Mathematica Stylesheet: CMU Article

Introduction

The CMU Article stylesheet is a custom Mathematica stylesheet designed specifically for academic writing and publication. It is based on the Computer Modern Unicode (CMU) fonts, which are the digital versions of the classic Computer Modern fonts designed by Donald Knuth for the TeX typesetting system.

Features

Professional Typography: Uses Computer Modern Unicode fonts for publication-quality text
Academic Formatting: Optimized for mathematical and scientific documents
Consistent Styling: Predefined styles for titles, sections, equations, and references
Print-Ready: Configured for high-quality printing and PDF export

Font Requirements

The CMU Article stylesheet requires the Computer Modern Unicode (CMU) fonts to be installed on your system. These fonts are freely available and provide excellent mathematical typography.

Installation Instructions

Step 1: Install CMU Fonts

Before installing the stylesheet, you should install the CMU fonts on your system:

Download the fonts: The CMU fonts can be downloaded here.
Install fonts on your operating system:
- macOS: Double-click each .ttf file and click “Install Font”
- Windows: Right-click each .ttf file and select “Install”
- Linux: Copy the .ttf files to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ or use your system’s font manager

Step 2: Download the Stylesheet

Download the stylesheet: The CMU Article.nb file is available for download here.
Extract the file: Save the CMU Article.nb file to a location on your computer

Step 3: Install the Stylesheet in Mathematica

Open Mathematica.
Go to the Palettes menu: In the top menu bar, click on Palettes.
Select Install Palettes: From the Palettes menu, choose Install Palettes….
In the Install Wolfram System Item dialog (as shown below):
Example: The dialog for installing the CMU Article stylesheet.
- Type of Item to Install: Select Stylesheet from the dropdown menu.
- Source: Click the dropdown and select or browse to your downloaded CMU Article.nb file.
- Install Name: This will usually auto-fill as “CMU Article”, but you can edit it if you wish.
- Install for this user only (home): This is the default and recommended option for most users. If you want all users on the computer to have access, select the second option.
- Click OK to complete the installation.

Step 4: Apply the Stylesheet

After installation, you can apply the CMU Article stylesheet to any notebook:

Open a notebook in Mathematica
Access Format menu: Click on Format in the menu bar
Select Stylesheet: Choose Stylesheet from the Format menu
Choose CMU Article: From the stylesheet list, select CMU Article

Verification

To verify that the installation was successful:

Check font availability: The text should display in Computer Modern Unicode fonts
Test mathematical expressions: Equations should render with proper mathematical typography
Verify styles: Different cell styles (Title, Section, etc.) should have distinct formatting

Troubleshooting

Font Issues

Problem: Text appears in default fonts instead of CMU fonts
Solution: Ensure CMU fonts are properly installed on your system and restart Mathematica

Stylesheet Not Found

Problem: CMU Article doesn’t appear in the stylesheet list
Solution: Verify the installation was completed successfully and restart Mathematica
Note: If the installation succeeded, running the following in a Mathematica notebook should return a list of files containing CMU Article.nb:
```
FileNames[All, FileNameJoin[{$UserBaseDirectory, "SystemFiles", "FrontEnd", "StyleSheets"}]]
```

Installation Errors

Problem: Installation dialog shows errors
Solution: Check that the CMU Article.nb file is not corrupted and try downloading it again

Additional Resources

Complete Package: For the full Mathematica-for-physics package with additional tools, visit the main documentation page
Font Information: Learn more about Computer Modern fonts on Wikipedia