## Writing math with XeLaTeX

The following is a short explanation for those who wish to get the basics to write math with XeLaTeX :

• First, you will notice, if you look at the xelatex directory, that there is a mathspec folder. If you don’t know where is your xelatex folder, then look here if you have installed TeXlive with the installation script :

/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/doc/xelatex/mathespec/

Or look here if you have installed TeXlive with your package manager :

/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/xelatex/mathspec/

• But a better choice might be to use unicode-math, though it is still in its beta stage. Documentation about this package is located in the following directory in case you have installed TeXlive with the installation script install-tl :

/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/doc/latex/unicode-math

Or here if you have installed TeXlive with your package manager :

/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/latex/unicode-math

• Let us assume you wish to use the unicode-math package. Then, you will have to load it :

\usepackage{unicode-math}

And to define the font for math :

\setmathfont{Asana Math}

Consequently, here is an example of minimal preamble to write math and compile with XeLaTeX :

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}
\setmathfont{Asana Math}

Where article is a class to make a test, unicode-math the package to input math with XeLaTeX, amsmath the usual package for math and xltxtra the usual package for XeLaTeX which load some useful modules (see the xltxtra for a list of these modules).
Also, \setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella} is the definition of the font for your text, and \setmathfont{Asana Math} the definition of the fonts for math as I said previously.

Here is a screenshot of an example of output (a pdf file) we can get with XeLaTeX :