# WYSIWYG mathematical symbols in LyX

Dear all,

(Kees read on. There's sone new info for you at the bottom...)

one of the things that LyX 1.2 can do for you is display most of the
mathematical symbols you'll ever use in a WYSIWYG way. However, you'll need
to first perform a little magic with your font path.

On Friday 26 April 2002 12:22 pm, C. van Wijk wrote:
> > > > The strange thing is when I try to insert an epsilon from within the
> > > > math panel there is a greek epsilon available. So why isn't it
> > > > displayed in the formula as well?
> > >
> > > This is a \varepsilon.
> > >
> > > However, \epsilon should be displayed as well. Do the other AMS symbols
> > > show properly?

To display \epsilon and any of the AMS symbols like \sqcup and
\blacktriangledown you'll need to tell the font server where to find these
fonts.

Look in /usr/local/share/lyx, or wherever you have installed the lyx support
stuff. You'll find a directory xfonts containing symbolic links to a number
of fonts used by LyX (if you have them installed). If you have them, then you
should check whether this directory is in your font path. Type
xset -q
at the console. Here I get
[snip]

Font Path:
/usr/local/share/lyx/xfonts,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/100dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fo
nts/100dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fo
X11/fonts/user/100dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/user/misc/,/usr/dt/config/xfonts/C/,

Note the all important /usr/local/share/lyx/xfonts.

xset +fp PATH_TO_YOUR_LYX_FONTS_DIR

Unfortunately, I understand that this magic will not work if you are running
LyX remotely. Sorry!

On Friday 26 April 2002 12:22 pm, C. van Wijk wrote:
> Isn't it possible for lyx to do a 'xset +fp PATH_TO_YOUR_LYX_FONTS_DIR'
> when starting?

Well, you only need to do this once per xsession. Here, I have added the
following to my .xsession file:

#
# Some fonts for LyX
#
lyxmathfontsdir=/usr/local/share/lyx/xfonts

if [ -d $lyxmathfontsdir ]; then xset q | grep$lyxmathfontsdir
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then # directory is not already in the font path # so add it: xset +fp$lyxmathfontsdir; xset fp rehash
fi
fi

That should do the trick for you too

Angus