Distinguish between $v$ and $\nu$

Question

I'm writing a manuscript (100 page) and I used many times the symbols $v$ and $\nu$ in mathematical mode. For example my equations have the form:

$\frac{u+v}{\nu}=0$ and the pdf gives the following:

Unfortunately, after compiling, the two symbols $v$ and $\nu$ are very similar and it is very difficult to distinguish them.

Please can you help me to overcome this problem knowing that I can't change the symbol $v$ in 100 pages

They seem distinguishable image-click here with the Computer Modern fonts. Can you tell something more about your setup? — egreg, Apr 10 '17 at 16:07
if using newtxtext and newtxmath there is a specific option varvw to help alleviate this problem. — Andrew Swann, Apr 10 '17 at 16:20
@egreg Im trying to put an image to what I obtained when I write $\frac{u+v}{\nu}$ — A H, Apr 10 '17 at 16:36
Please provide a MWE so we can see what class and packages you are using. — lblb, Apr 11 '17 at 11:59
@lblb Infact I use many many packages and I dont know if I can put all of them. for example: \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[dvips]{epsfig}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsthm} \usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{graphics}
\usepackage{geometry} \usepackage{indentfirst}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{algorithm} \usepackage{algorithmic} \usepackage{makeidx}
\usepackage{vmargin} — A H, Apr 11 '17 at 13:20
@A H: A minimal working example (MWE) is one that produces your problem with only the relevant packages, so you wouldn't need most of the packages you listed. Creating a MWE is itself some work, but greatly appreciated for people tackling a question. — lblb, Apr 11 '17 at 15:21
@AH All the packages you listed in the previous comment don't generate your problem, click on the link of lblb's comment to know how to create a minimal working example and then edit your question and add it, please! — CarLaTeX, Apr 12 '17 at 02:36
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score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 10 '17 at 17:05

16

Judging from the image you probably have

\usepackage{mathptmx}

in your document.

Replace it with

\usepackage{newtxtext}
\usepackage[varvw]{newtxmath}

and the output of

\[
\frac{u+v}{\nu}
\]

will be, with no other change to your document,

answered Apr 10 '17 at 17:05

egreg

1,121,712

I used this package \usepackage{mathrsfs} – A H Apr 10 '17 at 17:08
1

@AH That's completely irrelevant. What document class are you using? – egreg Apr 10 '17 at 17:09
@egred \documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{book} – A H Apr 10 '17 at 17:14
7

@AH Please, add a small example to your question. – egreg Apr 10 '17 at 17:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 09 '18 at 16:50

1

Using Computer Modern for v and \nu.

\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\DeclareSymbolFont{CMletters}{OML}{cmm}{m}{it}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\nu}{\mathord}{CMletters}{23}
\DeclareMathSymbol{v}{\mathord}{CMletters}{`v}

answered Jun 09 '18 at 16:50

Syrtis Major

111

2

Alternatively, you could retain the standard newtxmath v, which is readily distinguishable from the Computer Modern \nu, in order to avoid introducing confusion between v and \upsilon. – Gavin R. Putland Oct 23 '18 at 08:47

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 08 '19 at 04:06

I got the same problem, but since I did not want to make any changes (I wasnt sure if the proposed solutions would change anything in a finalised document, such as line-breaks, any slight changes of spacing, etc.), i preferred the following solution that solves the problem by adding a single line ("AtBeginDocument..."):

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{txfonts}

\AtBeginDocument{\mathcode`v=\varv}

\begin{document}

A `v' in math: $v$

A `nu' in math: $\nu$

\end{document}

Gabriel A. Lozada · Answer 4 · 2023-06-25T21:34:07.750

This code follows along the lines of Gavin R. Putland's comment on Syrtis Major's answer, but it makes the Computer Modern \nu a bit thicker, so it fits in better with a Times font. It also has a bold version, patterned on this answer. (To explain the '027 of the fifth line, see this answer.)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\DeclareSymbolFont{CMMforNu}{OML}{cmm}{m}{it}
\SetSymbolFont{CMMforNu}{bold}{OML}{cmm}{b}{it}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\nuCM}{\mathord}{CMMforNu}{'027}
\usepackage[outline]{contour}
\def\nu{\mathord{\contourlength{0.0043em}\contour{black}{$\nuCM$}}}
\begin{document}
\[ \frac{u+v}{\nuCM \nu \boldmath\nu} \]
\end{document}

I got the idea of using the contour package in this way from this answer and the comment on it by diabonas. As an alternative to using the contour package for making the symbol darker, the pdfrender package could be used, as in this answer and this answer.

If you want the v to look as in egreg's answer, change the second line of my code to

\usepackage{newtxtext}\usepackage[varvw]{newtxmath}

and the result is

For discussions of non-Computer Modern versions of \nu and how to distinguish them from v, see the answers to this question.

Distinguish between $v$ and $\nu$

4 Answers4

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