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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label numbersets</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Symbols for the number sets</h3>
<p/>Mathematicians commonly use special lettering for the real numbers and
other standard number sets. Traditionally these were typeset in bold.
Because, in the ordinary course of events, mathematicians do not have
access to bold chalk, they invented special symbols that are now
often used for the number sets; these symbols are known as
&ldquo;blackboard bold&rdquo; (or double-stroked fonts); in place of the heavier
strokes of a bold font, (some) strokes of the letters are doubled.
The minimum useful set is upper-case letters &lsquo;I&rsquo;, &lsquo;N&rsquo;, &lsquo;R&rsquo;, &lsquo;Q&rsquo; and
&lsquo;Z&rsquo;; some fonts offer a figure &lsquo;1&rsquo; (for a unit matrix &mdash; not a number
set at all).
<p/>A set of blackboard bold capitals is available in the AMS
<i>msbm</i> fonts (<i>msbm</i> is available at a range of
design sizes, with names such as <i>msbm10</i>).  The pair of font
families (the other is called <i>msam</i>) have a large number of
mathematical symbols to supplement those provided in the Knuth&rsquo;s
original TeX distribution, and are available in Type 1 format in
modern distributions.   Support files for using the fonts, both under
Plain TeX and LaTeX (packages <i>amssymb</i> and
<i>amsfonts</i>), are available.  The font shape is a rather
austere sans, which many people don&rsquo;t like (though it captures the
essence of quickly-chalked writing rather well).
<p/>The <i>bbold</i> family is set of blackboard bold fonts written in
Metafont.  This set offers blackboard bold forms of lower-case letters;
the font source directory also contains sources for a LaTeX package
that enables use of the fonts.  The fonts are not available in Type 1 format.
<p/>The <i>bbm</i> family claims to provide
&lsquo;blackboard&rsquo; versions of most of the <i>cm</i> fonts ... including
the bold and bold-extended series.  Again, the fonts are designed in
Metafont and are not available in Type 1 format.  LaTeX macro support
comes from a package by Torsten Hilbrich.
<p/>The <i>doublestroke</i> family comes in just roman
and sans shapes, at a single weight, and is available both as Metafont
sources and as Type 1; the font covers the uppercase latin letters,
lowercase &lsquo;h&rsquo; and &rsquo;k&rsquo;, and the digit &lsquo;1&rsquo;.
<p/>A document that shows the <i>bbm</i>, <i>bbold</i>,
<i>doublestroke</i> and <i>msbm</i> fonts, so that you can get
a feel for their appearance, is available (CTAN package
<i>blackboard</i>).
<p/>An alternative source of Type 1 fonts with blackboard bold characters
may be found in the steadily increasing set of complete families, both
commercial and free, that have been prepared for use with (La)TeX
(see 
&ldquo;<a href="FAQ-psfchoice.html">choice of outline fonts</a>&rdquo;).
Of the free sets, the <i>txfonts</i> and <i>pxfonts</i> families
both come with replicas of <i>msam</i> and <i>msbm</i>
(though, as noted elsewhere, there are other reasons not to use these
fonts).  The <i>mathpazo</i> family includes a &ldquo;mathematically
significant&rdquo; choice of blackboard bold characters, and the
<i>fourier</i> fonts contain blackboard bold upper-case letters,
the digit &lsquo;1&rsquo;, and lower-case &lsquo;k&rsquo;.
<p/>The &ldquo;lazy person&rsquo;s&rdquo; blackboard bold macros:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\newcommand{\R}{{\textsf{R}\hspace*{-0.9ex}%
  \rule{0.15ex}{1.5ex}\hspace*{0.9ex}}}
\newcommand{\N}{{\textsf{N}\hspace*{-1.0ex}%
  \rule{0.15ex}{1.3ex}\hspace*{1.0ex}}}
\newcommand{\Q}{{\textsf{Q}\hspace*{-1.1ex}%
  \rule{0.15ex}{1.5ex}\hspace*{1.1ex}}}
\newcommand{\C}{{\textsf{C}\hspace*{-0.9ex}%
  \rule{0.15ex}{1.3ex}\hspace*{0.9ex}}}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
are almost acceptable at normal size if the surrounding text is
<i>cmr10</i> (the position of the vertical bar can be affected by
the surrounding font).  However, they are not part of a proper maths font,
and do not work in sub- and superscripts.  As we&rsquo;ve seen, there are
plenty of alternatives: that mythical &ldquo;lazy&rdquo; person can inevitably
do better than the macros, or anything similar using capital &lsquo;I&rsquo;
(which looks even worse!).  Voluntary  (La)TeX effort has redefined
the meaning of laziness (in this respect!).
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>AMS support files (Plain)</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/plaintex.zip">fonts/amsfonts/plaintex</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/plaintex/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>AMS support files (LaTeX)</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/latex.zip">fonts/amsfonts/latex</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/latex/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>AMS symbol fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/sources/symbols.zip">fonts/amsfonts/sources/symbols</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/amsfonts/sources/symbols/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>AMS symbol fonts in Type 1 format</i></tt><dd>Browse <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archivefonts/amsfonts/ps-type1/">fonts/amsfonts/ps-type1/</a>
<dt><tt><i>bbm fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/cm/bbm.zip">fonts/cm/bbm</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/cm/bbm/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>bbm macros</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/bbm.zip">macros/latex/contrib/bbm</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/bbm/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>bbold fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/bbold.zip">fonts/bbold</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/bbold/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>blackboard evaluation set</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/info/symbols/blackboard.zip">info/symbols/blackboard</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/info/symbols/blackboard/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>doublestroke fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/doublestroke.zip">fonts/doublestroke</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/doublestroke/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>fourier fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/fourier-GUT.zip">fonts/fourier-GUT</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/fourier-GUT/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>mathpazo fonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/mathpazo.zip">fonts/mathpazo</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/mathpazo/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>pxfonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/pxfonts.zip">fonts/pxfonts</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/pxfonts/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>txfonts</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/txfonts.zip">fonts/txfonts</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/fonts/txfonts/">browse the directory</a>)
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=numbersets">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=numbersets</a>
</body>