# Mathtime and (unwanted) bold version of \mathcal

I have mathtime (not the new fancy MTPro2, but rather, the version from the early 1990's). I learned this summer how to use \DeclareMathVersion so that I could have some chapters in my document that load their fonts separately. (This helps us to overcome the 16 font maximum.) The original question was posted online here: LaTeX: Using attributes of one mathversion with another mathversion

Question: When I use \DeclareMathVersion to make "normal2", I find that the \mathcal font shows up in bold, and I do not want it to be bold. How can I get \mathcal to show up without being bold? Here is my MWE. Thank you (in advance) for your help.

\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in,vmargin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{mathtime}

\DeclareMathVersion{normal2}
\makeatletter
\SetSymbolFont{operators}   {normal2}{\operator@encoding}{ptm}{m}{n}
\SetSymbolFont{letters}     {normal2}{MY1}{mtt}{m}{it}
\SetSymbolFont{symbols}     {normal2}{MY2}{mtt}{m}{n}
\SetSymbolFont{largesymbols}{normal2}{MY3}{mtt}{m}{n}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
$(a=b)$  $\mathcal{ABC}$  % \mathcal is not bold -- good!

\mathversion{normal2}
$(a=b)$  $\mathcal{ABC}$  % \mathcal is bold, why?
% I just want the regular (not bold) \mathcal here!
\end{document}

• I don't have the fonts any more, but are you sure it's bold rather than just darker than the default family? if you add \showoutput what log do you get for the two ABC, the standard one will be .....\OMS/cmsy/m/n/12 C what does the mathtime one say? Nov 24 '19 at 19:46
• I only asked for one line:-) Nov 24 '19 at 19:52
• so .\OMS/cmsy/b/n/12 A  so you are getting bold cm mathcal not mathtime at all Nov 24 '19 at 19:54
• looks like the good ones are: .....\OMS/cmsy/m/n/12 A .....\OMS/cmsy/m/n/12 B .....\kern0.36494 .....\OMS/cmsy/m/n/12 C and the undesirable ones are: .....\OMS/cmsy/b/n/12 A .....\OMS/cmsy/b/n/12 B .....\kern0.27011 .....\OMS/cmsy/b/n/12 C
– mdw
Nov 24 '19 at 19:55
• sure that's what I put in the first comment:-) Nov 24 '19 at 20:03

The comments in mathtime.sty go in at great length about \mathcal basically Frank and I saying It's not our fault

basically you are seeing the effect of

\ifx\mathcal c
\let\mathcal\relax
\DeclareMathAlphabet\mathcal{OMS}        {cmsy}{b}{n}
\SetMathAlphabet    \mathcal{normal}{OMS}{cmsy}{m}{n}


that means you get bold cm mathcal in every version except normal.

Perhaps you want to add after loading mathtime

  \SetMathAlphabet    \mathcal{normal2}{OMS}{cmsy}{m}{n}

• This works perfectly! Thank you very much @David Carlisle!! :)
– mdw
Nov 24 '19 at 20:05
• Wow, I am talking to a famous guy! I did not notice the copyright line in mathtime.sty which says "Copyright 1996 1997 Frank Mittelbach and David Carlisle."!
– mdw
Nov 24 '19 at 20:08
• One more question while I am bugging you: I see 5 "if" conditions (including the one that you mentioned) in my mathtime.sty. In anticipation of other unintended consequences from \DeclareMathVersion, should I add any other lines to "normal2"? This was a subtle difference that I found (regular versus bold), and I would be hesitant to miss other differences, when I am using \DeclareMathVersion. Any other similar advice for me? (I am sincerely thankful for your help!)
– mdw
Nov 24 '19 at 20:12
• @mdw they are implementing the other options for mathcal as explained in the comments. No option is really that great as better would be a designed caligraphic to go with mathtime but that wasn't available. But adding that line over-writes whatever the package does so you win there in any case. Nov 24 '19 at 20:14
• (you might be better these days using stix, or using it for mathcal that is a far more complete times-like math font collelection (and free) Nov 24 '19 at 20:15