mu (\micro) symbol in siunitx package is badly aliased

Question

I'm using the siunitx package to display units, but I'm having a problem with the appearance of the Greek letter mu that results from the \micro command. The version in the package documentation looks like this:

but the version from my MWE (shown below) looks like this:

Here is my MWE:

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}
\SI{}{\micro\metre}
\end{document}

What do I need to do to get an upright mu in the siunitx package without the aliasing?

Answer 1

1. Please do not use minimal for MWEs. You can search this site for explanations.

2. The command for your output would be \si{\micro\metre} but I guess you know this.

3. In order to get the font unpixeled, you have to install cm-super

   • Go to Start - All Programs - MiKTeX 2.9 - Maintenance - MiKTeX Package Manager
   • Search for "cm-super" in the first field with name "Name"
   • Right click the only package and hit "install".

4. The font used for the \mu in the manual is another font, though. If you want to change to another font, just search the manual for the words "text-micro" and "math-micro" in order to find introductions on this.

---

If you want the output as in the manual, you have to do:

% arara: pdflatex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[osf]{mathpazo} % 'o'ld 's'tyle 'f'igures are used in the manual, but you can leave this away, of course. 
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}
    \si{\micro\metre}
\end{document}