[Tex/LaTex] Alphabet w and little omega: A better way to distinguish

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I am working on a paper where I use lowercase "w" and the lower case Greek letter omega a lot. The rendering of both of these alphabets is very similar, and causes much confusion to the reader. Is there a better way to distinguish them? I cannot use bold w as I have reserved it for something else.

Best Answer

If using either XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX is an option for you, you may want to use the Cambria Math font.

The following table contrasts the looks of w and \omega, as well as looks of the notoriously-similar triple v, \upsilon, and \nu. Clearly, w and \omega are very different if Cambria Math is loaded. Pagella, a Palatino clone, arguably does a credible job as well distinguishting these two characters. (If you must use v, \upsilon, and \nu in one document, Pagella is your best bet. My recommendation, though, is simply not to use \upsilon.)

enter image description here

If you decide to go with the Palatino clone, you could use it under pdfLaTeX by loading the packages newpxtext and newpxmath.

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{llll}
Latin Modern Math &
\setmathfont{LM Math} $ w\, \omega$ 
& $v\,\upsilon\,\nu$ & $\alpha\beta\gamma\delta$\\
Cambria Math & 
\setmathfont{Cambria Math} $ w\, \omega$ & $v\,\upsilon\,\nu$ & $\alpha\beta\gamma\delta$\\
XITS Math & 
\setmathfont{XITS Math} $ w\, \omega$  
& $v\,\upsilon\,\nu$ & $\alpha\beta\gamma\delta$\\
TeX Gyre Pagella Math & 
\setmathfont{TeX Gyre Pagella Math} $ w\, \omega$ 
& $v\,\upsilon\,\nu$ & $\alpha\beta\gamma\delta$\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document} 
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