I have a mathematical exercise written in LaTeX and it seems ugly to me. It is ok to ask what would be the best (and most beautiful) way to typeset it?

The exercise in question is the following:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[top=0.7in, bottom=1.2in, left=0.8in, right=0.8in]{geometry}
\usepackage{parskip}
\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[greek,english]{babel}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX, Extension=.otf, UprightFont=*, BoldFont=*Bold, ItalicFont=*It, BoldItalicFont=*BoldIt, Mapping=tex-text]{GFSArtemisia}

\setsansfont[Mapping=tex-text]{GFSArtemisia.otf}
\setmathfont{latinmodern-math.otf}
\setmathfont[range=\varnothing]{Asana-Math.otf}
\setmathfont[range=\int]{latinmodern-math.otf}

\begin{document}

\begin{align*}
&\frac{d H}{d p}= -(1-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+\epsilon)\log(p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p+\epsilon)-a\cdot \log(a)-\\
&(1-p+2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)\log (1-p+2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)=\\
&=-(1-e\cdot \epsilon-a)\log(p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p+\epsilon)-\\
&(1-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p)\cdot\frac{1}{-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p+\epsilon}\cdot (1-2\cdot \epsilon-a)-\\
&(-1+2\cdot \epsilon+a)\log(1-p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)-\\
&(1-p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)\cdot \frac{1}{1-p+2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p- \epsilon-a}\cdot (-1+2\cdot \epsilon+a)=\\
&-(1-2\cdot \epsilon -a)\log(p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p+\epsilon)-(1-2\cdot \epsilon-a)-\\
&(-1+2\cdot \epsilon+a)\log(1-p+2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)-(-1+2\cdot \epsilon+a)=\\
&-(1-2\cdot \epsilon-a)[\log(p-2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p-a\cdot p+\epsilon)+\log(1-p+2\cdot \epsilon\cdot p+a\cdot p-\epsilon-a)]
\end{align*}

\end{document}

• it's OK to ask, but on main not on meta. May 13, 2015 at 11:53
• @DavidCarlisle of course on main I just post the code as I wanted to explain what was about because it isn't directly a question about LaTeX. Thank you though.
May 13, 2015 at 11:55
• It's sort of borderline as a purely design question such as "what notation for.." is off topic but this I think is near enough a question about tex markup to be on topic. May 13, 2015 at 11:58
• @DavidCarlisle my thoughts exactly! :P
May 13, 2015 at 11:59
• Typography is off-topic here, so is the question for beauty as Werner pointed out. We have so many questions of that kind on site, many get improvements without even asking. Rephrasing the question will certainly give you better results. And of course, there is also the chat room where some real mathematicians with experience are. They can always give some advice. May 14, 2015 at 9:17
• Non-TeX typography is off-topic. The rest is ontopic. We have a lot of 50+ voted questions on the site. May 14, 2015 at 13:01
• In terms of readability, I'd suggest defining something like $H = 1 - 2 \epsilon - a$ at the top of the exercise, and then using that throughout. It shortens it quite considerably. May 15, 2015 at 7:07

Phrasing a question to request a "best way" to typeset something is subjective, since "best" for me is different from "best" for someone else, in my opinion. This goes for the actual code or the rendered output. The same goes for something that "looks ugly" as beauty is in the eye of the be(er)holder. Therefore I typically associate such questions as being "primarily opinion-based" - one of the suggested reasons for closure:

I would much rather see someone show something they consider "ugly" and then also show what they've done to suggest a "more beautiful" presentation as opposed to purely making a "this looks ugly; make it look better" request. That may point solutions into a specific direction and be more focussed and perhaps factual.

• Haha be(er)holder nice one! So your opinion is that I should phrase it differently or not asking it at all?
May 13, 2015 at 12:38
• @Adam: Phrase it differently. If it's purely a "this looks ugly; make it look better" request, then I'd suggest visiting the chat room and discussing it there.
– Werner Mod
May 13, 2015 at 12:40
• Ok thanks! What do you think about "What would be a correct way according to the rules of typography"?