# Functional difference between newtx, Times, Termes, STIX, XITS; text and math

Suppose that I want to write a document with Times font and mathematics. I know that packages times, txfonts, mathptm and mathptmx have been essentially superseded by the newtx package which offers more features and better quality (spacing etc.). But there is a relatively new package called tgtermes, so should I

\usepackage{newtxtext, newtxmath}


or

\usepackage{tgtermes, newtxmath}


?

I also know that when compiling with XeLaTeX, I can do this:

\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmainfont{XITS}
\setmathfont{XITS Math}


Or:

\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Termes}
\setmathfont{TeX Gyre Termes Math}


Or:

\setmainfont{STIX}
\setmathfont{STIX Math}


But I can just as well \setmainfont{Times New Roman} on Windows.

So I would like to know:

• What is the difference between newtxtext and tgtermes? (Equivalently newpxtext and tgpagella.) What features are there that are unique to one or the other?
• What is the difference between Times New Roman, STIX, XITS and TeX Gyre Termes? What features are unique to one or the other? What difference will this choice make in my document?
• What is the difference between STIX Math, XITS Math and TeX Gyre Termes Math? (Apart from differently designed symbols.) What features are unique to one or the other?
• Well, newtx{text|math} are only for pdflatex, while XITS Math and TeX Gyre Termes Math require {Lua|Xe}LaTeX. So they're not really comparable. Oct 27, 2013 at 22:42
• @egreg I know that. What I'm interested in is "what can I do with one that I cannot do with the other"? Not technical differences but functional ones. Oct 28, 2013 at 8:17
• the stix fonts aren't really tuned for good-looking text; that wasn't in the original spec. this will be remedied, but it hasn't happened yet. Nov 17, 2013 at 14:44
• @barbarabeeton Why did STIX and XITS developers decide to add text fonts? I can understand the need for math fonts but who on Earth doesn't have a Times clone yet? Nov 17, 2013 at 15:03
• @marczellm -- the upright letters are needed for math, as is most punctuation. it was felt that the full ascii character complement was essential. and even if everyone has a times clone, they're not all alike; one of the "givens" with tex is that the same input should yield the same output, and that won't be true if different fonts are used for alphabets. also, the stix fonts were meant to be usable for engines other than tex, in particular for use on the web, so completeness was important. Nov 17, 2013 at 16:33

Here is one reason one (at least I) would try to avoid TeX Gyre Termes Math and the OpenType version of STIX for now:

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{TeX Gyre Termes Math}

\begin{document}
$x(t)=\int_{-B}^B X(f)e^{j2\pi ft} df$
\end{document}


• Termes Math:

\setmathfont{TeX Gyre Termes Math}


Integral sign too small, superscript and parentheses spacing weird.

• STIX Math 1.1.1-word (OpenType version), it seems like it's unfinished:

\setmathfont{STIX Math}


• STIX Math 1.1.0-latex (Type 1 version) not bad:

\usepackage{stix}


• XITS Math is a fork of STIX:

\setmathfont{XITS Math}


• newtx:

\usepackage{newtxmath}


I don't like this latter integral sign but you can pass the cmintegrals option to newtxmath instead.

• FWIW, XIST fonts work correctly with ConTeXt. Nov 17, 2013 at 0:05
• @Aditya XITS fonts are a fork of the original STIX fonts, and they had full OpenType math way before STIX was completed. I will add a XITS screenshot right away. Nov 17, 2013 at 11:26