sense to try and
> use STIX as a text font -- the bold and italic letters and kerning
> will have been designed for maths use, not text. And while they
> *can* function acceptably in text, TeX Gyre Termes is specifically a
> text font and has excellent glyph coverage.

I'm actually planning to include the rest of STIX styles in some later
release, STIX surpasses Termes in its Greek and Cyrillic coverage.

If there is a real demand, I can do it earlier, but the only improvement
I see over regular STIX will be fractions and oldstyle figures.

Regards,
 Khaled

-- 
 Khaled Hosny
 Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
 Free font developer