The TeX Math Font Generator

The TeX Math Font Generator is a set of programs that take an Adobe Type 1 font and produce a set of math symbols that look compatible with that font. The program's output is immediately usable by LaTeX and TeX.

You may download the program here.

By the way, MathGen is the name of a program for designing arithmetic worksheets. It is unfortunate that I chose MathGen as the name of my program. Hence, the full name of my program is the "TeX Math Font Generator," abbreviated to MathGen as a colloquialism.

Quick Start Guide

Here's how to create new math fonts quickly.

1. Install the following programs if they're not on your computer already:
   • Perl
   • Ghostscript
   • mftrace, which requires several other programs
   • potrace
   • METAFONT, which should come with any standard TeX distribution
   Hopefully future releases will not depend on potrace or possibly even mftrace.
2. Get your PostScript Type 1 fonts. If you have TrueType fonts, use ttf2pt1 to convert them.
3. If you haven't already done so, use FontInst to install the text fonts.
4. Run the script ./begin.pl, and enter the information it wants.
5. Run ./joinlibs.pl and then ./rawparams.pl.
6. Simultaneously run ./widthlibs.pl, then ./rawwidths.pl, and finally ./makewidths.pl.
7. Finally, run ./makefonts.pl.

Using Your New Fonts

Once you've done all of the above, your new math fonts should be ready to use. Say you chose "zzz" as your output_prefix and "output" as your output_dir (this is the default). Then, in the output directory, create your LaTeX document, placing the statement:

\usepackage{mathzzz}

You should move the generated font files to their appropriate places in the TeX directory structure. There's information on doing so on the FontInst page. Note that the ".ps" and ".txt" files are for the font measurements; you don't need to keep them.

Font Samples

Here is a random sample of mathematical typesetting in Times Roman. You can also download the font files so you don't have to create them yourself.