Bug report

Bug summary

• Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend

Code for reproduction

importmatplotlibasmplimportmatplotlib.pyplotaspltmpl.rcParams.update(mpl.rcParamsDefault)mpl.rcParams['text.usetex']=Truempl.rcParams['font.family']= ['serif']mpl.rcParams['font.serif']= ['times']fig,ax=plt.subplots()ax.set_xlabel(r'$x$ $\alpha$')fig.savefig('test.pdf')

Actual outcome
test.pdf

• Alpha symbol in the x-axis label appears as a streak in the output PDF

Expected outcome

• Alpha symbol in the x-axis label to appear as an alpha, rendered by LaTeX

Matplotlib version

• Matplotlib 2.2.2, Python 2.7.15, OSX 10.13.4
• pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018), kpathsea version 6.3.0
• Installed with MacPorts