Fonts & Character Sets ⇒ Greek letters... well, one anyway...

[Julian_S_Moore]

I have one Greek letter in my text (though used many times): epsilon.

As you will see from the MWE, though I had intended to illustrate only one point there are two problems - both of which probably arise from entering math mode to get the Greek letter

1. In the 1st line the epsilon is either too close to the 'm' or too far from the 's' (or both). How might I fix that?

2. As the font size increases it seems the epsilon doesn't.

There is an epsilon in Bookman Old Style (unicode 03B5) - how might I access that? I'm using the xunicode package and though e.g. fontspec suggests xunicode would help me do this it doesn't seem to have a manual.

And if I still need to adjust letter-spacing, how do I do that?

Finally, whatever the solution is to changing the Greek letter size (if it isn't to get the character from Bookman Old Style, how do I get it to respect the current font specification automatically?

Two hours of googling, looking at manuals and I still have no idea...

Thanks

Code: Select all

    \documentclass[final,twoside,openright,showtrims,10pt]{memoir} %
    % XeTeX stuff
    \usepackage{xltxtra,fontspec,xunicode}
		\setmainfont{Bookman Old Style}
		\font\bookmanTenItalic="Bookman Old Style Italic" at 10pt
		\font\bookmanTwelveItalic="Bookman Old Style Italic" at 12pt
		\font\bookmanElevenFourteen="Bookman Old Style Italic" at 14pt
    \begin{document}

		\bookmanTenItalic The problem is with the spacing between the $\epsilon$ and the 's' in 'm$\epsilon$s' \par		
		\bookmanTwelveItalic The problem is with the spacing between the $\epsilon$ and the 's' in 'm$\epsilon$s' \par
		\bookmanElevenFourteen The problem is with the spacing between the $\epsilon$ and the 's' in 'm$\epsilon$s' \par
    \end{document}

[frabjous]

If your editor is a unicode-compatible editor, you can just cut and paste from your "Character Map" or similar program into the editor:

mεs

And that should work. That's kind of the whole point of adding the xunicode package. (There may be an easier way than using the character map depending on your editor and OS config.)

Some other thoughts, however.

• Use ` not ' for a left quotation mark (or else use the UNICODE ` and ’).
• If you're using this epsilon as a mathematical relation sign, then you'd be better with something like $\mathrm{m} \mathrel{\epsilon} \mathrm{s}$--requires amsmath package. (Though currently you can't really use arbitrary fonts in math mode with XeLaTeX, as far as I know.)

There are different ways of controlling the spacing. Probably what is best depends on what effect you're trying to achieve and why.

[Julian_S_Moore]

Thanks frabjours

I'm using TeXnicCenter and it doesn't seem to be unicode compatible (I put epsilon in a Word document and saved as text UTF-8 compatible... the file wouldn't even open in TeXnicCenter).

I'm not using the epsilon in maths, the word "mes" is a transliteration of a Sumerian word, but written with a standard "e" it looks like the plural of "me" - I just want it to be a distinct word... without awkward spacing etc. etc. etc.

(Thanks for tip about the left quote mark, but I just wanted to produce *a* MWE - and anything except the "mes" is really unimportant).

Any idea how I proceed?

[frabjous]

What version of TeXnicCenter? I think the new version (2.0) is unicode-compliant. I've never tried it though (I don't use windows), so I'm not the best person to ask. Post in the TXC forum here if you run into trouble.

Or you can try TeXworks, which is what I use on linux (but is also available for Windows and Mac).

[frabjous]

Saw your other post.

If you don't want to upgrade your editor, I think you could use:

m\char"03B5 s

I think \char"03B5 should insert the appropriate UNICODE symbol.

[Julian_S_Moore]

Calloo! Callay!

Believe it or not I had tried \char"03B5 (unsuccessfully, before the 1st post), but before I complained that that it didn't work and asked why I thought, Why not try it again...?

Of course this time it worked. Your intervention has obviously blessed my code!

Thanks!