{symbols} is about specific non-alphabetic symbols or math symbols, e.g., about looking-up, constructing, or using symbols. For questions about {fonts} or alphabetic {characters} use the respective tag instead.
225
votes
9answers
226k views
How does one insert a backslash or a tilde (~) into LaTeX?
How does one insert a "\" (backslash) into the text of a LaTeX document?
And how does one insert a "~" (tilde)? (If you insert \~, it will give you a tilde as an accent over the following letter.)
...
163
votes
9answers
15k views
How to look up a symbol?
I know what my symbol looks like, but I don't know what the command is. How do I go about finding this out?
84
votes
4answers
2k views
What is the use of percent signs (%) at the end of lines?
I see that the code in many packages and examples contains percent signs % at the end of (many) lines. What are they used for? Do they affect the parsing of those lines?
64
votes
6answers
4k views
Prettiest way to typeset “C++” (cplusplus)?
Writing "C++" in plain text results in an ugly setting, as the '+' signs are too big and too spaced:
I've seen around the web several marcos for typesetting the "C++" symbol, ranging from mild ...
51
votes
8answers
7k views
How to typeset $:=$ correctly?
I like to use $:=$ for "is defined to be equal to", but this is never typeset with the symmetry one would like, as the colon is always too low relatively to the equals sign. Is there any way of ...
47
votes
4answers
50k views
Why do the less than symbol (<) and the greater than symbol (>) appear wrong as upside down exclamation (¡) or question mark (¿)?
When typing < or > in LaTeX and compiling with pdflatex, the less than and greater than symbols appear at upside down exclamation points. I'm not in math mode.
46
votes
10answers
14k views
Good way to make \textcircled numbers?
I'm trying to make some good-looking numbers in a circle, using the simple command:
\textcircled{1}
However, the circle is misaligned vertically with the number, and look a bit sloppy:
Any ...
45
votes
4answers
10k views
Correctly typesetting a tilde
How do I set the tilde (~) character correctly in LaTeX?
There’s a question discussing that on Stack Overflow, with a lot of answers. But dare I say it? They all suck:
\textasciitilde is too high,
...
43
votes
2answers
3k views
How to get rid of navigation symbols in beamer?
When creating presentations in beamer, those little symbols that you can click on and will take you to different parts of your presentation are automatically included on your slides.
I don't like ...
40
votes
6answers
31k views
How can I get bold math symbols?
To make Latin-letter variables bold I can use e.g. \mathbf{a}, but while putting Greek letters or symbols such as \nabla inside \mathbf doesn't cause any errors or warnings, it also doesn't do ...
38
votes
7answers
15k views
What's the best way to write e-mail addresses?
When trying to write an e-mail address, there are always problems with the @ sign.
Solutions I've seen suggested are using some verbatim environment (more difficult in footnotes) and using a ...
38
votes
2answers
28k views
Absolute Value Symbols
What is the "best LaTeX practices" for writing absolute value symbols? Are there any packages which provide good methods?
Some options include |x| and \mid x \mid, but I'm not sure which is best...
37
votes
4answers
12k views
\mid, | (vertical bar), \vert, \lvert, \rvert, \divides
What's the difference between the different vertical bars?
$S = \{\, x \mid x \not= 17 \,\}$
$a \vert b$ implies $a \leq b$ when $b \ne 0$
$a|b$ implies $a \leq b$ when $b \ne 0$
$\lvert x \rvert$ is ...
35
votes
5answers
12k views
Symbols instead of numbers as footnote markers
How can I make LaTeX use symbols (*, †, ‡, and so on) instead of numbers to mark footnotes? (The numbers are confusing because I use superscripted numbers for citations.)
34
votes
2answers
21k views
'Floor' and 'ceiling' functions
Is there a convenient way to typeset the floor or ceiling of a number, without needing to separately code the left and right parts? For example, is there some way to do $\ceil{x}$ instead of $\lceil ...
33
votes
3answers
2k views
How to create Candle Symbol in LaTeX
I have a need to insert a candle symbol in "elite" in the place of "i".
I browsed through the comprehensive LaTeX symbols pdf and could not find any one matching up.
Is there any easy way to achieve ...
33
votes
2answers
4k views
“Closed” (square) root symbol
I found a cool trick in the LaTeX wikibook which allows the square root sign to be altered such that it "closes" over its contents.
Here's an example:
("closed" root on the left, normal one on the ...
32
votes
2answers
2k views
Importing a Single Symbol From a Different Font
Is there a general way to change the font of a particular symbol without switching packages?
For example, suppose I'm using Computer Modern for my entire document, but I want the "subset" operator to ...
31
votes
7answers
17k views
What is the best symbol for vector/matrix transpose?
What is the best or most popular symbol for vector/matrix transpose? I have used simply ^T, for example $c^T x$. I think it is ugly, mainly because it is a little too big compared with vector ...
29
votes
5answers
3k views
Something between \frownie and \smiley
Inside a beamer presentation, I would like to compare and contrast several alternatives. For each, I would like to highlight the "pros" (with a \item[\Large\smiley]), the "cons" (with a ...
28
votes
5answers
866 views
How to make a plus sign with arrowheads on each of the four endpoints?
There is a common operation in the sparse-direct literature (see pg. 7) called an "extend-add", and it is usually denoted with a particular symbol that looks like a large plus sign with arrowheads on ...
28
votes
3answers
655 views
New relation symbol
I am defining a new relation in one of my new papers. I want to use the following symbol, because it conveys the meaning of my relation. Is there such a symbol in LaTex ? It is very similar to \leq ...
27
votes
3answers
2k views
\subseteq + \circ as a single symbol (“open subset”)
I'm trying to create symbols \opn for "open subset" and \cls "closed subset". I want them to look like this:
My current solution is:
...
27
votes
4answers
32k views
“inputenc Error: Unicode char \u8” error while trying to write a degree symbol (invisible character)
No matter how I try to do it I always get the following error :
! Package inputenc Error: Unicode char \u8: not set up for use with LaTeX.
I have tried using $^{\circ}$, \deg, \textdegree, ...
26
votes
3answers
11k views
How to type special/accented letters in LaTeX?
How to type these special letters from European languages in latex?
ä, é, and L'?
26
votes
1answer
749 views
A font to typeset proofreader's marks in LaTeX?
I always overlook mistakes when I proofread documents on screen. When I proofread a printed paper I can find much more mistakes and mark them with the defined proofreader's marks – for German ...
25
votes
2answers
15k views
What is the LaTeX command for “em dash” (—)?
I am trying to insert the symbol in the title of the question, which I copied from a PDF article, but it appears as space in the output file. What is the corresponding LaTeX command?
25
votes
3answers
1k views
Best way to insert a horizontal cut line with a scissor symbol
What's the best way to insert a horizonal dashed line with a scissor symbol to indicate that the paper should be cut with a scissor along this line?
If you have multiple layout alternatives without ...
25
votes
4answers
3k views
Free ornaments font
I'm looking for a free ornaments font. I know about webomint and pifont. Where can I find more glyphs?
24
votes
5answers
6k views
What's a good way to write “x does not divide y”?
The way I currently do it is $x \not | y$, which looks awful. There's got to be something better available.
24
votes
2answers
1k views
“+” sign in international phone numbers
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 ...
24
votes
1answer
298 views
Wrote a new package. Is there some standard place to share?
So I finished writing my package for typesetting Begriffsschrift. I think it marks a marked improvement over the package begriff, which is the only other package for the same purpose, that I can find ...
23
votes
1answer
10k views
X mark to match checkmark
I am looking to have an X mark that compliments the \checkmark symbol in the amsmath package. I've had a look at some in symbols-a4.pdf but can't seem to find the matching one! What symbol works well?
...
22
votes
3answers
11k views
Symbol for Phone Number in Resume
I've chosen to create my resume in LaTeX ( out of curiosity ).
I thought printing a "clean" symbol of a phone before my phone_no will look nice ...
Is there such a symbol? any packages?
22
votes
3answers
643 views
Reproducing an analog clock similar to the one provided by the ifsym package
Friends, I was browsing The Comprehensive LATEX Symbol List looking for a simple analog clock in which I could use in a pamphlet. At some moment, I found an interesting entry (page 91):
I tried to ...
22
votes
2answers
21k views
Command for argmin or argmax?
How can you get the argmin or argmax in Latex? Two solutions I found are:
\underset{x}{\operatorname{argmax}}
\DeclareMathOperator*{\argmin}{arg\,min}
Any other ideas?
[1] ...
22
votes
3answers
2k views
Why isn't \prime automatically set to be a superscript?
In math mode, writing \prime gives too big a "prime" symbol, and it isn't a superscript, like it always is in textbooks. Why is this?
This isn't a question about how to get \prime to be a ...
22
votes
1answer
691 views
Symbol for cube
I've searched the Internet, but got nothing. In LaTeX, we can use \square for square, but how can we get a cube, I want to use it in an equation. Here is the picture:
22
votes
2answers
12k views
Which dot character to use in which context?
Wikipedia lists several dot characters in Unicode. These are the ones that are ambiguous to me:
interpunct, middle dot (·) · · U+00B7 "midpoint (in typography)"
...
22
votes
1answer
351 views
is there a “size-independent” method for overlaying two symbols to form a composite?
in this question
a composite symbol "diamond plus" is requested for use with plain TeX.
a good-looking version was provided, but it works in only one size.
if the same symbol is needed for a title or ...
21
votes
4answers
2k views
How to typeset special Apple Mac keyboard symbols?
Is there a standard way to typeset the special symbols of the Apple Mac keyboard? That is, the curly rectangle ⌘ and the others?
If there is none, what would you suggest as workarounds?
21
votes
3answers
1k views
How to get a good “divisible by” symbol?
In addition to the "divides" relation, denoted b | a, there is also a "divisible by" relation expressing the converse (a is divisible by b), often designated with three vertical dots.
Up until now, ...
21
votes
4answers
13k views
How to insert pipe symbol in (La)TeX?
How to insert pipe symbol | in TeX (LaTeX)?
I have tried this sample with pdflatex tmp.tex
\documentclass{extarticle}
\begin{document}
\textpipe
\end{document}
And it give undefined control ...
21
votes
4answers
11k views
Typesetting the “define equals” symbol
I'd like to typeset two compound symbols for making definitions. The following
\newcommand{\defeq}{\mathrel{\mathop:}=}
\newcommand{\eqdef}{\mathrel{\mathop=}:}
are suggested by the CTAN symbol ...
20
votes
4answers
22k views
How to escape the & (ampersand) character in BibTeX?
I would like to put a & character in a BibTeX publisher tag. Thus far I have tried:
\&
{&}
{\&}
"&"
with the full value enclosed in curly braces and double quotes. No matter ...
19
votes
5answers
2k views
Is there a wider equal sign?
I have defined the equal by definition sign:
with this code: \newcommand{\eqdef}{\overset{def}{=}}.
However, "def" extends over the edges of the equal sign. Is there a wider equal sign to use?
19
votes
10answers
1k views
What useful web services are out there?
Looking at this question, I wonder what good and useful web services are out there. For example the LaTeX symbol classifier looks interesting. You can draw a symbol with your mouse and get back the ...
19
votes
2answers
2k views
How to typeset moon phase symbols?
I would like to add moon phase symbols to a document of mine but could not find a visually pleasing way to do this. Does anyone know how to typeset aesthetic moon phase symbols?
19
votes
3answers
645 views
Unicode character look-up
Now that I have switched to primarily using XeTeX, I find I do not use Detexify or the The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List to find symbols very much. However, I often still need to locate symbols. ...
19
votes
5answers
2k views
Drawing stars/similar with Tikz
I'm writing a review for a book at the moment, and I thought I'd be clever and show off what LaTeX is capable of by adding a x-out-of-y stars graphic. Tikz can do many things so I would have thought ...
