[Tex/LaTex] Handwritten R-like-kay

fonts

I need a handwritten "k" with a circle, the one which looks a bit like R.

I found few fancy fonts with such R-like-kay, say this one, but non of them can stay next to "\ell" in math formulas.

Maybe I have to make one my-self with METAFONT, but it seems to be stupid to learn it just for one letter, and I am sure this way I will produce something ugly.

I hope someone can help.

Best Answer

I've been thinking about this...

The problem is that math "k" and math "kappa" are pretty much the same, except kappa lacks the upper part. And this is confusing.

You mention a "differnet font" on your question, but the problem as you found, is that "text fonts" don't mix with "math fonts".

So an alternative would be use a different math font.

First attempt

Here we use the "Zapf Chancery" math font to get a different "k" (left side). But it would look ugly next to \ell, so following Emre suggestion, we can redefine ell to become chancery's "l"

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathpzc}{OT1}{pzc}{m}{it}
\renewcommand{\ell}{\mathpzc{l}}
\newcommand{\kell}{\mathpzc{k}}
would create the k, l on the left side of the image.

In particular image 1 was done with

\begin{equation}
    2\mathpzc{kl}\ell = 2k\kappa l
\end{equation}

but defining/redefining kell/ell would make this easier to type. After all, the objective is to get a "math k" that looks different from kappa and this accomplishes.

If don't mind changing all math fonts, you can use \usepackage[math,condensed]{anttor} and get

antykwa

for

\begin{equation}
    2k \kappa \neq 2 l\ell
\end{equation}

Unfortunately I don't know what would the proper way to create a "letter command" (like \kell or \fancyk) to get only the k using antykwa font as above.

EDIT: I've found \usepackage{fouriernc} also gives the R-like k, but with a more modern look

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