# How to get non italic greek symbols with ams packages?

I need to use the following packages:

\documentclass[aip, apl, twocolumn, reprint]{revtex4-1}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{natmove}


How do I get non-italic greek symbols like \mu in 2 $\mu$m?

There is a package named upgreek (in the preamble, just include \usepackage{upgreek}) which enable for non-italic greek letters. The lowercase letters are named \upalpha, \upbeta, ... and so, and upercase are named \Upalpha, \Upbeta, ...

Good luck

If you are allowed to use a modern toolchain, I highly recommend that you load unicode-math, which is vastly more capable than a package last updated in 2002. It provides commands for upright letters such as \uppi and \upmu out of the box (along with another set like \italpha and \itbeta). If you want italic Latin math letters and upright Greek by default, load \usepackage[math-style=french]{unicode-math}. If you want both alphabets upright, load \usepackage[math-style=upright]{unicode-math}. If you want the Greek letters italic by default, but to be able to insert an upright μ or π, load \usepackage[math-style=ISO]{unicode-math}. The default style, with italic lowercase letters but upright uppercase letters, is also available as math-style=TeX.

\RequirePackage{luatex85} % Workaround for standalone 1.2 and LuaTeX.
\documentclass[preview,varwidth=640px]{standalone}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[math-style=ISO]{unicode-math}

\begin{document}
$\prod_{\alpha=0}^\beta \upalpha\upbeta$
\end{document}


Some other packages will also allow you to write either \mathrm\pi or \mathit\pi, including the stix package (which has the best coverage of any package that runs on PDFLaTeX). Load it with \usepackage[lcgreekalpha]{stix} so that lowercase Greek letters are treated as alphabetical characters and match the current math style. Here, I give examples of how to define \upalpha and \upbeta for compatibility with other packages.

\RequirePackage{luatex85} % Workaround for standalone 1.2 and LuaTeX.
\documentclass[preview,varwidth=640px]{standalone}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[lcgreekalpha]{stix}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\DeclareRobustCommand\upalpha{\ensuremath\mathrm\alpha}
\DeclareRobustCommand\upbeta{\ensuremath\mathrm\beta}

\begin{document}
$\prod_{\alpha=0}^\beta \upalpha\upbeta$
\end{document}


The isomath package has options to load many different Greek alphabets.

If you are genuinely forced to use only the fonts in the amsfonts package, the only upright Greek fonts in the package are part of the font eurm10 (see page 32 of the amsfonts documentation). You can access these glyphs with \DeclareMathCommand. However, if you want to use Euler with PDFLaTeX today, you would get better results from the eulerpx package, and if you wanted to use it with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX, you could load the letters from Neo Euler and the symbols from Asana Math in unicode-math.

Other packages that provide upright Greek alphabets include textgreek, upgreek, pxfonts and mathptm. There ae several more.

Knuth says (TeXBook, page 434):

It’s conventional to use unslanted letters for uppercase Greek, and slanted letters for lowercase Greek;

it was the standard for time before TeX and decades after.

if you must avoid slanted greek letters:

\documentclass[border=10mm]{standalone}
\usepackage[upright]{fourier}
\begin{document}

$\pi \mu$

\end{document}


• there is also a package today ctan.org/pkg/upgreek – Daniel Dec 31 '14 at 7:13
• On the other hand, ISO style is to use upright letters for constants, including e and π, but italic for variables, and it’s common in France to use italic Latin but upright Greek. – Davislor Mar 22 '18 at 20:53

You can use the newtxmath package, as it defines upright greek letters:

\documentclass[border=10mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{newtxmath}
\begin{document}
$\piup \muup \thetaup \phiup \boldsymbol{\piup} \boldsymbol{\muup} \boldsymbol{\thetaup} \boldsymbol{\phiup} \boldsymbol{\Piup} \boldsymbol{\Thetaup} \boldsymbol{\Phiup}$
\end{document}


well greek small letters were always cursive, because they were written by hand. greeks forgot to invent the printing machine.

if the letters were carved in stone then greeks used the capital letters and here they used chisel and hammer so curves are avoided if possible.

actually the small letters were the simplification for fast writing of the capital letters... you can trace every small letter to the corresponding capital one.

\documentclass[border=10mm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{natmove}

\newcommand{\X}[1]{ $\;{#1}$ }
\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{*8l}
\X\alpha        &\X\theta       &\X o           &\X\tau         \\
\X\beta         &\X\vartheta    &\X\pi          &\X\upsilon     \\
\X\gamma        &\X\gamma       &\X\varpi       &\X\phi         \\
\X\delta        &\X\kappa       &\X\rho         &\X\varphi      \\
\X\epsilon      &\X\lambda      &\X\varrho      &\X\chi         \\
\X\varepsilon   &\X\mu          &\X\sigma       &\X\psi         \\
\X\zeta         &\X\nu          &\X\varsigma    &\X\omega       \\
\X\eta          &\X\xi                                          \\
\\
\X\Gamma        &\X\Lambda      &\X\Sigma       &\X\Psi         \\
\X\Delta        &\X\Xi          &\X\Upsilon     &\X\Omega       \\
\X\Theta        &\X\Pi          &\X\Phi
\end{tabular}
\caption{Greek Letters}
\end{table}

\end{document}


in short: I never seen small greek letters in roman style.

• I'm sorry but, but 1) when you study ancient Greek, letters are upright ; 2) the French and Russian tradition as concerns greek letters in maths, is that they are upright. – Bernard Dec 30 '14 at 9:14
• Some people (and journals) like to use default slant greeks in equations and non-slant greeks in normal texts; for example, in $\mu$m which stands for micrometers. – DKS Jan 2 '15 at 1:19
• "the greeks forgot to invent the printing machine" you know Greece still exists right? And they do have printed media! – ComptonScattering Nov 14 '16 at 16:38