% ASTROSYM.TXT : AstroSym (Version 2.20, Aug. 10, 2002) - file 1 of 8 % Peter Schmitt eMail: Peter.Schmitt@univie.ac.at % Institute of Mathematics, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% *************************************** *** AstroSym : astronomical symbols *** *************************************** * ( Version 2.2 --- August 10, 2002 ) * *************************************** ASTROSYM is a font containing astronomical symbols, including those used for the planets, four planetoids, the phases of the moon, the signs of the zodiac, and some additional symbols. The shapes of the symbols are taken from various sources. For some symbols more than one shape was found - for these symbols variants are included. Some shapes were reviewed by some historians and astronomers, and the `main shape' reflects their preference. The main style used for the symbols in AstroSym is calligraphic (strokes of varying breadth). An additional version uses a uniform stroke. It is supplied in two variants (thin and thick strokes). The size of the symbols, and the breadth of the stroke, can easily be changed in the driver file. A particular set of symbols for the phases of the moon (with a `face') is provided in one version only. The MetaFont code of AstroSym uses the plain base, but is completely independent of the cm-fonts. The AstroSym-font contains the following characters: calligraphic style: \char0 - \char10 : main shape - the planetary system \char11 - \char22 : main shape - the signs of the zodiac \char23 - \char32 and \char56 & \char57 and \char68 : variant shapes \char33 - \char38 and \char58 - \char65 : additional astronomical and astrological symbols \char69 : a variant shape \char48 - \char55 and \char66 & \char67 : the four main planetoids, Chiron and Lilith (and variants) \char10 and \char39 - \char47 : phases of the moon, and variants extra symbols: \char90 - \char95 : phases of the moon, with `face' uniform stroke, bold : \char100 - \char169 uniform stroke, thin : \char200 - \char255 , \char178 - \char191 This is a preliminary version. The shape of some symbols may need improvement. In particular, symmetric symbols are not (yet) all guarded against rounding effects. Remark: The original arrangement of symbols is retained for full compatibility. However, since the symbols should be used via macros, this seems not to be important and a more logical ordering may be used in a later version. *** version 2.20 *** new : characters 55-69,155-169 and 178-191,255 including: Lilith, Chiron (2 versions), three signs for Pluto (Pluto 4,5,6), and (there seems to be no agreement on this sign!) nine additional astronomical/astrological symbols Thus, version 2.20 contains 70 characters each in three styles, plus 6 characters (compared to 55 characters in three styles in 2.00, and 29 characters in three styles in 1.00). *** version 2.00 (preliminary) *** *** new : characters 29-54,129-154,229-254 and 91-95 including: symbols for phases of the moon six additional astronomical characters Terra 2, Mars 2, Pluto 3 Libra 3 (enlarged symbol) symbols for four planetoids ( Ceres, Juno, Pallas, Vesta and Ceres 2, Juno 2, Vesta 2 ) The package contains the following seven files: ASTROSYM.TXT this file ASTROSYM.MF the driver file ASTROSYM.MAC the macro file ASTROSYM.CMN character definitions - common to both styles ASTROSYM.CAL character definitions - calligraphic style only ASTROSYM.UNI character definitions - uniform stroke only ASTROSYM.XTR character definitions - extra symbols (one version only) ASTROSYM.TEX sample file with symbol list (for plain TeX) Sorry, so far no .fd file for LaTeX2e is provided ( I do not use LaTeX :-) Comments and suggestions are welcome. Since I am curious if the font is useful (and how it looks in practice) I would appreciate a short message (with reference) - or even some sample page(s) - if it is used in a publication. %%%%%%%%%%%%% %% License %% Since CTAN requires a license a statement: This is free software, LPPL (LaTeX Project Public License). %%%%%%%%%%%%% %% History %% version 1.00 May 1, 1992 : \char 0-28,100-128,200-228 version 1.90 March 17, 1997 (preliminary, never published) added : \char 29-47,90-95,129-147,229-247 corrected bugs : (1) font_size : cm# sharp dimension needed (pointed out by ** ) `cm' can cause checksum error (2) [10] Luna (calligraphic) : improved calculation to avoid potential arithmetic overflow (reported by Jochen Cammin) (3) [111] [211] Aries : wrong point (Br instead of br) in computation of b has caused a distorted shape version 2.00 February 14, 1999 added \char 48-54,148-154,248-254 corrected bugs : (1) [11] slight change to avoid `strange path' with certain resolutions (hopefully) (2) renamed ASTROSYM.COM to ASTROSYM.CMN ( extension .com has irritated some software, e.g., during downloading ) version 2.00 June 25, 2002 After adding various symbols (on special request) in 1997 and 1999 I always intended to make the new versions available on CTAN (after some cleaning up, or so). But, alas, this never happened :-( Therefore, it probably is best to publish them as they are, saving improvments for some update in the future. (3) renamed ASTROSYM.DOC to ASTROSYM.TXT ( to avoid confusion with Word documents :-) version 2.10 March 3, 1999 (never published) added \char 55-65,155-165,255,178-187 (I did not think of this extension when publishing version 2.00.) version 2.20 August 10, 2002 added \char 66-69,166-169,188-191 (1) \char38,138,238 (Quadrature) : bug fix (missing semi-colon) (2) \char156,157,178,179 (Pluto 4,5) : fitting signs to their box ( modified macro REND - this affects \char148,149,248,249 (Ceres,Ceres2) ) (3) the following characters produce errors for some low resolutions: \char16 (Virgo) : looks usable \char18 (Scorpio) : looks usable \char94 (moon face: last quarter - inverse) : missing ========================================================== Peter Schmitt Strudlhofgasse 4 Institut f\"ur Mathematik A-1090 Wien Universit\"at Wien Austria ---------------------------------------------------------- Peter.Schmitt@univie.ac.at ========================================================== %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%% end of ASTROSYM.TXT %%%