# Sans-serif partial derivative symbol?

How can I typeset a partial derivative symbol (∂) in an upright, sans-serif font?

I am using pdfLaTeX. I know this problem could be solved easily by switching to another engine — and feel free to post XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX solutions for the benefit of posterity if you wish — but I am specifically looking for a solution within pdfLaTeX.

Edited to add an image to contrast what LaTeX generates with what I want:

• If it's sans-serif and upright, is it still the partial symbol? – Sverre Nov 7 '14 at 20:46
• @Sverre: French traditional typography typesets partial symbol in upright shape. So I would say the answer is ‘yes’. – Bernard Nov 7 '14 at 20:51
• One could use the schwa symbol with tipa, but it wouldn't be sans-serif. – Sverre Nov 7 '14 at 20:53
• Check the answers here. tex.stackexchange.com/q/27527/24974 – erik Nov 7 '14 at 21:01
• @Sverre -- schwa isn't a partial symbol; it's a rotated lowercase "e". for anyone who has had any exposure to phonetics it definitely wouldn't be recognized as a partial symbol. – barbara beeton Nov 7 '14 at 21:39

Partial solution.

\usepackage{graphicx}
\renewcommand*\partial{\textsf{\reflectbox{6}}}


• Pun ~ intended. – Manuel Nov 7 '14 at 23:24
• Wow, I love it for sheer cheek. I probably should choose a more generalizable solution as my accepted answer, but this is an amazingly clever one-liner quick fix. – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 7:49
• Well, @thecommexokid, you didn't say what font you where using, so I guessed that (at least) you tried with cmbright and you didn't like the partial of that font, so I improvised a new one. In case you want the partial from that font (or whatever font you choose), the answer to your question is here. – Manuel Nov 9 '14 at 15:27
• I am trying to understand the answers of the question you linked to. It seems as though I will need to know the character number of the \partial character within cmbright; how do I find that? – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 20:46
• That's something I don't control pretty well, but doing a \meaning\partial inside a document, it will print its definition: in this case \mathchar"140. So, if I were to guess a number I would say "140 :) I don't know how “people” in this site get/know those numbers, but in my case that's the only way I know (in case you are happy with the .log may be you prefer to use \show\partial rather than \meaning\partial). – Manuel Nov 9 '14 at 20:50
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{kpfonts}
\def\uppartial{{\mathversion{sf}\ensuremath{\partialup}}}
\begin{document}
$\partial$ partial derivative symbol in \LaTeX

\sffamily
\uppartial{} partial derivative symbol in \LaTeX
\end{document}


You can also use \usepackage[partialup]{kpfonts} if you do not need the default version. Then \partial is upright by default.

• Hm. For me, the \mathversion{sf} in this definition seems to have no effect, and I am getting a symbol that, while it is upright, matches the style of the serif font family. It looks better in your picture. – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 8:04
• I am using up-to-date TeXLive 2014 and version 3.31 of the kpfonts. – user2478 Nov 9 '14 at 8:41

How about using cmbright to get sans serif math and rotating the \partial?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{cmbright}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\upartial}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{15}{\ensuremath{\partial\mkern-2mu}}}
\begin{document}
$\frac{\partial x}{\partial t}\quad\textnormal{vs.}\quad\frac{\upartial x}{\upartial t}$
\end{document}


Edit:

One can get cmbright only in math mode with the following code. However, in doing so I discovered this solution is not very robust. As you can see in the image, the upright \partial gets typeset in \displaystyle despite being inside $$...$$.

Code:

\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lmodern,cmbright}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\rmdefault}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\upartial}{\mathsurround=0pt \rotatebox[origin=c]{15}{$\partial\mkern-2mu$}}
\begin{document}
Normal vs.\ upright partial: $$\frac{\partial x}{\partial t}$$ vs.\ $$\frac{\upartial x}{\upartial t}$$
\end{document}


Note: I've also changed the definition of \upartial after reading @egreg's answer here, but the inline math problem persists.

• \usepackage{cmbright} will typeset the entire document in sans-serif, no? – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 7:51
• To clarify: I have no objection to using cmbright for my sans-serif font, and I like the look of the symbols in your screenshot the best of any of the suggested solutions. But my document is a mixture of serif and sans-serif type, so it is unacceptable to switch the whole document to cmbright. Is there a way to use cmbright only for my sans-serif needs? – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 8:12
• @thecommexokid I've modified my answer to produce only sans serif math, but in doing so I found an issue with my proposed solution. – erik Nov 9 '14 at 20:03
• It doesn't use \displaystyle but \textstyle. You should take a look at \mathpalette and \mathchoice. – Manuel Nov 9 '14 at 20:08
• Re: "One can get cmbright only in math mode with the following code." Thank you for the attempted fix, but alas this is still not what I am trying to do. I do not wish to typeset all the math in my document in sans-serif, only some individual characters. All I want is \somecommand that does what I had naively expected \mathsf{\partial} to do. It's fine to use cmbright for all my sans-serif in the document; it's not fine to use it for all my math. – thecommexokid Nov 9 '14 at 20:28