UK TeX FAQ -- question 246

### Where are the `msx` and `msy` fonts?

The `msx` and `msy` fonts were designed by the American Mathematical Society in the very early days of TeX, for use in typesetting papers for mathematical journals. They were designed using the 'old' Metafont, which wasn't portable and is no longer available; for a long time they were only available in 300dpi versions which only imperfectly matched modern printers. The AMS has now redesigned the fonts, using the current version of Metafont, and the new versions are called the `msa` and `msb` families.

Nevertheless, `msx` and `msy` continue to turn up to plague us. There are, of course, still sites that haven't got around to upgrading; but, even if everyone upgraded, there would still be the problem of old documents that specify them.

If you have a `.tex` source that requests `msx` and `msy`, the best technique is to edit it so that it requests `msa` and `msb` (you only need to change the single letter in the font names).

If you have a DVI file that requests the fonts, there is a package of virtual fonts to map the old to the new series.

`msa and msb fonts`
  fonts/amsfonts/sources/symbols.tar.gz
`virtual font set`
  fonts/vf-files/msx2msa.tar.gz