[XeTeX] XITS Math font - first beata

[wodzicki at math.berkeley.edu]

Thank you for the upload.

> This early version provides:

  (...)

> * proper sub/superscript positioning (not fine tuned yet).

Yes, I can see that some superscripts/subscripts are positioned slightly
too close to the corresponding symbol (e.g.  'l' in $t^l$)

> * extensible radicals, delimiters and math accents.
> * oldstyle figures.

My understanding is the latter applies to text not Math figures. And here
I have my main comment after trying XITS Math. The font file

xits-math.otf   replaces just one file:  STIXGeneral.otf

With

\setmathfont{XITS Math}
\setmainfont[Numbers=OldStyle,Mapping=tex-text]{XITS Math}

in the preambula I get improved STIX both in Math and text, with Old Style
figures but *no* italic, *bold* etc: everything is rendered regular
upright Roman. The reason is of course clear: there are no 'italic' or
'bold' shapes in 'XITS Math' font.


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.

In order to be able to resolve this quid-pro-quo we probably need to ask
Will Robertson to make some simple adjustment to his fontspec package that
would make the declaration:

\setmainfont[...]{XITS Math}

load XITS Math for upright Roman and STIXGeneral for everything else.

This way the objective of XITS Math could be reached: to improve Math and
supply Old Style figures in STIXGeneral family.

Mariusz Wodzicki