I want a smaller "+" sign in international phone numbers. For example if I write

+1-123-456-7890


it gives

where "-" signs are all okay (not pretty though), but the "+" sign looks too big. How can I make it smaller? Is there any special symbol in LaTeX?

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You can play around with \raisebox{.3\height}{\scalebox{.7}{+}} if you \usepackage{graphicx} in your preamble. –  Werner Apr 19 '12 at 3:24

An option could be to use + and - in monospaced font:

\documentclass{article}

\def\Plus{\texttt{+}}
\def\Minus{\texttt{-}}

\begin{document}

\Plus 1\Minus 123\Minus 456\Minus 7890

\end{document}


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Looks great IMHO. I would think that the thicker glyphs of cmtt would be disturbing, but they aren't! –  yo' Apr 19 '12 at 7:30
I usually type the entire phone number in a monospaced font. –  Aditya Jul 27 '12 at 19:04

Here is an implementation of Werner's suggestion, which includes the definition of new commands \plus and \minus for the look of the symbols you want:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\plus}{\raisebox{.4\height}{\scalebox{.6}{+}}}
\newcommand{\minus}{\raisebox{.4\height}{\scalebox{.8}{-}}}
\begin{document}
Phone number \plus1\minus123\minus456\minus7890
\end{document}

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You might want to ensure a consistent appearance of + and -. One way to do this is using the symbols from math mode: $+$1$-$123$-$456$-$7890. Of course, these can be raised and scaled, but now by the same amount. (If you set the whole number in math mode, spacing will be inserted before and after the -, as they will be treated as operators then.) –  krlmlr Apr 19 '12 at 7:47