General ⇒ Package for lower case math mode calligraphic characters

[Danielc]

Good day...

I'm hoping that there is a package allowing one to have lower case calligraphic characters...
\mathcal{K} only works for capitol...

I use LaTeX mostly for my physics lab reports...and it's nice to have as many variations of common letter variables as possible...

tia,
dpc

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi dpc,

have a look at the LaTeX Symbol list table 196 Math Alphabets.

Stefan

[Danielc]

thanks Stefan...

Maybe I used the wrong term, what I'd like is cursive letters...(not calligraphic?)

I don't see that as an option on page 65, table 196....so I'm hoping there's a package..

seems kinda weird that there wouldn't be support for such a common math symbol..

any thoughts...?
tia,

dpc

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi dpc,

but what about \mathpzc of table 196? It looks similar to \mathcal and supports lowercase letters.

Stefan

[Danielc]

Hi again...
\mathpzc{} is something...better than just ams math font for lower case L..

I really want a cursive font like \usepackage[default]{frcursive}
but only for select characters...

there has to be something...it's so common to write a length variable as a cursive l...
or cursive I for moment of inertia...in fact my lab manual, which I'm sure was written using LaTeX has cursive letters, some of them suck, however the l is pretty good..!

thanks
dpc

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi dpc,

have a look at the LaTeX Font Catalogue. You can select single symbols or define a macro for it like:

Code: Select all

\newenvironment{frcseries}{\fontfamily{frc}\selectfont}{}
\newcommand{\textfrc}[1]{{\frcseries#1}}
...
This \textfrc{l} is cursive.

Stefan

[Danielc]

Yeah !!

That's exactly what I want....

The newenviroment command is something I haven't seen before...any suggested reading?

maybe there should l be a sticky for this topic, since I'm sure other people (especially engineering and physics people)
would like to use cursive letters in their analysis...

thanks again Stefan,

daniel

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Daniel,

concerning \newenvironment look here or into a good LaTeX book like the LaTeX Companion. My example above is not really typical.
If you look into the source code of frcursive.sty you will see something similar. What I've written above is similar to lines in frcursive.sty but I miss this command there so I made that above.

Yes why not a sticky topic when some more material is collected. But then it should be more and we may consider it. I will keep this topic in mind!

Stefan

[Danielc]

Hello again...

So I tried the suggested code in the previous post to allow cursive letter fonts on an on-call basis...the code works great in text mode, however in math mode it defaults back to italics...

I'm going to read up on 'new environment' and see if there's an easy fix...

dpc

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Daniel,

if you use amsmath there's an easy fix with \text:

Code: Select all

\newcommand{\mathfrc}[1]{\text{\textfrc{#1}}}

Using \mathfrc in mathmode even in subscripts those calligraphic latters have the appropriate smaller size.

Stefan