Math ML Styling - InDesign 2026

[jctremblay]

In latest release (21.0), Math Expression panel allow choosing styles (regular, italic, etc) for portions of expressions. But the default behavior is to use regular for the entire expressions. This is wrong way of styling math elements and you don’t want to impose user to be styling them correctly manually from the start.
Default styling in 2025 was correct! (see image).



This goes againt all convention and need to be fix.

In mathematical notation, italics are used primarily for variables and symbols representing quantities. The typographical convention has been standardized across scientific disciplines to ensure clarity and consistency.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @jctremblay,

Thanks for sharing your observations. Just to confirm if I understood correctly, you're saying that there shouldn't be an option to apply font styles to portions of an expression, and instead the styling should remain consistent for the entire expression, correct?

I just want to make sure I've captured your feedback accurately before checking this further with the team.

Looking forward to your clarification.

Abhishek

[jctremblay]

The ability to apply styling to individual part of the expression is fine. But the starting expression should have a mixed style according to the convention. Like it was for 2025 implementation. In 2026, it’s all regular, and it’s wrong.

[williamk98826693]

Exactly, all of the letters should be in italics by default, like it in 2025. Now the default is regular font. FIX THIS!

[jctremblay]

Not all characters expressions should be Italic, but only some specific one. Like it was in 2025.