New Large Math Symbol

I want to use symbols from the phaistos package as "numbers"

This means that I want to type something like:

\documentclass{amsart}

\usepackage{phaistos}

\newcommand{\lo}{\text{\PHbee}}
\newcommand{\loo}{\text{\PHboomerang}}

\begin{document}
$\lo + \loo$
\end{document}


and have it come out looking semi-decent. Since the symbols in this package are large text symbols, they do no go below the bottom line that text is sitting on. To make the math look correct, they would need to go below the line. I think if I made them large math symbols, this would center them the way I want.

Thoughts on a good way to do this?

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FYI - let me tell you what I'm doing. I writing an activity for future teachers. I'm going to give my students addition and multiplication tables for F_9. However the symbols used in this table are going to be strange glyphs - not numbers. Then I ask them algebra questions. Since no "numbers" are being used, the student must truly use the laws of algebra, along with the tables to solve the problems. I suppose that if you could suggest another package that provided 12ish neat symbols (not boring ones!) I could use that instead of phaistos. –  Bart Snapp Aug 30 '10 at 16:52

This way does automatic centering...

\newcommand*{\lo}{\vcenter{\hbox{\PHbee}}}
\newcommand*{\loo}{\vcenter{\hbox{\PHboomerang}}}

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You could use the command \raisebox with negative height to lower your symbols:

\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{phaistos}
\newcommand*{\lo}{\raisebox{-.6ex}{\PHbee}}
\newcommand*{\loo}{\raisebox{-1ex}{\PHboomerang}}
\begin{document}
$\lo + \loo = ?$
\end{document}


Output:

Alternatively, you could use an array or a tabular environment to achieve vertical centering:

\newcommand*{\lo}{\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}\PHbee\end{tabular}}
\newcommand*{\loo}{\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}\PHboomerang\end{tabular}}


Here I used tabular because those symbols require text mode, otherwise I would prefer array. The @{} suppress the tabular resp. array intercolumn space, that's why the I used the @{}c@{} column options.

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I like it. Thanks! Why did you put a * after the \newcommand? –  Bart Snapp Aug 30 '10 at 17:11
–  Caramdir Aug 30 '10 at 17:20
Isn't there some way to center the symbols around math axis, like TeX does with operators? –  Khaled Hosny Aug 30 '10 at 17:27
I'd like to know this... I'll change the "answered" status if someone can give me this! –  Bart Snapp Aug 30 '10 at 18:20
Why not use \vcenter? –  TH. Aug 30 '10 at 19:33

Perhaps you can take the + and = signs from the cow font. They are part of ConTeXt minimals(but not TL, as far as I could tell).

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I don't know the phaistos package, but maybe defining the following can help

\newcommand*{\PHsymb}[1]{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\ifcase#1\relax\PHbee\or\PHboomerang\or...\fi}}}


where you replace ... by the relevant \PH... symbols. Then you can use \PHsymb{0} for \PHbee, etc. No need to remember what is what.

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