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I am currently making a skeleton for my thesis. Since it will be in physics, it has to deal with a lot of mathematics. I think there are two ways of making it right.

  1. Choose a font for text and a different for math which clearly differs from each other. The math font should support upright Greek, italic Greek, (almost) every symbol from the amssymb package. The math font should be clearly another because otherwise it looks improvised.

  2. Choose the same font for everything (which is what I prefer). Of course like before, the font must support everything we need!

But I remember that there were some issues with the font selection and I can't really find a satisfying answer to the question: Which is the best font for mathematical LaTeX documents (if we want ONE font)?

My approach before: I use the MinionPro font. I decided that because I read (and I really can't find where) some time ago that it is the only font that supports e.g. upright Greek and does not replace anything with another font because something is missing. Is this still valid, am I missing something, what opinions are out there?

Werner
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DaPhil
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    Since you say that you would like to use the text font Minion Pro, you may want to look into the Minion Math font (http://www.typoma.com/en/fonts.html); warning: the Minion Math font isn't free of charge. For an overview of font families that have good text and math fonts, do check out the answer http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/59706/5001. Incidentally, I don't understand why you would want the text and math fonts to look rather different; the best font choices are those that don't attract attention to themselves; having two very different fonts may well achieve the exact opposite... – Mico Feb 09 '13 at 20:15
  • @Mico I think what he tries to achieve is a true differentiation between math and text (if you use inline math with, i.e., mathpazo the result is not perfect). – Manuel Feb 09 '13 at 20:24
  • @Manuel - for text and math fonts that are rather different but still harmonize very well, the OP may want to check out the answer at http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/97128/5001. – Mico Feb 09 '13 at 20:38
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    You may want to reconsider using both upright and slanted Greek symbols within one and the same document. It's probably more prudent (read: less likely to confuse your readers) if you stick with either all-upright or all-slanted Greek symbols. – Mico Feb 09 '13 at 20:40
  • @Mico Mathematical constants like e, pi, you should set as a roman character. In contrast, physical constants like e (electron charge) or h should be set as slanted character. That is why you can't have only upright OR slanted greek. Also, I have found a manual how to install MinionPro and corresponding symbols charge free. So my concerns are to fulfill ISO standards. And I have in mind that they are not easy to fulfill with LatinModern, if possible at all. – DaPhil Feb 10 '13 at 08:03
  • @DaPhil - Many thanks for clarifying your intended use of the upright and slanted Greek symbols within the same document. I suppose I was (needlessly!) concerned that you might be using upright and slanted \alpha, \beta, \gamma, etc glyphs side by side. I recommend you take a good look at the kpfonts font package, as it features both upright and slanted uppercase and lowercase Greek symbols. By the way, there are some LaTeX packages out there that provide upright lowercase and slanted uppercase Greek symbols for the Latin Modern font group. – Mico Feb 10 '13 at 13:07
  • @Mico Thanks, I'll have a look at that package. I know there are workarounds for some issues, but I have in mind that this does not hold true for all issues. – DaPhil Feb 11 '13 at 20:47
  • @DaPhil - you're welcome. I guess I'm not sure i know what you mean by "workarounds". It would depend on the specific issues that may (or may not...) arise in an actual document, right? – Mico Feb 11 '13 at 21:00

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