Addition to my previous message re this subject: In the top of file type-pre.tex it can be read: %D This file is obsolete. We now have latin modern and proper %D typescripts. Forget about this file. However, tracing execution of \startformula[bold] shows it is still read then, whereas on \startformula (without the bold) it is not. Isn't this an anomaly? Just curious (I hope curiosity is permitted in this group). One more observation. The trace shows an underfull hbox inserted at the start of this file \readfilename ->type-pre (/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf-local/tex/context/base/type-pre.tex Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 21--13 \hbox(0.0+0.0)x426.78743 .\glue(\rightskip) 0.0 ) disappearing when a put \endinput right at the start of the file. I hope this hbox doesn't play havoc with formatting? Hans van der Meer