1

This question was discussed here previously, but no answer is provided.

Greek letters are made bold using \boldsymbol, however they do not look bold at all compared to bold Roman letters, particularly they are within the text and if the text is also Roman.

Consider the following MWE:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
%\usepackage{upgreek}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\usepackage[]{bm}

\begin{document}
\noindent
Bold Roman: $\textbf{M}$, $\textbf{a}$, $xyz$. These look OK.\\
Bold Greek: $\boldsymbol{\uppsi}xyz\boldsymbol{\psi}$. They do not look bold at all.
\end{document}

and the result is

enter image description here

Also consider the default font:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{upgreek}
%\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\usepackage[]{bm}

\begin{document}
\noindent
Bold Roman: $\textbf{M}$, $\textbf{a}$, $xyz$. These look OK.\\
Bold Greek: $\boldsymbol{\uppsi}xyz\boldsymbol{\psi}$. These are a little bit better but still not bold.
\end{document}

and the result is

enter image description here

Edit:

Here is an example text to see the characters better. To me, Roman characters are immediately catching the eye as bold, but not the Greek letters:

enter image description here

Is there a way to have "real" bold Greek letters?

Edit (based on David's comments):

Use of \pmb with Roman text (second line):

enter image description here

Use of \pmb with default text (second line):

enter image description here

Edit:

I have added Troys suggestion below. I think this look gives immeadiate impression of a matrix.

enter image description here

berkus
  • 1,168
  • 3
    they look quite bold to me, in any case it is the choice of the font designer to design how dark the bold face is compared to medium weight. You can not change this from tex other than by choosing a different font family that has a bolder bold. – David Carlisle Dec 09 '17 at 13:48
  • Maybe: double print the Greek letter with a shift? Is there a way to do this in LaTeX? – berkus Dec 09 '17 at 13:56
  • yes sure the \pmb macro in amsmath will print the character 3 times with slight offsets but I'd never do that of (as here) there is a bold font available. – David Carlisle Dec 09 '17 at 13:57
  • for example if you extend your example with \uppsi and \psi then the newtxmath one looks like this with the bold characters noticeably bolder than the non bold despite the following text saying they do not look bold. – David Carlisle Dec 09 '17 at 14:03
  • @David: No wonder you do not recommend \pmb. See my updated question :). – berkus Dec 09 '17 at 14:07
  • Bold letters are used for matrices and it really makes a big difference if a variable is understood as a matrix clearly. I added a portion from my text, where it is really difficult to make the distinction immediately. Anyhow... – berkus Dec 09 '17 at 14:14
  • You can try adapting this answer for \psi and see if it is acceptable. – Troy Dec 09 '17 at 17:16
  • @Troy: I think your solution help a lot. Hope there is no downside of using it. If you make an answer, I can accept it. – berkus Dec 10 '17 at 11:33

1 Answers1

2

A nice solution adapted from another question:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\usepackage{pdfrender}

\newcommand*{\boldgreek}[1]{%
  \textpdfrender{%
    TextRenderingMode=FillStroke,%
    LineWidth=.35pt,%
  }{#1}%
}
\begin{document}
  $\psi$
  $\boldgreek{\psi}$
  $\uppsi$
  $\boldgreek{\uppsi}$
\end{document}

enter image description here

You can modify the line width to your liking to make the letters more/less bold.

Troy
  • 13,741