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Choosing a math font
The typophiles (mostly Wendell Pepperdine from Eugene, OR) discuss some issues related to math fonts after an initial complaint about Cambria+Math. Some passages: - Unlike natural language, one often cannot identify a glyph just from context. So every glyph must be immediately and uniquely recognizable. Common problems are with the roman-lc vs. italic-lc z and with the Greek-ltalic-lc nu vs. the italic-lc v.
- The typical reading rate for professional-level math is about one or two hours per page. Reading twenty pages at a sitting would be unusual. Most likely would be less than six. Surely this case requires some special attention to typeface choice. When reading, the mathematician goes back and forth between printed page and scratchpad. The type should aid quickly finding ones place again but not become tedious with prolonged staring and rereading.
- My impression has been that a large x-height is bad for math text, as it is meant to cause the eye to slide quickly down a line of text and gives too little distinction to individual words. The opposite, like Perpetua, is not comfortable in prolonged staring. Striking forms, as when the type designer decides to personalize the W or Q become very irritating.
- Another major consideration is the use of italics. It is the standard practice in math to set the most important paragraphs, the theorems, in all italics. So you need an italic typeface that is not only good for setting whole paragraphs, but will support even more intensive scrutiny than the roman. I think very few typefaces have such a suitable italic.
Good fonts for math typesetting mentioned here include Caledonia, Palatino, Utopia and the Century family.
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Choosing a math font
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Mathematics fonts ⦿
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