several problems with bold math symbols (ISO-style with xits-math.otf)

[jwuttke]

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage[bold-style=ISO]{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{xits-math.otf}
\renewcommand{\v}[1]{\ensuremath{\mathbf{#1}}}
\begin{document}
\noindent
Is this $v{\nabla}$ a nabla?\\
Is this vector $\v{r}$ slanted?\\
Does this vector $\v{\hat n}$ carry a hat?
\end{document}

Using xelatex [XeTeX 3.14159265-2.6-0.99992 (TeX Live 2015)] with unicode-math [2015/09/24 v0.8c] , there are several bugs, all in math mode:

• Bold special symbols like \mathbf{\nabla} are not rendered at all.
• Bold latin letters are not rendered slanted.
• Within \mathbf{..}, carets, tildes &c are not rendered.

Under texlive 2014, the rendering was correct.

[eg9]

With unicode-math version 0.8 you should use \symbf rather than \mathbf:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[bold-style=ISO]{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{xits-math.otf}

\renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\symbf{#1}}

\begin{document}

\noindent
Is this $\vec{\nabla}$ a nabla?\\
Is this vector $\vec{r}$ slanted?\\
Does this vector $\vec{\hat{n}}$ carry a hat?

\end{document}

[wspr]

In addition to @eg9's response, please also note that you can load unicode-math with the package option mathbf=sym (see Table 3 in the documentation) to achieve backwards compatibility.