\boldsymbol with mathptmx package doesn't seem to work.

[Brooks Moses]

I'm having an odd little problem with boldface Times math using the
mathptmx package. Consider the following little document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathptmx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
Math: $u \boldsymbol{u} \textit{\textbf{u}}$.
\end{document}

When I process this on my system, the first two "u" letters are the
same; only the third is boldfaced. However, if I replace
\usepackage{mathptmx} with \usepackage{mathpazo}, or simply leave off
the font-change package entirely, all but the first "u" are boldface, as
expected.

I tried using \usepackage{bm} after \usepackage{amsmath}, as per a
suggestion in the recent thread on a similar subject, and what it does
(in the mathptmx case) is do a "fake" boldface on the middle "u" by
overprinting, which really isn't an acceptable substitute when the
correct font exists.

Is this perhaps a result of an outdated mathptmx package (the log file
reports "mathptmx 2002/09/08 PSNFSS-v9.0a Times w/ Math, improved (SPQR,
WaS)"), or is this due to something else?

Thanks,
- Brooks

--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

[Walter Schmidt]

Brooks Moses schrieb:

> I'm having an odd little problem with boldface Times math using the
> mathptmx package.

mathptmx does not support bold math fonts, because there are
no such fonts available for free. In particular, there are no
bold Greek letters.

\mathbf works only, because its letters come from the bold Times
_text_ font, and \mathbf is a Latin-only alphabet.

> However, if I replace
> \usepackage{mathptmx} with \usepackage{mathpazo}, or simply leave off
> the font-change package entirely, all but the first "u" are boldface, as
> expected.

Bold Palatino and Computer Modern math fonts, including both Latin
and Greek, _do_ exist and are available for free.

> I tried using \usepackage{bm} after \usepackage{amsmath}, as per a
> suggestion in the recent thread on a similar subject, and what it does
> (in the mathptmx case) is do a "fake" boldface on the middle "u" by
> overprinting, which really isn't an acceptable substitute when the
> correct font exists.

No, the correct font does _not_ exist in a usual (free) TeX system.
You may want to get yourself a set of commercial Times-compatible
math fonts, which support boldface style, too; see
<http://www.pctex.com/additional.html#mathtime>.

> Is this perhaps a result of an outdated mathptmx package (the log file
> reports "mathptmx 2002/09/08 PSNFSS-v9.0a Times w/ Math, improved (SPQR,
> WaS)"), or is this due to something else?

As I said, there are no bold Times math fonts available for free,
so mathptmx is the best that can be provided in the framwwork of a
free TeX distribution.

Walter
(maintainer of PSNFSS)

[Brooks Moses]

Walter Schmidt wrote:
> Brooks Moses schrieb:
> > I'm having an odd little problem with boldface Times math using the
> > mathptmx package.
>
> mathptmx does not support bold math fonts, because there are
> no such fonts available for free. In particular, there are no
> bold Greek letters.
>
> \mathbf works only, because its letters come from the bold Times
> _text_ font, and \mathbf is a Latin-only alphabet.

Ah, ok -- I'd forgotten that the Greek and Latin math letters have to
come from the same alphabet. (And I presume it's considered better form
to not support bold math at all, rather than supporting it in a partial
way such that only a few of the math characters are actually boldface in
the "bold math" font.)

Thanks for the quick reply!

As it happens, in this particular case I'm only using boldface math for
Latin-letter variables, so there's a workaround. But if I do end up
needing them, the suggestion to buy a copy of mathtime is appreciated.