Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!netsys!ames!lll-lcc!langdon
From: langdon@lll-lcc.llnl.gov (Bruce Langdon)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: A plain.tex that uses native LaserWriter fonts?
Summary: Can't do full TeX math using only PS fonts.
	 If you want flexibility in printing size, try ArborText's dvips
Message-ID: <1910@lll-lcc.llnl.gov>
Date: 7 Sep 88 16:02:18 GMT
References: <819@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Labs, LCC, Livermore Ca
Lines: 17

In article <819@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>, rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) writes:
> At this site we can access native LaserWriter fonts from within TeX.
> Unfortunately we can't prepare entire TeX documents with the
> LaserWriter fonts.  The best we can do is to use them (e.g.,
> Times-Roman, Times-Italic, Helvetica) for text, and cmmi for math mode.
> 
> This has the disadvantage that .. we're confined to only a few
> choices of magnification for the equations.

The reason cmmi and other math stuff exists in TeX is that the math symbols
and other spare parts are used very differently than text characters are used
in text. I looked into substituting PS characters and found PS didn't have
all the needed marks. So it didn't matter that I probably would have found it
impractical to create appropriate tfm files.
I regularly substitute PS for text in TeX and LaTeX.
We don't seem to have trouble printing in arbitrary magnifications
with ArborText's dvips.