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latexpackagesymbols

Load a single symbol from a LaTeX package

When using the MnSymbol package, pdflatex gives two font warnings:

LaTeX Font Warning: Encoding 'OMS' has changed to 'U' for symbol font
(Font)              'symbols' in the math version 'normal' on input line 120.

LaTeX Font Info:    Overwriting symbol font 'symbols' in version 'normal'
(Font)                  OMS/cmsy/m/n --> U/MnSymbolF/m/n on input line 120.

It turns out that this is probably due to a clash with the AMSSymb package.

Since I need just a few symbols from the package: is there a way to load one symbol from a package, in stead of all?

Solution

  • Here's how I solved this:

    Download the perl script "makefakeMnSymbol" from the comprehensive latex symbol document source: http://mirror.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/source/makefakeMnSymbol

    Next, at command line do chmod +x makefakeMnSymbol to make it executable. Then, run

    ./makefakeMnSymbol `kpsewhich MnSymbol.sty` > fakeMnSymbol.sty

    Put fakeMnSymbol.sty in a texmf directory of choice (global or local), and run texhash

    If you now put

    \usepackage{fakeMnSymbol}

    in your preamble, you can now use any MnSymbol, like \powerset by prefixing it like \MNSpowerset

    Big thanks to Scott Pakin for this hack... and for his comprehensive symbol guide...

    This hack has problems with symbols in subscripts/superscripts. A work-around is to use look at the fakeMnSymbol.sty source to find which font the symbol you want was loaded from, along with its number. Here's an example from one of my preambles where I override the built-in \boxminus with an MnSymbol:

    \usepackage[]{fakeMnSymbol}
\DeclareSymbolFont{mnsymbolc}{U}{MnSymbolC}{m}{n}
\let\boxminus=\undefined
\DeclareMathSymbol{\boxminus}{2}{mnsymbolc}{112}