# [NTG-context] Multi-letter words/identifiers in math

Shuxian Wang wsx at udscbt.io
Sun Sep 29 09:30:33 CEST 2019

Dear list,

I am trying to typeset some multi-letter words/identifiers in
mathematical formulas. Currently, doing things like {\it variable} or
{\mathit variable} under math mode will cause the engine to shift all
characters into the corresponding unicode mathematical alphanumeric
block position. However, most OpenType fonts that have good support for
unicode math are optimized for single-character usage. Therefore, the
outcome of such method is non-ideal, as no kerning or ligatures will be
enabled. Especially, this gives bad output when typesetting variable
names with combinations like “ffi”.

Looking through some past discussions on the list, I am aware of the
usage of \mathword and \mathtext. Using those command will keep all
the characters “as is” and typeset them under text mode (as far as I
can tell). But those commands switch to the main body fonts temporarily
to accomplish this. Sometime when using a different math font than the
main font (like Palatino with Latin Modern Math), I wish my variable
names can also be in the math font (or at least very similar, such as
Latin Modern vs. Latin Modern Math) to better merge with the formula.

The way I am currently doing is to introduce some “math text fonts”
that is different from the main text font but close to the math font.
And with custom font switchers like \mwrm and \mwit to help me
define things like

\def\wordrm#1{\mbox{\mwrm #1}}
\def\wordit#1{\mbox{\mwit #1}}

Am I missing some builtin functionalities or easier ways to do this? If
not, would it be a good idea to extend the functionality of \mathword
so it lifts out the restriction of only using the main text font?

Thanks!

Shuxian Wang
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