Hi Thomas, Adam, and all...
===== Original Message From "Thomas A.Schmitz"
So there is no simple answer to your question. TeX knows to pick up zerooldstyle instead of zero either 1. because you have a virtual font that says MAPFONT 1, so it knows it will have to use a different pfb than for the rest, or 2. because the encoding file points to character zerooldstyle within the ttf.
You are right. I just realized that I misunderstood what Hans meant by avoiding virtual fonts: I was assuming all this time that the \usetypescript[map][latin-modern-os][texnansi] setup was mapping latin modern to cmmi10, etc. I looked at the log of a test file for latin-modern-os: no mention of cmmi10, etc. I looked at the pdf, listed all fonts, and boom, only one font, lmr12.pfb. I opened lmr12 in FontLab and, lo and behold, it contains a palette of old style numerals! So what Hans meant was that there is no need for a virtual font to remap lmr itself, not that you could actually map the numerals of lmr to cmmibi without a virtual font. The OldStyle to MathItalic mappings are apparently useful for local switches like \os, but not for global setups. Oh well, I certainly learned a lot about fonts and ConTeXt this past day-and-a-half, so I guess it was not a total waste of time. Now I guess I have to make some virtual fonts (sigh), so it's now on to Thomas' how-to. Thnx to all Idris ============================ Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523