12.1 The world of (Latin) math alphabets

It is easily possible to add additional new math alphabets for use in formulas. While this can be done using arbitrary command names, by convention (a calligraphic alphabet), (a script alphabet), (a fraktur alphabet), and (a double-stroke also known as blackboard bold alphabet) are normally used as command names. Out of the box only is available; for the others you have to add a suitable package (e.g., mathalpha) in the preamble or make a declaration manually using .

By loading the amsfonts (or the amssymb) package, both the Euler Fraktur alphabet by Hermann Zapf () and a blackboard bold alphabet3 () become available.

12.1.1 mathalpha — Simplified setup for math alphabets

So far we have seen small packages for setting up additional math alphabets as well as the manual method through . In his mathalpha package, Michael Sharpe offers a much more convenient interface to this that allows you to set up , , , and in one go by supplying suitable key/value pairs as package options. To give a practical example we assign different font families to the math alphabets by using the keys cal, scr, bb, and frak and as values the chosen fonts, e.g., zapfc stands for Hermann Zapf’s Chancery italic script. Other font values are discussed below.