LaTeX forum ⇒ Math & Science ⇒ A Times' clone that distinguishes between α and a

[user49915]

Sometimes we wish to typeset Reo timed data streams. Following §12 of Arbab's http://homepages.cwi.nl/~farhad/MSCS03Reo.pdf , we write ⟨α, a⟩:

Code: [Select all] [Expand/Collapse] [Download] ({untitled.tex})

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont[Ligatures=TeX]{TeX Gyre Termes Math}%%% Using Times (more realistically: a Times' clone) is a must.
%\setmathfont[Ligatures=TeX]{CambriaMath.ttf}%%% Not Times, but is not better anyway
\begin{document}
\(\langle \alpha,a\rangle\)
\end{document}

The result given by xelatex or lualatex, is, erm, no better than in Arbab's paper:

mwe.png (3.77 KiB) Viewed 398 times

Is there any Times' clone as TTF or OTF that provides a better distinction between the two symbols?

[kaiserkarl13]

The glyph that comes with txfonts and newtxmath is slightly different than the one below (last stroke is a bit more curly, initial stroke thinner and at a different angle), but it depends on what you mean by "distinguish." I personally think the difference in the font you showed is similar to that in the lmodern fonts, but evidently that's me.

[user49915]

The glyph that comes with txfonts and newtxmath is slightly different than the one below (last stroke is a bit more curly, initial stroke thinner and at a different angle)

So, do you suggest that we try out txfonts and newtxmath? Recall that TTF/OTF was asked for in the OP.
Further, I don't quite understand what you mean by "below".