# How to get the AMS mathbb font while using Palatino elsewhere

I'm a Latex user. I've been using Palatino for typesetting a piece mathematical text:

\usepackage{mathpazo}
\usepackage[scaled=.95]{helvet}
\usepackage{courier}


The results are good, however I don't like the blackboard-bold given by mathpazo. Is there some option to pass to mathpazo, or some nice hack that will give me back my beloved AMSmath \mathbb symbols?

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- we've heard so many criticisms of the \mathbb alphabet here at ams that it's nice to hear it called "beloved". thanks! – barbara beeton Jul 1 '11 at 12:20
Let me add in my affection for the ams \mathbb symbols as well :) – Suresh Jul 1 '11 at 16:02

You have to restate the meaning of \mathbb:

\AtBeginDocument{
\DeclareSymbolFont{AMSb}{U}{msb}{m}{n}
\DeclareSymbolFontAlphabet{\mathbb}{AMSb}}


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How about the font for \varmathbb? – jeecabz Sep 6 '12 at 7:16

give the kpfonts a try, they are similiar to palatino, but have also sans serif and typewriter fonts:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{kpfonts}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\begin{document}
\Huge
$\mathbb{F}\mathbb{D}\mathbb{G}\mathbb{H}$

\normalsize
Serif text, and
\textsf{Sans Serif}, and
\texttt{Typewriter}
\end{document}


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There is in fact a package option for this: if you pass noBBpl to mathpazo, then its blackboard bold fonts are not loaded. That also means you have to load the AMS ones separately, but that just means using amssymb, which is simpler than defining another symbol font alphabet:

\documentclass{article}
% these two \usepackage commands make it work
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage[noBBpl]{mathpazo}
\usepackage[scaled=.95]{helvet}
\usepackage{courier}
\begin{document}
In this document,
\begin{itemize}
\item $\mathbb N$ will denote the natural numbers,
\item $\mathbb Z$ will denote the integers,
\item $\mathbb Q$ will denote the rational numbers,
\item $\mathbb R$ will denote the real numbers, and
\item $\mathbb C$ will denote the complex numbers.
\end{itemize}
\end{document}


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