Strange equation spacing

Tech Note 154

Applicability

Issue

Sometimes it looks as though MathType has added extra space beneath the content of an equation (in this case, beneath the matrix within the brackets), and it's impossible to remove the space:

Or, you're typing along minding your own business, and everything's looking fine. Then you insert a space into your equation (such as a narrow space from MathType "Spaces and ellipses" palette), and all of a sudden, you have a lot of extra space beneath your equation:

Or, you're working on a handout for your Advanced Calculus class, and you notice the spacing between integral symbols is too wide when using the triple integral template:

Reason

This issue will occur when you use specific fonts in MathType for Windows. Two such fonts are Cambria Math and Latin Modern Math. Currently, these fonts are not usable in MathType Also, poor choices for Symbol style are the Tiger fonts, Symbol Tiger and Symbol Tiger Expert.

Explanation - Why does this happen?

The Cambria Math font was designed to be used with Word 2007 (and later), and the equation editor was introduced in that version of Word. Latin Modern Math and others were created for similar reasons. Because of the "font metrics" of these fonts, they do not work well with MathType

The Tiger fonts Symbol Tiger, Symbol Tiger Expert, and MT Extra Tiger were designed to be used for creating accessible documents for the blind and intended to be used with Tiger Software Suite. Their use elsewhere will have unpredictable results.

Solution

In MathType "Define Styles" dialogue (in MathType Style menu, choose Define), don't use Cambria Math font as the Primary font (Simple) or for the Text, Function, Variable, Vector-Matrix, or Number styles (Advanced). If you like the looks of the Cambria Math font, the Cambria font looks identical to Cambria Math, and you should be able to use it in MathType without any problem. Similarly, don't use either of the Tiger fonts for Symbol style (Advanced).

We hope this has been helpful. As always, please let us know if you have questions about this or if you have additional techniques that work. We'd love to hear from you.