> > Would allowing a regexp solve the expression \alpha-\beta, \alpha+\beta, > \alpha/\beta, so that \alpha and \beta are prettified seperately? > That's not necessary. Just follow Stefan's advice: (defun texinfo-prettify-symbols-compose-p (start end _match) ;; We know the matches all start with a backslash and end with ;; a word-element. (not (or (memq (char-before start) '(?\\)) (memq (char-syntax (or (char-after end) ?\s)) '(?w)) (nth 8 (syntax-ppss))))) (add-hook 'texinfo-mode-hook (lambda () (push '("\\alpha" . ?α) prettify-symbols-alist) (push '("\\beta" . ?β) prettify-symbols-alist) (setq prettify-symbols-compose-predicate 'texinfo-prettify-symbols-compose-p) (prettify-symbols-mode))) This does what you want.