[Tex/LaTex] Sans serif font with distinguished capital I for math.

fontsmath-modepresentationssans-serif

I work a lot with matrix algebra. I also give a lot of presentations. It'd be nice to have a good sans serif font to use for both. Currently, my choice is the bitstream vera sans with math package: arev.

The problem with most sans serif fonts for matrix algebra is that they do not have a good capital I. In these presentations, 'I' really needs to have it's tails, even in a sans serif font. (It's the all important identity operator after all.)

Hence my question:

  • Are there other sans serif packages
    that have a 'I' with tails? (I know about arev and
    lxfonts. I like arev, but it's pretty wide when
    using the matching text font. lxfonts is
    even worse.) Other desirable features are
    i, j, and l characters with a bit of a swish.
    I have not been able to find any that are miktex
    packages.

  • Is there a reasonable combination of letters
    I could use to patch an existing font with
    this behavior? And if so, how?

This seems to be a recurring question (see http://groups.google.com/group/latexusersgroup/browse_thread/thread/6f3853c13e295538/32fc03a336b8afd5 and http://thedailyreviewer.com/compsys/view/distinguished-capital-i-for-sans-serif-font-113312512)

Best Answer

Relative newcomers to the TeX world are Google's droid fonts, but a package was recently put on CTAN. It has the feature you want for capital I.

\documentclass{article}
\renewcommand*{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\usepackage{droid}
\begin{document}
\Huge This is droid sans. I like it. 
\end{document}

enter image description here

No swish on i or l, but j does.

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