Upright sans serif greek in math mode

Question

Consider the following MWE, which typesets some sans serif math that I'm using in a presentation:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{sansmath}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\sansmath
\[
w\Delta z = \operatorname{cov}(w,z) + \operatorname{E}(w\Delta z),
\]
\end{document}

The result looks like this:

I think it would look a lot better if the Delta characters were upright instead of italic. How can I achieve that? (I like the w and z being italic, just not the deltas.)

If the solution involves using a different package than sansmath, or a different font than the one shown, I'm fine with that - I'm just looking for a quick easy way to make sans serif math that looks good.

Although I already mentioned it in both the title and the body of the question, and demonstrated it with an MWE, I apparently have to edit this to point out that I am looking to do this in a sans serif font, which is what makes this different from the linked question.

Possible duplicate of How to get non italic greek symbols with ams packages? — CarLaTeX, Jun 11 '16 at 09:11
@CarLaTeX no, that question and its answers don't address the sans serif issue. — N. Virgo, Jun 11 '16 at 09:13
@CarLaTeX I don't think that makes it a duplicate, but it does mean you can post an answer. (However, I've tried it with my MWE and it didn't work for me.) — N. Virgo, Jun 11 '16 at 09:17
The upgreek package from the answers to that question does work for me, though. — N. Virgo, Jun 11 '16 at 09:24
I'm happy you have found the solution, despite my confusion! — CarLaTeX, Jun 11 '16 at 09:28
I posted a similar question with almost the same title yesterday: Sans serif upright greek in math mode. Answers work great! — Robert Seifert, Jun 11 '16 at 09:50
@thewaywewalk I saw your question but it seemed much more specific (and more advanced) than mine - I'm looking for any old quick and dirty way to do it, and the Helvetica solutions are quite involved. — N. Virgo, Jun 11 '16 at 09:53
If it means an increment, I would definitely use w\increment z = \cov(w,z) + \E(w\increment z) (may be \incr instead of \increment) and then define the macro so that it outputs exactly what you want. — Manuel, Jun 11 '16 at 11:16

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Instead of sansmath use the sansmathfonts package. It automatically switches the math font to sans serif throughout the whole document (no need for \sansmath). If you want to use a font other than CM, you might run into trouble with upright uppercase greek letters as other fonts might not have them (or not have them in the correct slot). A possible rectification has been proposed by [egreg (2016)].

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{sansmathfonts}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
w\Delta z = \operatorname{cov}(w,z) + \operatorname{E}(w\Delta z),
\]
\end{document}

Alternatively, you can use a sans serif font with built-in math support, such as cmbright. This might actually be your best bet, as you get correct adjustment and kerning out of the box. You can find a review of several math font (no limited to sans-serif) in S. Hartke, “A Survey of Free Math Fonts for TeX and LaTeX”, The PracTeX Journal 01, (2006).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{cmbright}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
w\Delta z = \operatorname{cov}(w,z) + \operatorname{E}(w\Delta z),
\]
\end{document}

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '16 at 09:55

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{sansmath}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\sansmath
\[
w\mathrm{\Delta} z = \operatorname{cov}(w,z) + \operatorname{E}(w\mathrm{\Delta} z),
\]
\end{document}

Hello. To straighten the symbol in front of it is enough to add the command \mathrm{}.

Davislor · Answer 3 · 2020-06-23T16:22:49.383

2

In unicode-math, and some legacy math font packages, you can use \increment for the Delta operator. If you want an actual upright letter Δ, that would be \symup{\Delta}, \upDelta, or \mupDelta.

edited Jun 23 '20 at 16:22

answered Jun 23 '20 at 06:42

Davislor

44,045

Upright sans serif greek in math mode

3 Answers3