Bold , italic (and sans-serif) math symbols

I would like to implement the suggestions in the TUGboat 30:3, 2009 about the upright/italic and bold/normal in scalars, vectors and tensors. All this is about math.

I use this font:

\usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}


For vectors, I always used \vec, so I just redefined it like so:

\renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\boldsymbol{#1}}


Now they are bold and italic, just like I want them. Is that even the correct way to do this?

How can I get characters in bold, italic and sans-serif?

I almost got it with this, they are just upright and not italic:

\newcommand{\tens}[1]{\boldsymbol{\mathsf{#1}}}

• It's not clear, but are you looking for: \mathbf \mathit \nathsf Oct 14, 2012 at 18:39
• \mathbf makes the font upright. And I cannot combine \mathsf and \mathbb. Oct 14, 2012 at 18:50
• Have a look here: tex.stackexchange.com/q/24035/14100 Nov 14, 2012 at 20:42

The cleanest way is to define a new math alphabet:

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathbfsf}{\encodingdefault}{\sfdefault}{bx}{n}


and then

\newcommand{\tens}[1]{\mathbfsf{#1}}


If you want italic bold sans serif, just change the first declaration into

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathbfsf}{\encodingdefault}{\sfdefault}{bx}{sl}


but keep in mind that the OT1 encoded Computer Modern Sans fonts don't have slanted bold face, so also

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}


or

\usepackage{lmodern}


is required.

You should also consider using \bm of the bm package instead of \boldsymbol, so that \bm{\mathsf{T}} would be equivalent to the \mathbfsf{T} with the first declaration. However there is no predefined sans serif italic math alphabet. So, if you need also sans serif italic, a more economic setting would be

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{bm}

\DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathsfit}{\encodingdefault}{\sfdefault}{m}{sl}
\SetMathAlphabet{\mathsfit}{bold}{\encodingdefault}{\sfdefault}{bx}{sl}

\newcommand{\tens}[1]{\bm{\mathsfit{#1}}}

\begin{document}
$\tens{T}$
\end{document}


• There is a brace } missing at the end of the \newcommand-line. I cannot edit it since it is just a single char. Jan 26, 2013 at 21:03
• The latter works great, even with greek letters. Thank you! Jan 26, 2013 at 21:03
• No joy with \Gamma: $\tens{\Gamma}$` gives a bold backtick-like something (both solutions, texlive 2021). Aug 25, 2021 at 12:54