# Libertinus Math: (too) small math symbols?

I am using LuaLaTeX and the unicode-math package with Libertinus Math as main font (it's a good match for Minion Pro).

This is probably intended to be so, but I feel some symbols, e.g., the tensor product, are exceedingly small, and maybe not exactly centered.

Is there a way to get them bigger? And maybe a little higher up?

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{Libertinus Math}
\begin{document}
$A\otimes B$ and $A\oplus B$.
\end{document}


• Have you try, for example \bigotimes? You can see also this link: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/154672/…. – Sebastiano Mar 30 '18 at 21:17
• \bigotimes is used in display math, I am thinking about inline math here. Even in display, sometimes you need stuff like $\bigotimes_i A_i\otimes B_i$. – vap Mar 30 '18 at 21:19
• – Henri Menke Mar 30 '18 at 21:29

You load those two symbols with a different Scale.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{Libertinus Math}
\begin{document}

$A\otimes B$ and $A\oplus B$.

\setmathfont[range={⊕,⊗},Scale=1.2]{Libertinus Math}
%         or range={\oplus,\otimes}
%         or range={"2295,"2297}
$A\otimes B$ and $A\oplus B$.

\end{document}


• +1. A nice side-effect of this scaling (with a factor 1.2) is that the centering of the symbols relative to the math axis is improved as well. As the OP noted (and as can be confirmed), Libertinus Math places the \otimes and \oplus symbols slightly too low relative to the math axis. Scaling these two symbols just happens to take care of the vertical-centering issue as well. :-) – Mico Mar 30 '18 at 21:33
• Also I upvote Henri and egreg. – Sebastiano Mar 30 '18 at 21:34
• Great! May I ask why do you insert a backtick prior to the symbols? E.g., ⊕ instead of simply ⊕? – vap Mar 30 '18 at 21:57
• @vap To get the number of the character slot (try putting $\number⊕$ in your document). That is equivalent to putting in the numbers explicitly ("2295). Maybe it works without, I haven't tried. – Henri Menke Mar 30 '18 at 23:59
• @Timm You can scale all binary operator (such as +, -, \otimes, etc.) using \setmathfont[range={\mathbin},Scale=1.2]{Libertinus Math} but that is most likely not what you should do. – Henri Menke Apr 22 '18 at 22:38

I agree that those symbols are ugly.

You can borrow glyphs from other math fonts. Here's XITS Math (but scaled down a bit):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmainfont{Libertinus Serif}
\setmathfont{Libertinus Math}
\setmathfont{XITS Math}[
range={\oplus,\otimes},
Scale=0.8,
]
\setmathfont{Libertinus Math}[range=] % restore the proper font dimens

\begin{document}

$A\otimes B$ and $A\oplus B$.

\end{document}


It is customary to have the symbols a bit below the baseline (compare with the standard Computer Modern fonts) so their geometric center is on the formula axis.

• But my new symbol that I created with ntikz is ugly?:-( Papeeria does not recognize \usepackage{unicode-math} \setmathfont{Libertinus Math}. Hence I have used only CM. – Sebastiano Mar 30 '18 at 21:36
• @Sebastiano The problem is that a symbol created with TikZ will not survive “copy-paste” from the PDF, so this is a “last resort” method. – egreg Mar 30 '18 at 21:39
• I'm not very good at understanding English. I did not understand what it means: "copy-paste" from the PDF. I tried and thought that my solution could be an alternative. – Sebastiano Mar 30 '18 at 21:43
• With this approach, the horizontal bars in + and \oplus aren't at the same vertical height, viz., the math axis. (Of course, that's a problem with the Libertinus Math font as well; the glyph substitution doesn't change this.) FWIW, the horizontal bars of \oplus is placed on the math axis if Computer/Latin Mondern Math is in use. Is this just a CM/LM relic, or is it something worth preserving in other math fonts? – Mico Mar 30 '18 at 21:46
• @Mico The + in Libertinus Math is, like the default \oplus, not centered on the formula axis. – egreg Mar 30 '18 at 22:06

You can try also creating the symbol with tikz and to add your preamble.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand{\Bigotimes}[1]{
\begin{tikzpicture}[#1]
\draw [line width=0.1pt] (0.,0.) circle (1.cm);
\draw [line width=0.1pt] (0.,1.)-- (0.,-1.);
\draw [line width=0.1pt] (-1.,0.)-- (1.,0.);
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\begin{document}
We have $A\Bigotimes{scale=0.2}B$ where you can decrease or increase the symbol with the option scale=0.2.
\end{document}

• Why would you draw them, when the font provides them? This doesn't seem very efficient. – Henri Menke Mar 30 '18 at 21:35
• In case you did not like the default symbols. I thought about this. And they are not very good as you. :-( – Sebastiano Mar 30 '18 at 21:38