# Greek characters in normal and sans serif math mode

Here's a simple demonstration program:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\DeclareMathVersion{sans}
\SetSymbolFont{letters}{sans}{OT1}{cmss}{m}{sl}

\begin{document}
$x + \alpha \beta$
\mathversion{sans}
$x + \alpha \beta$
\end{document}


It works fine, but the sans serif math does not have correct greek characters. Adding the following lines almost fixes the problem:

\usepackage[LGR]{fontenc}
\DeclareSymbolFont{grekletters}{LGR}{cmr}{m}{sl}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\alpha}{\mathord}{grekletters}{a}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\beta}{\mathord}{grekletters}{b}
%...
\SetSymbolFont{grekletters}{sans}{LGR}{cmss}{m}{n}


But now the Greek characters in math mode are not the original ones. Where are the original ones?

There's a similar question: Replacing greek glyphs in math mode. It is about luatex, though.

Also, I cannot use the sansmath package because it does not support my font encoding.

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The letters font should be a font encoded as OML, not OT1; you can use CMBright for those and for the OMS family; a decent substitute for the large symbols can be Iwona:

\SetSymbolFont{operators}   {sans}{OT1}{cmss} {m}{n}
\SetSymbolFont{letters}     {sans}{OML}{cmbrm}{m}{it}
\SetSymbolFont{symbols}     {sans}{OMS}{cmbrs}{m}{n}
\SetSymbolFont{largesymbols}{sans}{OMX}{iwona}{m}{n}

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What's the difference between cmbr and cmbrm? Anyway, it seems to work. Unfortunately the font does not end up vectorized in my final PDF. –  Ben Apr 16 '12 at 20:12
The omlcmbr.fd file just refers to fonts defined in omlcmbrm.fd, so I used the latter. In my TeX Live I have the Type1 fonts, which are in a hfbright directory. What distribution are you using? –  egreg Apr 16 '12 at 20:15
I'm using Miktex 2.9. I guess I could live with the sans serif greek characters being bitmaps, but I'll leave this question open for a while to see if anyone else has an idea. –  Ben Apr 16 '12 at 20:45
The MiKTeX packages page refers to hfbright: miktex.org/packages/hfbright –  egreg Apr 16 '12 at 20:48
@Speravir The CM-Super fonts have nothing to do with CM Bright. The description of the hfbright package for MiKTeX says: "The hfbright fonts (Type1 version of the CM Bright fonts)" –  egreg Apr 16 '12 at 23:17