# How to use blackboard bold numbers with the Palatino (mathpazo) font?

Consider the following MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
\usepackage{bbold}

\begin{document}
Hello world $\mathbb{012345}$
\end{document}


This gives me

While removing the mathpazo package I get

How can I have it both ways? I would like to use the Palatino font, but at the same time use blackboard-bold numbers.

There are several options.

### The mathalpha Package

This package contains both a pazo and a px blackboard bold alphabet, matching mathpazo.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\usepackage[bb=pazo]{mathalpha}

\begin{document}
$$ABC \mathbb{ABC}$$
\end{document}


You could also replace the mathalpha option bb=pazo with bb=px. The latter comes with a bold double-struck alphabet usable as \mathbbb. Since mathpazo is a fork of Adobe’s version of Palatino, any font package matching Palatino matches it. See the mathalpha package documentation for the complete list of alphabets.

### The newpxmath Package

This is essentially an upgrade to mathpazo. It still uses legacy 8-bit fonts, instead of the more modern Unicode and OpenType, but it’s compatible with PDFLaTeX. It includes a much broader repertoire of symbols, including several double-struck alphabets.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{newpxtext, newpxmath}
\usepackage{parskip}

\begin{document}
$$ABC \mathbb{ABC} \\ \varmathbb{ABC}$$
\end{document}


This comes with three different blackboard-bold alphabets, which are controlled by package options to newpxmath. If you like the letters on the second line, you can make those the default with \usepackage[varbb]{newpxmath}, or you can substitute math alphabets with mathalpha.

Since newpx, like mathpazo, is a clone of Palatino, you can match it with any other Palatino clone (such as tgpagella) or a font matching Palatino (such as Hermann Zapf’s other masterpieces, Optima and Euler).

### The Modern Toolchain

If you are able to use unicode-math and a modern TeX engine, I personally recommend it. Asana Math is a modern, Unicode math font based on mathpazo. TeX Gyre Pagella Math is also similar.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{parskip}

\defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}[Scale = 1.0]
\setmathfont{Asana Math}

\begin{document}
$$ABCabc \\ \mathbb{ABCabc}$$
\end{document}


\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{parskip}

\defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}[Scale = 1.0]
\setmathfont{TeX Gyre Pagella Math}

\begin{document}
$$ABCabc \\ \mathbb{ABCabc}$$
\end{document}


If you wanted to use just the blackboard-bold alphabets of TeX Gyre Pagella Math, and other symbols from Asana Math, you can do that with

\setmathfont{Asana Math}
\setmathfont[range={bb,bbit}]{TeX Gyre Pagella Math}


Or vice versa. If you have an authentic copy of Palatino on your system, you can also use that as your text font instead of the clone, Pagella.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bbold}
\let\altmathbb\mathbb
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}

\begin{document}
Hello world $\altmathbb{012345}$
\end{document}


To restore the original so that no syntax variant is required:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bbold}
\let\altmathbb\mathbb
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
\AtBeginDocument{\let\mathbb\altmathbb}
\begin{document}
Hello world $\mathbb{012345}$
\end{document}

• so is the reason that mathpazo overwrites the definitions in bbold? Is there a reason for this?
– glS
Oct 10 '19 at 17:41
• @glS I did not actually look, but presumed this to be the case. And the MWE seems to bear that out. Oct 10 '19 at 17:42
• I see, thanks. I thought that if that was the case, including bbold after mathpazo would have fixed it. Anyway, is there a way to still use \mathbb instead of having to use a new syntax (altmathbb in your answer)?
– glS
Oct 10 '19 at 17:43
• @glS See edit.. Oct 10 '19 at 17:47