How to make a cross symbol in LaTeX

Question

I found the post on Small cross and small upside down cross symbols but this did not work for me using the default font in LaTeX. I am hoping for a way to print a special character that is a cross. Alt+0134 does not display, I already tried that. I am open to another font just for the cross (not for the entire document), but I don't know which one will display the symbol. I am most interested in how to make a cross similar to the one circled in the image below, but it would be neat to learn to make any others also.

Answer 1

As Alan-munn suggested "Finding out whether the font has the symbol depends on your OS. There are many tools that can display all the symbols in a font. Using a particular font for part of a document is covered here: How do I use a particular font for a small section of a document"

Any of my symbol search starts at http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html and later symbols-a4.pdf. I got it from symbols-a4.pdf link.

Table 293: Other marvosym Symbols: Page 90

\Cross in \usepackage{marvosym}. It is important to note that this symbol only works in text mode.

\documentclass[12pt,convert=false,border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{marvosym}
%\usepackage{bbding}
\begin{document}
\Cross 
\end{document}

Table 248: bbding Crosses and Plusses: Page 76

\documentclass[12pt,convert=false,border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{bbding}
\begin{document}
\Cross  ~\CrossOpenShadow  ~\PlusOutline
 ~\Plus   ~\CrossMaltese     ~\PlusCenterOpen
\end{document}

Table 249: pifont Crosses and Plusses:Page 77

\documentclass[12pt,convert=false,border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{pifont}
\begin{document}
\ding{57}  ~\ding{59} ~\ding{61} ~\ding{63}
~\ding{58}  ~\ding{60} ~\ding{62} ~\ding{64}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Build your own. You can change the dimensions based on the four parameters I provide.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine}
\def\thickness{.2ex}
\def\crossheight{1.6ex}
\def\crosswidth{1ex}
\def\barheight{1ex}
\def\plaincross{\bottominset{\rule{\crosswidth}{\thickness}}
                       {\rule{\thickness}{\crossheight}}{\barheight}{0ex}}
\begin{document}
x\plaincross X
\end{document}

Answer 3

Overlaying elements using \ooalign you can build the cross as a horizontal and vertical bar/\rule:

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\cross}[1][1pt]{\ooalign{%
  \rule[1ex]{1ex}{#1}\cr% Horizontal bar
  \hss\rule{#1}{.7em}\hss\cr}}% Vertical bar
\begin{document}
This is a cross \cross. This is a thinner cross \cross[.4pt].
\end{document}

The default width of the cross is 1pt, but this can be changed through a simple optional argument.

Answer 4

In order to draw your symbol, follow the code below.

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{marvosym}
\begin{document}
\Cross 
\end{document}

This symbol only works in text mode.

An important resource that you might want to check out is Detexify. It allows you to draw different symbols, and the program compiles the list of symbols similar to the image that has been drawn. The link is below.
http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html