8

I'm writing a thesis and decided to use Charter (\usepackage{XCharter}) for text and Palatino (\usepackage{mathpazo}) for math. Unfortunately the commas in Charter and Palatino look very different, so I run into troubles when writing lists of variables in the text. Here's a minimal example:

The polynomial ring $\C[x,y,z]$ has variables $x$, $y$, $z$.

This renders as:

rendered example

Is this difference in fonts acceptable or should I consider using a different combinations of fonts?

Christoph
  • 678
  • 3
    You're using two incompatible fonts for text and math. Having different characters is to be expected. – egreg Aug 08 '14 at 21:16
  • @egreg So is this a no go? Should I rather use only Charter or only Palatino for both, text and math? – Christoph Aug 08 '14 at 21:18
  • 2
    Well, your problem is not exactly about LaTeX it is a design problem, more correctly a bad typographical combination. In design it is suggested to use only one typeface, maximum two. It's not necessary that the chosen typefaces live together happily forever, but, as a rule, should not collide. And in this case they do. – Aradnix Aug 08 '14 at 21:21
  • Why did you choose these typefaces, it is for a protocol or manual of style or was a personal decision for aesthetic taste? – Aradnix Aug 08 '14 at 21:23
  • It was a personal decision. I've previously used Palatino a lot but felt that the text looks more appealing in Charter. However, the formulas set with Charter look quite clunky in my eyes. – Christoph Aug 08 '14 at 21:27
  • Much better to find a font you are happy with using for both text and maths. However clunky something looks in one rather than the other, it will look many times clunkier if you mix fonts. In some cases, if you are careful, you could use a different font for, say, headings or something like that. But you are essentially using different fonts in the same sentence where this is not an intended feature (as it might be if you had a single word in sans, for example) and that is just never going to look right... (Not that such opinions are on-topic for this site, but...) – cfr Aug 08 '14 at 21:52
  • Thanks for your honest answers. I'll stick to Palatino! If somebody wants to make your replies an answer, I'd be happy to accept it. – Christoph Aug 08 '14 at 21:54

1 Answers1

9

The design of Palatino is not really compatible with Charter. There is a free version of a math font compatible with Charter, available with mathdesign.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}
\usepackage{XCharter}

\newcommand{\numberset}[1]{\mathbb{#1}}
\newcommand{\C}{\numberset{C}}

\begin{document}
The polynomial ring $\C[x,y,z]$ has variables $x$, $y$, $z$.

\itshape
The polynomial ring $\C[x,y,z]$ has variables $x$, $y$, $z$.
\end{document}

enter image description here

If you prefer the mathpazo blackboard bold, add a couple of lines:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}
\usepackage{XCharter}

\DeclareMathAlphabet\PazoBB{U}{fplmbb}{m}{n}
\renewcommand{\mathbb}{\PazoBB}

\newcommand{\numberset}[1]{\mathbb{#1}}
\newcommand{\C}{\numberset{C}}

\begin{document}
The polynomial ring $\C[x,y,z]$ has variables $x$, $y$, $z$.

\itshape
The polynomial ring $\C[x,y,z]$ has variables $x$, $y$, $z$.
\end{document}

enter image description here

egreg
  • 1,121,712