A new Web-based character set called STIX fonts that perfectly renders the full range of characters and symbols needed in scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing is now available for free download at http://www.stixfonts.org/. These Unicode-based OpenType fonts have been designed to support the full range of characters and symbols needed in STM publishing, for both print and online formats.

The fonts include more than 8,000 glyphs in multiple weights, sizes, and slants and support the complete range of Latin alphabets, as well as Greek and Cyrillic. Version 1.0 is now available and it is anticipated that by the end of 2010 Version 1.1 will be released. Version 1.1 will include fonts packaged with MS Office applications. Version 1.2, planned for release in 2011 will include Type 1 fonts for use with LaTeX.

The STIX font project was initiated by six not-for-profit and commercial publishers including the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Physics (AIP), American Mathematical Society, American Physical Society, IEEE, and Elsevier. The fonts are available through a royalty-free, SIL Open Font License, and their release is the result of more than a ten year collaborative effort on the part of the six scientific publishers engaged in this project. According to Tim Ingoldsby of the AIP, “now individual researchers can come to a single source to obtain a free set of fonts that they can be assured contains substantially every character or symbol needed for reporting their results.”

Learn more about STIX