math font

[allefeld]

I don't know if you're aware, but there is a project for a mathematical font based on Fira Sans / Fira GO, Fira Math.

I think Fira Sans / GO is a great font, and extending it for math is a good idea. The majority of professional users of mathematics uses (La) TeX. But with XeTeX & LuaTeX, the community is moving more and more into the direction of using OpenType fonts, and for maths that means an OpenType font with explicit math support (MATH table). Such fonts can be used with XeTeX & LuaTeX but also Microsoft Word (Cambria Math by default) and I believe Libre Office. But there are not many OpenType math fonts, even fewer that are professionally made, and only one sans serif font: Fira Math.

Unfortunately I'm not convinced about the quality of Fira Math. The additional glyphs look okay, but I think the spacing is sometimes too tight and sometimes too wide. But I'm not a typographer. Could you maybe have a look and tell me what you think? Does Fira Math do justice to Fira?

If you agree with me that it could be better, would you consider working on that? Maybe as your own project, maybe advising the author of Fira Math, maybe cooperating with him? For the reasons outlined above, I think you would make a lot of people very happy. I'm just guessing here, but I think it is possible you could get funding from the American Mathematical Society and/or the TeX User's Group, at least they have supported font development before. Individual users might support the project through donations.

If that's not an option for you, maybe you could give your opinion which of the existing OpenType math fonts would make a decent companion to body text set in Fira Sans / Fira GO? This can serve as a sample sheet.

Thank you!