Comment 14 for bug 609289

I will put the bottom line first for those with little time:

There is little point in changing Greek ν to make it look different from Latin v. If however you choose to go that path then you still have a serious problem: If you make minor changes so that the letter still fits well within the font then you defeat the purpose of removing confusion between the two letters. If on the other side you make major changes then you risk making the letter look like it doesn't belong to its font.

@Kevin: I can't imagine a case where the similarity between the Greek ν and Latin v is a problem except if someone uses both of them as special symbols within the same context (e.g. Greek ν as a symbol for a counter and Latin v as a symbol for velocity) . If you really-really must use both in the same text you can do the same trick that you see in most books: use another style or font for one of them (e.g. serif and sans-serif font or normal and bold style).

@Mark:
> "Is the mathematical invocation a different glyph, or the same one?"
I can't really tell if I understand your question. I can however think of one Greek letter which has been so special that often Greek people feel the need to use a different glyph for it. I'm talking about the Greek π when used to represent the ratio of circles circumferences to their diameters. I do note that even for this "superstar" of symbols we use the regular glyph in many cases. And if you visit the Unicode standard and go to the position of the regular Greek letter π it says "Index entries: GREEK SMALL LETTER PI, pi, mathematical constant 3.141592...". I hope these remarks help with what is bothering you.