# Alternative to $\mathfrak A$?

I love to use mathfrak letters. However I need an A' and the mathfrak A looks a lot like a U to me:

Are there alternative mathfrak' looking fonts?

• There are several alternatives, see e.g. on p. 119 of the comprehensive catalogue, otherwise see here how to look up a symbol.
– user121799
Jun 25 '18 at 2:19
• Have you taken a look at the mathalfa package? It provides an easy interface to (and various examples of) fraktur-type math alphabets.
– Mico
Jun 25 '18 at 2:47
• Have a look at tex.stackexchange.com/q/58098/15925 for various possibilities. Jun 25 '18 at 6:36
• You want to look at fraktur alphabets? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/320403/…. Of course, they are not set up currently for LaTeX math... Jun 25 '18 at 11:01
• @marmot I don’t think this is a question about how to look up a symbol; the asker knows that the source is \mathfrak{A}. It’s a question about how to select a blackletter font that’s less Fraktur and more Antiqua, and use it in math-mode. Jun 25 '18 at 14:16

### With unicode-math

You can select the Fraktur alphabet of any math font, or map any Unicode blackletter (or other!) font to the Fraktur alphabet. You might try UniFraktur Maguntia with its sets of character variants, including three forms of uppercase A. Here is its “easy-reading” or “21st-century” variant.

\documentclass[varwidth, preview]{standalone}

\usepackage{unicode-math}

\setmathfont{Latin Modern Math}
% From http://unifraktur.sourceforge.net/
% Stylistic Set 1 is the “Easy Reading” variant.  Character variant 4:1 is an
% alternative modern A.
\setmathfont[range=frak/{latin,Latin},
Scale=MatchUppercase,
StylisticSet=1,
script-features={},
sscript-features={}
]{Unifraktur Maguntia}

\begin{document}
$$\symfrak{ABCDEFGHIJKLM}\\ \symfrak{NOPQRSTUVWXYZ}$$
\end{document}


And a different variant A, plus other modernized letters:

\documentclass[varwidth, preview]{standalone}

\usepackage{unicode-math}

\setmathfont{Latin Modern Math}
% From http://unifraktur.sourceforge.net/
% Stylistic Set 1 is the “Easy Reading” variant.  Character variant 4:1 is an
% alternative modern A.
\setmathfont[range=frak/{latin,Latin},
Scale=MatchUppercase,
CharacterVariant={4:1,5,6,7,8,9,10},
script-features={},
sscript-features={}
]{Unifraktur Maguntia}

\begin{document}
$$\symfrak{ABCDEFGHIJKLM}\\ \symfrak{NOPQRSTUVWXYZ}$$
\end{document}


This example keeps the default bold Fraktur, which Maguntia does not cover. There are many other fonts in Steven B. Segaletes’ list here.

### With NFSS

As Mico mentioned in the comments, you can select between the available Type 1 Fraktur fonts using mathalpha (formerly mathalfa).

Another set of Fraktur fonts that aren’t designed for math mode, but can be used there, are the Y fonts by Yannis Haralambous, which are now available as Type 1. For example, here is Gotisch.

\documentclass[varwidth, preview]{standalone}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % The default since 2018
\usepackage{oldgerm}
\usepackage{amsmath}

% Gotisch:
\newcommand\varfrak[1]{\mathord{\text{\textgoth{#1}}}}

\begin{document}
$$\varfrak{ABCDEFGHIJKLM}\\ \varfrak{NOPQRSTUVWXYZ}$$
\end{document}


ETA: Looking back at this answer in 2020, I notice a small bug in the MWE: I use \text to select a symbol alphabet in math mode. In theory, formatting of the surrounding text, such as \bfseries or \itshape, would bleed through. This might be desirable if you’re including math symbols in a title where you want both \bfseries and \boldmath, and I don’t believe there’s any \itshape, \scshape, or so on for these fonts.

However, you might prefer to use \DeclareMathAlphabet instead (if you aren’t using legacy tools with a very limited number of math alphabets), or \usefont or \normalfont inside \text.

• +1 Is symfrak a custom name or predefined? Jun 25 '18 at 14:05
• @Dr.ManuelKuehner It’s defined in unicode-math. You could also use \mathfrak but give a package option to interpret it as \symfrak, so you don’t get ligatures like sz in math-mode. In practice, if you’re just writing \mathfrak{A}, they’re basically equivalent. Jun 25 '18 at 14:09
• What on earth is the difference between "I" and "J" in the last font "Gotisch"?!? Apr 17 '20 at 9:41
• @user21820 It’s a historic font that wasn’t intended for math papers, and historically those were the same letter. But thanks for reminding me about this. I notice a bug in my last MWE: I use \text to select the font in math mode, so theoretically, text-mode formatting such as \bfseries or \itshape would bleed through. Apr 17 '20 at 13:38
• @Davislor: Oh! "I" and "J" were once the same letter? That is a really interesting thing that I did not know. Thanks for illuminating that. =) Apr 17 '20 at 16:40

As an alternative you could try the fraktur style of kpfonts package: see the example below without to use XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX (fontspec/unicode characters).

In my humble opinion, they are not aggressive characters :-)

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{kpfonts}
\newcommand{\Alphabet}{ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ}

\begin{document}
$\mathfrak{\Alphabet}$
\end{document}

• So clean and tidy. Why on earth people like the horrifying mess of usual mathfrak is beyond me... Apr 17 '20 at 9:42
• @user21820 De gustibus non est disputandum :-) Apr 17 '20 at 9:44
• This changes every font in the document, not just mathfrak, which isn't ideal if you have a template you need to stick to. Is there a way to selectively change only the mathfrak font? Sep 18 '20 at 6:17
• @Nathaniel Yes of course. There is a way selectively change only the mathfrak font of mathfrak. It is necessary declare every mathsymbol from the slot of the package, and to use them without to change the principal document. See the example tex.loria.fr/ctan-doc/macros/latex/doc/html/fntguide/… \DeclareMathSymbol{\alpha}{0}{letters}{"0B} \DeclareMathSymbol{\lessdot}{\mathbin}{AMSb}{"0C} \DeclareMathSymbol{\alphld}{\mathalpha}{AMSb}{"0C} Sep 18 '20 at 7:48
• @Sebastiano thanks - but I'm afraid that looks like some kind of black magic to me. I have zero knowledge of how TeX handles fonts, and I can't begin to imagine how one would adapt this to replace \mathfrak characters with their equivalents from the kpfonts package, leaving everything else unchanged. I don't suppose you could shed a little more light on it, by any chance? Sep 18 '20 at 9:06