Kdtyjb

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:

Size 60 pts:

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{xdefmysf{mathgroupthemathgrouprelax}}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..

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.

documentclass[12pt]{article}

usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

usepackage{arev}

begin{document}

Huge

[

  alpha

]

end{document}

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.

documentclass{article}

usepackage{scalerel}[2016/12/29]

newcommandAlpha{scaleobj{0.85}{propto}}

begin{document}

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

end{document}