7

How can I get a spiral like

enter image description here

There seems to be a spiral-like unicode codepoint: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/aa5c/index.htm

I tried

\documentclass[varwidth=true, border=2pt]{standalone}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
% Color
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.95}

\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{43612}{\spiral}

%document
\begin{document}{\textcolor{lightgray}{a}}\spiral{\textcolor{lightgray}{b}}
\end{document}

but I got

! Undefined control sequence.
l.13 ...document}{\textcolor{lightgray}{a}}\spiral
                                              {\textcolor{lightgray}{b}}

edit: I know How to look up a symbol or identify a math symbol or character?. None of the answers gave me a spiral symbol.

Improve this question
7
  • pdf (I added the pdftex tag)
    – Martin Thoma
    Mar 5, 2015 at 16:07
  • 1
    Now that unicode codepoint calls \spiral but \spiral isn't defined.
    – Manuel
    Mar 5, 2015 at 16:12
  • Related: spiral spring in tikz.
    – Gonzalo Medina
    Mar 5, 2015 at 16:19
  • can't you just save the image you posted as spiral.png then use \includegraphics[height=1em]{spiral} ?
    – David Carlisle
    Mar 5, 2015 at 16:58
  • 3
    @DavidCarlisle I thought there is probably a nicer solution (I am asking this question because people keep writing spirals on write-math.com - I don't need it myself)
    – Martin Thoma
    Mar 5, 2015 at 17:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
8

I would imagine that if font samples are viewable, they're in the public domain. As such, a search for font with spiral symbol yields a host of ideas.

Below I've used the Altemus Spirals Regular font's PDF sample:

enter image description here

Then you can clip out the element you're interested in:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\spiral}[1][]{\includegraphics[
  height=.7\baselineskip,
  origin=c,% For rotation purposes, rotate around centre
  viewport=154mm 173mm 176mm 194mm,clip,
  #1% Any other graphicx options
  ]{altemus_spiral_regular}%
}
\begin{document}
{\setlength{\fboxsep}{0pt}\fbox{\spiral}}

\spiral{}
\spiral[angle=90]
\reflectbox{\spiral}

A regular \spiral{} together with text and even \spiral[angle=180] rotated.
\end{document}

Alternatively, if you have access to a font containing a spiral, you can use XeLaTeX or LauLaTeX directly.

Improve this answer
7

I downloaded the SVG Outline from the link you provided and exported it to a TikZ path using Inkscape. Here is the result after some adjustments by hand:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcommand\spiral{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}[y=.009ex,x=.009ex,yscale=-1]
    \path[fill] (74.2500,379.5469) -- (62.4375,373.3594) .. controls
      (83.4375,365.2031) and (99.6563,356.1563) .. (111.0938,346.2188) .. controls
      (122.5313,336.2813) and (131.0625,324.9375) .. (136.6875,312.1875) .. controls
      (142.3125,299.4375) and (145.1250,284.4375) .. (145.1250,267.1875) .. controls
      (145.1250,256.6875) and (141.9375,247.5000) .. (135.5625,239.6250) .. controls
      (129.1875,231.7500) and (121.7813,226.3125) .. (113.3438,223.3125) .. controls
      (104.9063,220.3125) and (95.6250,218.8125) .. (85.5000,218.8125) .. controls
      (75.3750,218.8125) and (66.0937,220.3125) .. (57.6562,223.3125) .. controls
      (49.2187,226.3125) and (41.8125,231.7500) .. (35.4375,239.6250) .. controls
      (29.0625,247.5000) and (25.8750,256.6875) .. (25.8750,267.1875) .. controls
      (25.8750,277.6875) and (27.3750,286.9687) .. (30.3750,295.0312) .. controls
      (33.3750,303.0937) and (38.1563,308.9063) .. (44.7188,312.4688) .. controls
      (51.2813,316.0313) and (59.2500,317.8125) .. (68.6250,317.8125) .. controls
      (73.6875,317.8125) and (77.5782,316.7813) .. (80.2969,314.7188) .. controls
      (83.0156,312.6563) and (85.2187,309.7500) .. (86.9062,306.0000) .. controls
      (88.5937,302.2500) and (89.4375,297.3750) .. (89.4375,291.3750) .. controls
      (89.0625,288.3750) and (88.4063,285.6563) .. (87.4688,283.2188) .. controls
      (86.5313,280.7813) and (85.0313,278.9063) .. (82.9688,277.5938) .. controls
      (80.9063,276.2813) and (78.3750,275.6250) .. (75.3750,275.6250) .. controls
      (72.9375,275.6250) and (70.5469,277.1250) .. (68.2031,280.1250) .. controls
      (65.8594,283.1250) and (63.7500,288.4219) .. (61.8750,296.0156) --
      (57.6562,295.8750) .. controls (55.5937,295.8750) and (54.0937,295.4063) ..
      (53.1562,294.4688) .. controls (52.2187,293.5313) and (51.7500,292.5000) ..
      (51.7500,291.3750) .. controls (51.7500,286.5000) and (52.6875,281.7187) ..
      (54.5625,277.0312) .. controls (56.4375,272.3437) and (59.2500,268.5000) ..
      (63.0000,265.5000) .. controls (66.7500,262.5000) and (70.8750,261.0000) ..
      (75.3750,261.0000) .. controls (80.6250,261.0000) and (85.4063,262.1250) ..
      (89.7188,264.3750) .. controls (94.0313,266.6250) and (97.4063,270.0937) ..
      (99.8438,274.7812) .. controls (102.2813,279.4687) and (103.5000,285.0000) ..
      (103.5000,291.3750) .. controls (103.5000,299.6250) and (102.3750,306.5625) ..
      (100.1250,312.1875) .. controls (97.8750,317.8125) and (94.0313,322.5937) ..
      (88.5938,326.5312) .. controls (83.1563,330.4687) and (76.5000,332.4375) ..
      (68.6250,332.4375) .. controls (57.3750,332.4375) and (47.0625,329.8125) ..
      (37.6875,324.5625) .. controls (28.3125,319.3125) and (21.5625,311.5313) ..
      (17.4375,301.2188) .. controls (13.3125,290.9063) and (11.2500,279.5625) ..
      (11.2500,267.1875) .. controls (11.2500,254.0625) and (14.2500,241.9687) ..
      (20.2500,230.9062) .. controls (26.2500,219.8437) and (35.1563,211.3125) ..
      (46.9688,205.3125) .. controls (58.7813,199.3125) and (71.6250,196.3125) ..
      (85.5000,196.3125) .. controls (99.3750,196.3125) and (112.2187,199.3125) ..
      (124.0312,205.3125) .. controls (135.8437,211.3125) and (144.7500,219.8437) ..
      (150.7500,230.9062) .. controls (156.7500,241.9687) and (159.7500,254.0625) ..
      (159.7500,267.1875) .. controls (159.7500,287.4375) and (156.5625,304.7813) ..
      (150.1875,319.2188) .. controls (143.8125,333.6563) and (134.0625,346.1250) ..
      (120.9375,356.6250) .. controls (107.8125,367.1250) and (92.2500,374.7656) ..
      (74.2500,379.5469) -- cycle;
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\begin{document}

\Huge A\spiral B
\LARGE A\spiral B
\Large A\spiral B
\large A\spiral B
A\spiral B
\small A\spiral B
\footnotesize A\spiral B
\scriptsize A\spiral B
\tiny A\spiral B

\end{document}

enter image description here

Even though you don't want to use XeLaTeX, this might be useful to someone else. The Code2000 font (shareware with odd license) and Noto Sans Cham possess this particular character. You may use it like

\fontspec{CODE2000.TTF}꩜

or

\fontspec{CODE2000.TTF}^^^^aa5c

Here is a comparison of the fake TikZ symbol with the one from Code2000 and from Noto Sans Cham:

enter image description here

Because Noto Sans Cham only covers the Cham range of Unicode the Latin letters are missing and replaced by rectangles.

Improve this answer
1

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .