latex mode, nexted subscripts are unreadable

[Tim Hesterberg <timh@insightful.com>]

I'm using latex mode, with font-lock on.
describe-mode shows:
Enabled minor modes: Auto-Compression Blink-Cursor Column-Number
Display-Time Encoded-Kbd File-Name-Shadow Font-Lock Global-Font-Lock
Line-Number Menu-Bar Mouse-Wheel Shell-Dirtrack Show-Paren Tooltip
Unify-8859-On-Encoding Utf-Translate-Cjk

I have equations like this:
\begin{equation}
  \sum_{i=1}^n (y_i - \sum_{j=1}^p\sum_{k=1}^{p_j} X_{i,j_k}\beta_{j_k})^2
  + \theta \sum_{j=1}^p (\sum_{k=1}^{p_j} \beta_{j_k}^{\gamma_j})^{\frac{\gamma_0}{\gamma_j}},
\end{equation}

Note that there are nested combinations of subscripts and superscripts.

In Emacs 21.1 in latex mode, subscripts and superscripts are shown
with smaller fonts, and raised or lowered.  Cool!  This is great for
first-level suscripts.  However nested superscripts and subscripts are
(1) very tiny and (2) shown in gray, rather than the same color used
for the first-level suscripts.

I use emacs in reverse video  (I use -r on startup).
The gray is nearly invisible against the black background.
Most of the pixels are a dark gray; a few are a lighter gray.

If I view the same file without reverse video, and start with
 --no-init-file, then the nested suscripts are visible, but are still
too tiny for comfort.  And they're not clearly visible - the gray letters
end up with most of the pixels light gray and a few of them darker.

My default font is Courier New, Regular, 10.
If I change the default font size to 11, 12, or 14, then the nested suscripts
are the same color as the first-level.  Changing to 8 or 9 is similar to 10.
Changing to 7 makes the first-level suscripts gray and nearly
invisible.  Changing to 6 makes all the text gray and nearly invisible,
When I do mouse-set-font, 8 is the smallest size that shows up.
So I suspect that the problem is that emacs is trying to use
font size 6 or smaller for nested suscripts, and that rescaling to give
that font size gives bad results.

Is there a way to set a minimum font size for suscripts?

Thank you,
Tim Hesterberg


In GNU Emacs 22.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2007-06-02 on RELEASE
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4) --cflags -Ic:/gnuwin32/include'

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: ENU
  locale-coding-system: cp1252
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: LaTeX

Minor modes in effect:
  display-time-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  encoded-kbd-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent input:
<help-echo> <switch-frame> <help-echo> . <return> I 
f SPC I SPC v i e w SPC t h e SPC s a m e SPC f i l 
e SPC i n SPC <escape> h w i t h o u t SPC r e v e 
r s e SPC v i d e o , SPC <down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement> 
<mouse-movement> <mouse-1> C-p C-e a n d SPC s t a 
r t SPC w i t h <return> C-y , SPC t h e n SPC t h 
e SPC n e s t e d SPC s u s c r i p t s SPC a r e SPC 
v i s i b l e , SPC b u t SPC s t i l l SPC t o o <return> 
t i n y SPC f o r SPC c o m f o r t . C-p C-e <escape> 
b <escape> b <escape> b C-b C-b SPC ( t h o u g h SPC 
s t i l l <return> d o n ' t SPC s t a n d SPC o u 
t SPC w e l l ) C-p C-e <escape> b <escape> b C-n SPC 
C-d C-u C-p C-n C-e C-o C-o <return> R e a l l y SPC 
n e a r l y SPC i n v i s i b l e C-a C-k C-k C-k C-n 
C-n C-n C-n C-n C-SPC C-n C-n C-n C-p C-w C-SPC C-SPC 
<escape> < <escape> w C-x k <return> C-x 4 b t e m 
p 5 <return> C-y C-x n C-SPC <escape> f <escape> f 
<escape> f <escape> w C-x N <escape> x e m a c s - 
r e p o r C-a C-y C-k <return>

Recent messages:
Type C-x 1 to remove help window.  
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