[Tex/LaTex] Usage of mathbb versus mathds

best practicesfonts

Blissfully unaware of mathds for years I have used $\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{Q}$ and so on. No one has complained but is there a best practice on choosing between mathbb and mathds for these?

There has been discussion here of using mathds for 1 and for A. Are there other technical issues I should know about in making my choice?

Best Answer

It is good to be reminded that from a LaTeX team member's viewpoint font choice is just a style choice. But from a user's viewpoint some choices would be unacceptably odd and others would be not best.

Manuel brings up a technical issue that is decisive for me. Even using the amsmath and amsfonts packages you do not have \mathds. Of course I can easily add the dsfont package but I can't assume everyone I deal with has it, or wants to add packages for me.

While mathbb only handles uppercase letter, mathds add numerals. As far as I can see looking around online, neither handles lowercase letters (which you probably would not want to see doublestruck).