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The alpha letter in math mode doesn't look well: its tails aren't clear.

The following are images of the alpha letter in math mode:

Size 10 pts:
enter image description here

Size 60 pts:
enter image description here

Notice how the tails aren't as clear as you'd normally write alpha on paper by hand.

Does there a better alpha letter?

Edit:

I'm using "TexMaths" plugin for Libreoffice writer, with probably xelatex as a rendering binary. (the path is /usr/bin but there're many *tex binaries in there)

I'm using with the following preamble:

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage[usenames]{color}
\usepackage{cancel}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{upgreek}

\newcommand{\dup}{\mathrm{d}}

% Uncomment this line for sans-serif font
%\everymath{\mathsf{\xdef\mysf{\mathgroup\the\mathgroup\relax}}\mysf}

% Uncomment these lines for colored equations
% Caution! Background color breaks transparency!
%\definecolor{fgcolor}{RGB}{0,0,255}
%\definecolor{bgcolor}{RGB}{255,0,0}
%\pagecolor{bgcolor}\color{fgcolor}

Edit 2:

Actually I use pdfLaTeX due to an error that I received:

! Package unicode-math Error: Cannot be run with pdfLaTeX! (unicode-math) Use XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX instead..

Dor
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    Use a different font? – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 21:39
  • Is \upalpha from upgreek a better variant? It's upright, therefore not really suited for math-typesetting –  Sep 06 '15 at 21:53
  • @cfr: Hi. I've tried several fonts using \setmainfont{Arial} but it doesn't seem to change anything. Could you please advice/suggest? – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 21:54
  • @ChristianHupfer: It's quite better but I'd hope to find another option. – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 21:56
  • @Dor: Yes, as I said, not really suited. You should provide a small document, apparently you're using XeLateX –  Sep 06 '15 at 21:58
  • @Christian Hupfer: It's upright, therefore not really suited for math-typesetting. French math typesetting isn't suitable? :o) – Bernard Sep 06 '15 at 22:04
  • @ChristianHupfer: I provided all the details in the edit that I made. – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 22:08
  • If you’re using fontspec with setmainfont, you also want to load unicode-math with \setmathfont to change math-mode. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:09
  • unicode-math is only useful if you want to use a font which supports the maths extension. Otherwise, mathspec may be an option. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:12
  • @cfr: I tried mathspec with Minion Pro a few years ago and gave up: too many hand corrections for the position of indices and exponents. The solution, in my opinion, is tp load fontspec with option nomath. – Bernard Sep 06 '15 at 22:22
  • @Bernard The solution in the current context is not to load fontspec at all. Besides, isn't nomath the default? I wasn't recommending mathspec especially: only pointing out that the unicode-math option is limited, however great it may be if you have a maths font you want to use with it. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:30
  • @Dor Don't you get errors when you use \setmainfont.... That command is provided by fontspec but not only are you not loading it, but it is also incompatible with pdfTeX. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:32
  • Both lualatex and xelatex are newer, they support unicode-math and fontspec, and you can run either instead of latex. If you’re stuck using pdflatex, though, you can only use LaTeX fonts. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:43
  • @cfr \setmainfont ... doesn't yield an error, though it makes pdfLatex to output the text (= font name) that is written in that command. – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 22:48
  • @Dor that command will definitely yield an error unless you are using a package which defines it or you define it. It is not supported by pdfLaTeX. If it doesn't yield an error, something very weird is going on. Is the plugin doing something special? – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:51
  • @Lorehead According to the TexMaths website, it seems limited to LaTeX – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 22:52
  • @cfr I tried it again and no error is displayed. Usually, when having an error, the plugin displays a window full of text about the error. I'm not aware of anything special that the plugin does (which hides the error).. – Dor Sep 06 '15 at 22:56
  • @Bernard: If French math-typesetting is upright, it's suitable then of course. I am no expert in French math-typesetting (or in French at all) ;-) –  Sep 06 '15 at 22:57
  • @Christian Hupfer; French typesetting italicises only lowercase roman letters – well, it should, because under the influence of TeX and laziness of most users, it tends to be similar to American typesetting. A good example of this style is to be found in Bourbaki or Grothendieck (at least the French versions). – Bernard Sep 06 '15 at 23:12
  • All right, since you’re using LaTeX Maths in OpenOffice, I’ve tested that and updated my answer. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 23:16
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    @Dor It is hiding the errors from you. I just installed it and tested. I then tracked down the log file in .config/libreoffice/4/user/TexMaths/tmp/tmpfile.log and saw exactly the errors you'd expect when trying to use an undefined command. It doesn't show you the error even if this is in the preamble. That is quite unhelpful, in my opinion. Errors provide useful information. Ignoring them is a Very Bad Idea and this plugin doesn't even tell you that there are any errors. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 23:28
  • I think you get an error saying pdfLaTeX because - maybe - latex is a symbolic link to pdflatex. But it is still running in non-PDF mode i.e. outputting DVI. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 23:42
  • Follow-up: another way to get Greek letters in PDFLaTeX is to use a LGR-encoded legacy font with mathastext. – Davislor Aug 03 '18 at 19:45

4 Answers4

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The LaTeX Font Catalogue includes a list of fonts with maths support which can be used with pdfTeX. This is more current and has greater coverage than the Free Math Font Survey mentioned by Lorehead, but it provides less detailed coverage of each option, I think.

Maybe look at Arev, which is often recommended for presentations as it is thought to be especially clear. It is also a sans font which might possibly be better if you are using Arial.

Arev alpha

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{arev}
\begin{document}
\Huge
\[
  \alpha
\]
\end{document}
Community
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cfr
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  • Right. It doesn’t show off the α, unfortunately. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:29
  • @Lorehead Well, my written alphas look more like this than any of the others I tried ;). Perhaps I just have poor hand-writing. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:35
  • Oh, excuse me, I just meant that the LaTeX Font Catalogue, while it is more up-to-date, unfortunately doesn’t show off α in its font samples. The OP will decide which font he or she likes best. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:49
  • Oh my, this \alpha is... weird ;-) –  Sep 06 '15 at 22:58
  • @Lorehead Oh, I see. Yes, you're right. It has quite a small example of maths, in fact. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 23:16
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Do you like any of the ones in the Free Math Font Survey? (Discussion of unicode-math, which isn’t available to you, deleted.)

Addendum

Since you’re using LaTeX Maths in OpenOffice, you want something different than the usual set-up. I downloaded it and did a simple test, and here’s what I recommend:

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage[usenames]{color}

\usepackage{stix}

% Comment out the line above and uncomment the two lines below for sans-serif font
%\usepackage{arevmath}
%\usepackage{arev}

% Uncomment these lines for colored equations
% \definecolor{fgcolor}{RGB}{0,0,255}
% \definecolor{bgcolor}{RGB}{255,255,255}
% \pagecolor{bgcolor}\color{fgcolor}

You can change this to a different font if you’re changing the main font of your document; just pick a package that you like and that matches.

Davislor
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    Please note that those are not necessarily fonts on the OP's system. Cambria Math is Windows, isn't it? It certainly isn't standard. The others are good suggestions, though. But any of the fonts on your system is misleading. You need to make clear that unicode-math only works with opentype fonts which support the maths extension. Having the symbols isn't enough, for example. But mathspec can be used in other cases. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:09
  • Yes, it’s true that you can only use fonts that you actually have. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:15
  • What I meant is, that the others are all standard so it is a bit odd to include Cambria without mentioning it is not. You can't use a font which is not a maths font with unicode-math. Is that what you mean by 'a trick'? Not trying to be picky here, but I'd find this a bit confusing. – cfr Sep 06 '15 at 22:26
  • Oh, what I meant is that there’s a way to get unicode-math to load a math font with all the right symbols and mathy thingamajigs, but use letters and numbers from another font. But that’s more complicated, so I didn’t want to put it in my answer unless someone actually requested it. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:32
  • Okay, so nobody’s confused by my mention of Cambria Math: it’s a proprietary font included with Windows Vista or later, but not with other OSes or TeX Live. If you have a Windows partition, the file is in its fonts directory as cambria.ttc_01.ttf. – Davislor Sep 06 '15 at 22:37
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\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{scalerel}[2016/12/29]

\newcommand\Alpha{\scaleobj{0.85}{\propto}}

\begin{document}

$$ a = \alpha r $$ vs. $$ a = \Alpha r $$

\end{document}

enter image description here

Mensch
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Serkan Gunturk
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0

With unicode-math, you can use any OpenType math font, as well as any system font (TrueType or Opentype) with Greek letters.

For example, to use a math font designed by the Greek Font Society, with only light slab serifs, you could do:

\documentclass[varwidth]{standalone}
\usepackage{unicode-math}

\defaultfontfeatures{Scale = MatchLowercase}
\setmathfont{GFS Neohellenic Math}

\begin{document}
\( \alpha \)
\end{document}

alpha

If you wanted to use a different font for Greek letters, you could add the following lines:

\documentclass[varwidth]{standalone}
\usepackage{unicode-math}

\defaultfontfeatures{Scale = MatchLowercase}
\setmathfont{Libertinus Math}
\setmathfont[range=up]{Linux Biolinum}
\setmathfont[range=it]{Linux Biolinum Italic}
\setmathfont[range=bfup]{Linux Biolinum Bold}
\setmathfont[range=bfit]{Linux Biolinum Italic} 

\begin{document}
\( \alpha \)
\end{document}

alpha

If you use XeLaTeX, you can instead use mathspec to combine a desktop font for letters with a legacy math font.

With mathastext you have the option to select the main font, or 8-bit, LGR-encoded Greek font as your Greek alphabet. You can also select many Greek alphabets with isomath. There is little reason to do so, however, if you have unicode-math.

Davislor
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