Dear Hans, I'm not sure if the same problem would occur with other fonts as well (it is probably worth trying), but at least it happens with Lucida. Something is wrong with the spacing around the plus sign or maybe the wrong plus sign is taken (I suspect that). In MKII the formula is nicely aligned, while it looks ugly in MKIV. Here's the source: \beginOLDTEX \usetypescript[lucida][ec] \endOLDTEX \setupbodyfont[lucida] \starttext \startformula\startalign[align={left,left}] \NC m_{A_1'} \NC = (3+0+3+3+0+3) = 1 \NR \NC m_{A_2'} \NC = (3+0-3+3+0-3) = 0 \NR \NC m_{E'} \NC = (6+0+0+6+0+0) = 1 \NR \NC m_{A_1''} \NC = (3+0+3-3+0-3) = 0 \NR \NC m_{A_2''} \NC = (3+0-3-3+0+3) = 0 \NR \NC m_{E''} \NC = (6+0+0-6+0+0) = 0 \NR \stopalign\stopformula \stoptext Mojca