MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Peter Park Nelson]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1447 bytes --]

Hello,

I have been developing a new layout environment using Adobe Minion Pro for
the main body font. My document will include a significant number of math
formulas. I found a thread from earlier this year on the possibility of
adding support for the LaTeX MnSymbol font package in ConTeXt, and wondered
if anyone has gone farther with this idea.

The last recommendation on the thread (
http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-context/2011/057426.html) was to merge the
Opentype MnSymbol font with Minion Pro using FontForge -- I tried that
using the steps outlined, but reached the same obstacle mentioned by the
last poster: the new (merged) font is not recognized by ConTeXt.

That approach probably violates the Adobe font license anyway...

In a 2009 thread on dev-context, Wolfgang Schuster mentioned an attempt to
create a virtual font and typescript for MnSymbol, but he encountered
problems with Greek characters. (
http://archive.contextgarden.net/message/20091122.164136.5757ec1f.en.html)

So, as I don't know how to proceed further, I would be interested in
hearing from anyone who has experimented with MnSymbol support, or in
finding out what specific steps would be involved in adding support.

Also, any recommendations of other math fonts suitable for use with Minion
Pro would be welcome. I am currently playing with XITS math, which is
Times-like but not too bad a fit.

Thanks,
PPN

-- 
Peter Park Nelson
peter.park.nelson@gmail.com

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 1749 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 485 bytes --]

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 23:32, Peter Park Nelson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Also, any recommendations of other math fonts suitable for use with Minion
> Pro would be welcome.

Minion Math by the same author as MnSymbol:
    http://www.typoma.com/en/fonts.html

Mojca
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Khaled Hosny]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 06:16:29PM +0100, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> the same author as MnSymbol:

Is he?

Regards,
 Khaled
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Wolfgang Schuster]

Am 14.12.2011 um 18:38 schrieb Khaled Hosny:

> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 06:16:29PM +0100, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
>> the same author as MnSymbol:
> 
> Is he?

No, MnSymbol is from Achim Blumensath and Minion Math from Johannes Küster.

Wolfgang
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 18:44, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
> Am 14.12.2011 um 18:38 schrieb Khaled Hosny:
>
>> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 06:16:29PM +0100, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
>>> the same author as MnSymbol:
>>
>> Is he?
>
> No, MnSymbol is from Achim Blumensath and Minion Math from Johannes Küster.

Shame on me. I remember Johannes fiddling with Minion shapes and
metafont to type1 conversions since I first met him about 7 year ago,
as well as work on the motionmountain.net book being done in Minion,
using the most complex combinations of LaTeX packages.

But I was obviously wrong. I'm sorry for that.

Mojca
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Peter Park Nelson]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1701 bytes --]

Minion Math does appear to be ideal for this application.

However, given current budget constraints, it is unlikely that my
department can purchase Minion Math for this project (an open-access
academic journal). We already own Minion Pro. Thus my interest in MnSymbol.

If adding MnSymbol support were only a matter of tedious manual labor, I
would be willing to give it a try, but without an understanding of font
internals I don't know where to start. Perhaps someone can suggest
resources for learning?

Also, I see that there are MnSymbol files in
http://minimals.contextgarden.net/current/fonts/extra/mnsymbol/ but these
don't appear to be included in my ConTeXt Standalone installation. Does
anyone know about them?

PPN

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Wolfgang Schuster <
schuster.wolfgang@googlemail.com> wrote:

>
> Am 14.12.2011 um 18:38 schrieb Khaled Hosny:
>
> > On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 06:16:29PM +0100, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> >> the same author as MnSymbol:
> >
> > Is he?
>
> No, MnSymbol is from Achim Blumensath and Minion Math from Johannes Küster.
>
> Wolfgang
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to
> the Wiki!
>
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl /
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
> archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
> wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>



-- 
Peter Park Nelson
peter.park.nelson@gmail.com

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 2640 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 485 bytes --]

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 19:08, Peter Park Nelson wrote:
>
> If adding MnSymbol support were only a matter of tedious manual labor, I

That is more or less the case. There is no reason why it should not
work with ConTeXt.

The main reason why I never looked into it is that the font offers
different optical sizes. And supporting optical sizes is something
that complicates matters a lot. If you would be happy with a single
optical size, that would be a lot easier.

> would be willing to give it a try, but without an understanding of font
> internals I don't know where to start. Perhaps someone can suggest resources
> for learning?

Are we talking about MKIV?

ConTeXt sources. math-vfu.lua and other math-*.mkiv/lua files, as well
as font-*.mkiv/lua.

You need to define a mapping vector to map from 8bit font to UTF-8.
See for example
mathencodings["tex-mi"] = {
    [0x1D6E4] = 0x00, -- Gamma
    [0x1D6E5] = 0x01, -- Delta
in math-vfu.lua or tex/context/fonts/lucida-math.lfg or keep asking
questions. There is no manual to explain how to write such vectors.

> Also, I see that there are MnSymbol files in
> http://minimals.contextgarden.net/current/fonts/extra/mnsymbol/ but these
> don't appear to be included in my ConTeXt Standalone installation. Does
> anyone know about them?

You need an extra switch. I think that --font=mnsymbol should work,
but I need to test (there's a chance that it doesn't and I plan to
change that anyway).

Mojca
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Peter Park Nelson]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2546 bytes --]

Thanks Mojca, I will study the source and see if I can understand it enough
to proceed further.

For my purposes, I think a single optical size would be sufficient (at
least that would be a good start and enough of a challenge).

What happens when  --font=mnsymbol is used -- is there some level of font
support added, or does it just download the font files?

PPN

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 7:29 AM, Mojca Miklavec <
mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 19:08, Peter Park Nelson wrote:
> >
> > If adding MnSymbol support were only a matter of tedious manual labor, I
>
> That is more or less the case. There is no reason why it should not
> work with ConTeXt.
>
> The main reason why I never looked into it is that the font offers
> different optical sizes. And supporting optical sizes is something
> that complicates matters a lot. If you would be happy with a single
> optical size, that would be a lot easier.
>
> > would be willing to give it a try, but without an understanding of font
> > internals I don't know where to start. Perhaps someone can suggest
> resources
> > for learning?
>
> Are we talking about MKIV?
>
> ConTeXt sources. math-vfu.lua and other math-*.mkiv/lua files, as well
> as font-*.mkiv/lua.
>
> You need to define a mapping vector to map from 8bit font to UTF-8.
> See for example
> mathencodings["tex-mi"] = {
>    [0x1D6E4] = 0x00, -- Gamma
>    [0x1D6E5] = 0x01, -- Delta
> in math-vfu.lua or tex/context/fonts/lucida-math.lfg or keep asking
> questions. There is no manual to explain how to write such vectors.
>
> > Also, I see that there are MnSymbol files in
> > http://minimals.contextgarden.net/current/fonts/extra/mnsymbol/ but
> these
> > don't appear to be included in my ConTeXt Standalone installation. Does
> > anyone know about them?
>
> You need an extra switch. I think that --font=mnsymbol should work,
> but I need to test (there's a chance that it doesn't and I plan to
> change that anyway).
>
> Mojca
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to
> the Wiki!
>
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl /
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
> archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
> wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>



-- 
Peter Park Nelson
peter.park.nelson@gmail.com

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 3698 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 485 bytes --]

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: MnSymbol (math) support in ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 18:54, Peter Park Nelson wrote:
>
> What happens when  --font=mnsymbol is used -- is there some level of font
> support added, or does it just download the font files?

It just downloads font files, it doesn't add any support for them.

(I have tried and --fonts=mnsymbol indeed works as intended.)

Mojca
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________