I have to write a document in Times. Therefore I started writing it in TeX Gyre Termes, based on the note on Time's font page. However, I use PDFLaTeX, so I can't directly type Greek characters. So if I want to write isopropyl-1-thio-β-D-galactopyranoside I need to type isopropyl-1-thio-$\beta$-D-galactopyranoside.
However, this puts the beta as italic (Which I need anyway, not bad) but lists it in a different font then the surrounding text. I noticed that Times ( \usepackage{mathptmx} ) is listed as math-compatible, while TeX Gyre Termes is not, so I switched packages and lo and behold my beta now works.
However, I noticed that if you look through Termes technical documentation it lists it as having a beta, in normal, italic, bold and bold italic. (Character 03B2 on page 10, section 3. Standard other unicodes 0080 .. DFFF (actually in 00A0 .. uni2AB0))
Some examples with a MWE:
\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tgtermes}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
Hey, look, a $\beta$, that doesn't match the text.
\end{document}
And a better looking example:
\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{mathptmx}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
Hey, look, a $\beta$, that better matches the text.
\end{document}
I thought \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} would let me just type β and have it work, but no dice.
egreg also told me to try this:
\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tgtermes}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{newunicodechar}
\newunicodechar{β}{\beta}
\begin{document}
Hey, look, a β that gives me gibberish
\end{document}
Which makes me wonder: 1) In what way is Termes better then Times if it isn't math-mode usable? 2) Can I use Times as my math-font and Termes as my body? 3) Can I get access to the 4 betas from Termes in PDFLaTeX?