Re: [Minionpro-devel] \textasteriskcentered not actually centered
Hello, Lev Bishop wrote: Also, on the topic of asterisks, is there any chance to get six-pointed asterisks added to MnSymbol? Sorry, no. The five-pointed version was the choice of the designer of MinionPro. As far as I remember, this is typical for renaissance fonts. I must say that I expected this response :-) But allow me one attempt to persuade you to reconsider... I can understand the choice of 5-pointed asterisk for marking footnotes, but I really think it seems wrong for the mathematical asterisks to be anything other than six-pointed. It would help if you could give any reasons supporting this point of view, instead of just saying that it seems wrong. I see that at least one typographer agrees with me on this point: http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-0/kuster.pdf . ...most fonts already contain an asterisk * (U+002A), but normally the latter is not suitable for math, which uses a larger version, six-pointed... The way I read that passage, the reason for the unsuitability of the supplied asterisk is that it is not centred. I don't think the number of points is that important. Please consider to use the same model as is done with Lucida: keep the original Slimbach text asterisk but for the mathematical asterisks use a six-pointed form. That leads to inconsistency. Achim -- | \_/ | Achim Blumensath \O/ \___/\ | TU Darmstadt =o= \ /\ \| www.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/~blumensath/\ o| \___| signature.asc Description: Digital signature ___ Minionpro-devel mailing list Minionpro-devel@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/minionpro-devel
Re: [Minionpro-devel] \textasteriskcentered not actually centered
Hello, Lev Bishop wrote: I can understand the choice of 5-pointed asterisk for marking footnotes, but I really think it seems wrong for the mathematical asterisks to be anything other than six-pointed. [...] I suppose the reason is that the five-pointed version seems very unfamiliar. I don't recall ever seeing a five-pointed mathematical asterisk in any books or papers I have read. That's just because most mathematical texts are set in a baroque or romantic typeface like Times or Modern, which have asterisks with six tear-drop shaped arms. He says that mathematical asterisk should always be six-pointed with one vertical stroke and two cross strokes. His explanation for this is because mathematicians want the asterisk to look like the ones they draw by hand, and five-point asterisks are difficult by hand. I think the reason is rather the one you stated above: most people are more used to six-pointed asterisks. I do not accept this argument. In the same way you could argue that all mathematical texts should be set in Computer Modern: that's what most mathematicians are used to. It would be something different if the shape were that unfamiliar to readers that they could hardly read the symbol. But that's not the case here: most people would instantly agree that it's an asterisk, although one that looks a bit funny. That leads to inconsistency. Well, one way is inconsistent between the text and the mathematics, but the other way is (as far as I can tell) inconsistent with general mathematical typography. It's not inconsistent, just different. Achim -- | \_/ | Achim Blumensath \O/ \___/\ | TU Darmstadt =o= \ /\ \| www.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/~blumensath/\ o| \___| signature.asc Description: Digital signature ___ Minionpro-devel mailing list Minionpro-devel@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/minionpro-devel
Re: [Minionpro-devel] \textasteriskcentered not actually centered
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 08:55, Achim Blumensath wrote: I don't recall ever seeing a five-pointed mathematical asterisk in any books or papers I have read. That's just because most mathematical texts are set in a baroque or romantic typeface like Times or Modern, which have asterisks with six tear-drop shaped arms. I'm sure you are right that most mathematical texts are set in baroque or modern typefaces. But it's more than that: even those texts that are set in old-style typefaces still use 6-armed asterisks. For example, the journals Nature and Nature Physics are currently set in Minion, but they use 6-armed math asterisks (I can send you a reprint if you'd like to see). Paul Hudak's book The Haskell school of expression is set in Lucida Bright, but uses 6-armed math asterisks. I'm sure there are other examples. These are just what I found now. One final argument for using 6-pointed $*$: it makes the five-pointed $\star$ much more easily distinguished from $*$. Lev ___ Minionpro-devel mailing list Minionpro-devel@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/minionpro-devel
