[texhax] Can anyone tell me what these characters are?

[Micha Hofri]

Thanks to all who offered help.
It is still a puzzle.  Initially this list of symbols was part of the
frontmatter of a book.  To narrow the search down I ran it alone, but with
the same (rococo) preamble.  The entire list is encapsulated between a
pair of \begin{align*} and \end{align*}.  The complaint below---and I am
now told I should view it as a benign report---pops up as soon as the line
\begin{align*} is encountered, even if the entire list is deleted, and
nothing at all is printed.
So it is not about a mathematical symbol/glyph!?

I asked since I assume there should be some malformed character in the
two-page list, and I could not find it.  Now we know: not about a symbol
-- but then, what is it?

Wishing all (in the Northern hemisphere) a happy Spring,

--Micha Hofri



At 11:22 on 03/19/10 Pierre MacKay sent:

: On 03/19/2010 05:09 AM, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
: > Am Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:44:12 -0400 (EDT) schrieb Micha Hofri:
: > 
: >    
: > > The following is from a log file which latex created when compiling a
: > > list of mathematical symbols:
: > > 
: > > LaTeX Font Info:    Font shape `OMS/ptm/m/n' in size<10>  not available
: > > (Font)              Font shape `OMS/cmsy/m/n' tried instead on input line
: > > 135.
: > > LaTeX Font Info:    Font shape `OT1/ptm/bx/n' in size<5>  not available
: > > (Font)              Font shape `OT1/ptm/b/n' tried instead on input line
: > > 135.
: > > LaTeX Font Info:    Try loading font information for TS1+ptm on input line
: > > 135.
: > > 
: > > 
: > >      
: The first instance appears to be an attempt to call out a symbol from a font
: that does not have the special repertory of math symbols available in TeX.
: That is quite normal.  There are lots of symbols that don't occur in
: commercial fonts like Times.
: 
: The second instance has to do with the aesthetics of reducing a character to a
: too-small size.  I suspect you wouldn't want cmbx at 5 point even if you could
: get it.  The thickening of the penstrokes in cmbx reaches a point that might
: easily reduce a character to a blob if there were any degree of ink flow at
: the time of printing.  DEK quite deliberately left cmbx out of the available
: font shapes available for a point-size that small.
: 
: It doesn't sound as if the callout has been triggered by a general reduction
: of some real text, but rather by an attempt to produce a simple list of glyphs
: at various sizes.  I suggest you look at the Adobe Standard character set for
: the Times font and you will probably notice that some of the symbols you have
: asked for just aren't there.  As for cmbx at 5pt, best to leave it out
: altogether.
: 
: The font selection and replacement mechanism looks to be working
: perfectly---doing just what you would need done..
: 
: (Contrast that with what happens to PDFs in certain environments, where
: interword spaces are substituted for f-ligatures, small-caps, and everything
: else from the Adobe Expert Character set.  That is, Adobe won't even recognize
: its own character set.)
: 
: Pierre MacKay
: www.angiolello.net
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