# Looking for the font which has light condensed Greek letters (matching lmttlc)

I am using the mathastext package typsetting some historic literatures. I've chosen the Latin Modern Typewriter Light Condensed font for default font just on the consideration of saving paper. Here is the MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Latin Modern  Mono Light Cond}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[basic]{mathastext}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut,
placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero,
nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec vehicula augue eu neque.
\begin{gather*}
1+\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{9}+\cdots =\frac{\pi}{6}\\
\frac{\ln x}{\ln\alpha}=\log_{\alpha}x\\
f(x)=\frac{1}{\sigma\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp\left(-\frac{(x-\mu)^2}{2\sigma^2}\right)
\end{gather*}
\end{document}


You can see the Greek letters are too big. I compiled the code file via XeLaTeX BTW.

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Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look on our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. I added your picture in, so the problem can be seen immediately. – mafp Jun 24 '13 at 10:45
Perhaps \usepackage[basic,eulergreek]{mathastext} \MTEulerScale{0.9} but Greek letters appear a bit too bold. – jfbu Jun 24 '13 at 14:03
I also tried \usepackage[style=French,scale=0.88]{libgreek}\usepackage[basic]{mathastext} but again the glyphs appear too bold. – jfbu Jun 24 '13 at 14:12

Using mathspec to select the Greek glyphs from an OpenType font, here is with DejaVu Serif Condensed:

vs

(on the right I added the result of using mathastext without the basic option; in my opinion this is better: look at the = sign and at the (small) parentheses)

I did not experiment much more as I used the CharacterViewer on my Mac to try to identify candidate fonts, but the fonts from the TexLive 2013 repertory are not known to the system, so I only had the system fonts and a few I installed. Also note that for some reason I must specify the font filename when using xelatex with TexLive installed OpenType fonts.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}

\setmainfont[ExternalLocation]{lmmonoltcond10-regular}
% je ne peux pas faire ici sur TL2010:
% \setmainfont{Latin Modern Mono Light Cond}
% et ça ne marche pas non plus sur le Mac avec TL2013.

\usepackage{mathspec}
%\setmathsfont(Greek)[Lowercase=Regular,Scale=0.92]{FreeMono}
%\setmathsfont(Greek)[Lowercase=Regular,Scale=0.92]{Courier New}
%\setmathsfont(Greek)[Lowercase=Regular,Scale=0.76]{DejaVu Sans ExtraLight}
\setmathsfont(Greek)[Lowercase=Regular,Scale=0.76]{DejaVu Serif Condensed}

% previous tries
% \usepackage[style=French,scale=0.88]{libgreek}
% \usepackage[basic,eulergreek]{mathastext}
% \MTEulerScale{0.9}

\usepackage[basic]{mathastext}
%\MTgreekfont{cmr}\Mathastext
%\MTgreekfont{cmtt}\Mathastext
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut,
placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris.
Nam arcu libero,
nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec vehicula augue
eu neque.
\begin{gather*}
1+\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{9}+\cdots =\frac{\pi}{6}\\
\frac{\ln x}{\ln\alpha}=\log_{\alpha}x\\
f(x)=\frac{1}{\sigma\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp\left(-\frac{(x-\mu)^2}{2\sigma^2}\right)
\end{gather*}

$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz$
$αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρςστυφχψω$

\end{document}

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Nice attempt. At least it shows why such a setup should be avoided. ;-) – egreg Jun 24 '13 at 16:19
@egreg Gusti e colori non si discutono ;-) – jfbu Jun 24 '13 at 16:24
@egreg Thanks and please don't scare away my only disciple! – jfbu Jun 24 '13 at 16:27
@jfbu You are the author of mathastext, right? It's a privilege to meet you. The package is very helpful to me. In the MWE above I ommited the package mnsymbol, which can provide more handsome symbols such like binary operations and relations. And your solution is good for me. Thank you. Maybe in the future I would have some other questions on using mathastext package, hope to see you that time again. – Jewmy Jun 25 '13 at 0:24
@jfbu I find that Open Sans Condensed Light maybe a nicer choice. You can try it by your free time. – Jewmy Jun 25 '13 at 0:39

I don't have the ability to recreate your exact situation, because I don't have that condensed font available to me. However, if no font-based solution presents itself in another answer, this could be an alternate (if less preferred) method.

In essence, I use the scalerel package to redefine greek letters to a condensed version by sqeezing them laterally (in this case to a 70% original width setting). I do it with the \condense macro which redefines its (macro) argument in condensed form.

Below, I show the unchanged, then the changed charcters; then, the result. Obviously, if you adopted this approach, you would put the \condense{} invocations in the preamble.

\documentclass{article}
%\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}
%\setmainfont{Latin Modern  Mono Light Cond}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[basic]{mathastext}
\usepackage{scalerel}
\makeatletter
% Following 3 lines thanks to Prof. Enrico Gregorio, from:
% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/42318/
%   removing-a-backslash-from-a-character-sequence
\begingroup\lccode\|=\\
\lowercase{\endgroup\def\removebs#1{\if#1|\else#1\fi}}
\newcommand{\@macro@name}[1]{\expandafter\removebs\string#1}
\newcommand*\condense[1]{%
\expandafter\let\csname sv\@macro@name{#1}\endcsname#1%
\def#1{\hstretch{.7}{\csname sv\@macro@name{#1}\endcsname}}%
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

ORIGINAL: $$\alpha\mu\sigma\pi$$

\condense{\alpha}\condense{\mu}\condense{\sigma}\condense{\pi}
REVISED: $$\alpha\mu\sigma\pi$$

$$1+\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{9}+\cdots =\frac{\pi}{6}\\$$
$$\frac{\ln x}{\ln\alpha}=\log_{\alpha}x\\$$
$$f(x)=\frac{1}{\sigma\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp\left(-\frac{(x-\mu)^2}{2\sigma^2}\right)$$

\end{document}


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Normally, upon getting negative votes, I would retract the answer. In this case, however, I will leave it, because (contrary to the downvoter(s)) I think that, for someone who can't find a font-based solution to such a problem, this "workaround" provides an alternative in a pinch. – Steven B. Segletes Jun 24 '13 at 11:33
Compressing a font by scaling it like that, is the most horrible typographic crime I’ve seen in this website. No solution is better than a horrible one. – Khaled Hosny Jun 24 '13 at 14:02
@KhaledHosny I appreciate your opinion and will take it under advisement. I would point out though, that doing things like slanting a font are considered perfectly valid reconstructions. However, I also realize that that a horizontal compression changes the stroke modulation, which is what, perhaps, offends your sensibilities. – Steven B. Segletes Jun 24 '13 at 14:09
@KhaledHosny someone should provide here a picture of Khaled being squeezed horizontally to 70% ... ;-) – jfbu Jun 24 '13 at 16:31
I was trying to be funny of course, true that I down voted the answer because I think it is a bad advice in general, but I’m not that offended, really :) – Khaled Hosny Jun 24 '13 at 17:16