Replacing “a” in latin modern

Question

I would like to replace the "a" (double-story minuscule) for the single-story minuscule in Latin Modern. I really hate that the printed "a" is not the same as the handwritten "a", and would like to uniformly replace it in LaTeX. Is that possible, if so how? Is there an alternative version for the glyph "a" in Latin Modern? If so, how do I access it?

If not, are there other fonts where such a replacement is possible, and which contains the appropriate symbols to create mathematics?

Answer 1

This is maybe only a point into a possible solution, but I had a similar problem where I wanted to change the font for just two characters. I used XeTeX and \XeTeXinterchartokenstate etc.. Here is my post about it "changing font of one (or a small number of) text character only" and you could consult other posts here or the XeTeX manual (I am in no way trumpeting myself here) for better guidance. I believe it should be possible to modify that to do the same as what you want (you would have to substitute \JapSubstFont with some appropriate code, something that would replace bad-a with good-a.

\XeTeXinterchartokenstate=1 
\newXeTeXintercharclass\JapSubst  
\XeTeXcharclass"0065=\JapSubst 
% "0065 is unicode for the letter e  use the code for the letter a, etc

\XeTeXinterchartoks 0 \JapSubst = {\begingroup\JapSubstFont} 
\XeTeXinterchartoks 255 \JapSubst = {\begingroup\JapSubstFont} 
\XeTeXinterchartoks \JapSubst 0 = {\endgroup} 
\XeTeXinterchartoks \JapSubst 255 = {\endgroup} 

PS I heartily agree that this is not an inappropriate question, and IMHO latex still has a way to go in terms of providing practical mechanisms for this. The philosophy of "let us do the typographical thinking for you, you just bang out content" has become a little quaint/strained as TeX has matured ;-)

(and something for the meta: why no smileys? Makes it seem like we have no S-o'-H...all work and no joy makes TeX a dull toy. No snarkiness intended--TeX is the CaT's whiskers, AfAiAc (tip a canoe and TeXSE, too!))

PS I just realized this may not have been your question. You weren't asking about how to do it, but looking for appropriate fonts, it seems. Sorry...