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I have a very simple article, with one line:

$\epsilon \gtrsim \varepsilon$

If I use pdflatex to compile, \epsilon and \varepsilon are rendered in a different way, which is the correct behaviour.

However, I have to use pslatex, which renders both \epsilon and \varepsilon in the same way.

Why is this so? Can you reproduce this behaviour, or perhaps I am missing a package?

Edit. My working example.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

  $\varepsilon \gtrsim \epsilon$

\end{document}

Also, to clarify: I do not need both renderings in my document. I need only \epsilon. However \epsilon is rendered as \varepsilon by pslatex

astabada
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  • Perhaps it depends on which command do you use? I too get two different symbols with pdflatex example.tex, but not with pslatex example.tex – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 10:56
  • Perhaps, I am not sure. Part of the question was why pdflatex can compile correctly while pslatex cannot. – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 11:23

2 Answers2

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The two forms \epsilon and \varepsilon are just graphical variants of the same letter and using both unnecessarily confuses readers.

The pslatex package is obsolete and deprecated. You should have

\usepackage{mathptmx}

instead. Which doesn't solve your problem, anyway, because the Symbol font used for Greek letters doesn't have different glyphs for the two forms of epsilon (this agains shows one shouldn't rely on them being available).

You're luckier if you use NewTX, that sports different glyphs:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\begin{document}
$\epsilon=\varepsilon$
\end{document}

enter image description here

If you really want different glyphs using mathptmx (not pslatex, please, it is obsolete and shouldn't be used), then

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathptmx}
\DeclareSymbolFont{epsilon}{OML}{ntxmi}{m}{it}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\epsilon}{\mathord}{epsilon}{"0F}

\begin{document}
$\epsilon=\varepsilon$
\end{document}

will do. But it's a hack and relies on having available the NewTX fonts. An even worse hack is to use Computer Modern Math Italic:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathptmx}
\DeclareSymbolFont{epsilon}{OML}{cmm}{m}{it}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\epsilon}{\mathord}{epsilon}{"0F}

\begin{document}
$\epsilon=\varepsilon$
\end{document}

enter image description here

egreg
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  • What should I use rather than pslatex then? Moreover, the packages that you have suggested do not improve the situation (when still using pslatex). In fact both commands get rendered as \varepsilon when all I need is a vanilla \epsilon. Thanks – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 10:06
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    @astabada As I said, you should not load pslatex. But, as I said, the “good” package to be used instead, that is, mathptmx, doesn't have different glyphs. Which is what I wrote. If you really need them use the code in the example document; the text font will be Times. – egreg Feb 12 '14 at 10:10
  • See my update of the question for a working example. I understand that I should not use pslatex to compile. But what other command line command - other than pdflatex - is to be used to create the document? pdflatex is not an option because it gives errors when compiling the full document, which includes *eps files. – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 10:19
  • @astabada You can't have two different glyphs with pslatex or mathptmx, because the font used hasn't the different forms. With \usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath} you do get different forms. – egreg Feb 12 '14 at 10:37
  • Should I ask another question on how to get \epsilon rendered properly with pslatex? At the moment \epsilon is rendered as \varepsilon. Perhaps I am doing something wrong, but \usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath} does not solve the problem as both symbols are renedered as \varepsilon. – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 10:58
  • @astabada You probably were still loading pslatex. Don't, ever. I added a couple of hacks, pick the one that works for you. But, please, don't use the two forms with different meanings. – egreg Feb 12 '14 at 11:12
  • Solved. I think the command pslatex automatically loads the package with the same name. Thanks for your help. – astabada Feb 12 '14 at 11:22
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    @astabada I agree with egreg (for once), you really shouldn't be using pslatex this century (I wrote it last century, when things were different). – David Carlisle Feb 12 '14 at 11:26
  • Would LuaTeX/XeTeX with unicode-math and the right fonts (like lmodern) help? – Martin Schröder Feb 13 '14 at 09:03
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As a researcher in the field of mechanics (dynamics, vibrations, stress and strain, etc.) I find the availability of both \epsilon (lunate) and \varepsilon very useful. In mechanics, we often use \varepsilon to denote strain and \epsilon to denote a small quantity. For example, I use \epsilon in delta-epsilon proofs, and also as the independent variable which is the coefficient of a variation in the calculus of variations.

Stefan Kottwitz
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Dan Stutts
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    I think this is not an answer to the question. By the way, here I've seen \epsilon used in Levi-Civita tensor, and \varepsilon for everything else. – Manuel Sep 22 '14 at 00:09