Italic ampersand displayed weirdly?

Question

I want an italic ampersand, yet it looks weird to me:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
    \textit{\&}
\end{document}

I just want an ampersand in italics, yet it should still look like an ampersand.

Answer 1

What you show is quite a common form of ampersand in italic fonts. In many ways it is more readable (as an e-t ligature) than the & form. It can be viewed like g and g where the italic is a different shape, not simply slanted.

In the computer modern fonts you are using, there is a slanted & available via \textsl

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
   \&  \textit{\&} \textsl{\&}
\end{document}