# Symbol for double cross X?

does anyone know what's the LaTeX symbol for the double X, used in a stats book to denote the range?

• Hi and welcome, closest Detexify gives me right now is \usepackage{ dsfont } with \mathds{X}. But you could always use kern to moveone X back. – Johannes_B Apr 9 '15 at 20:37
• If have never seen this symbol before – user31729 Apr 9 '15 at 20:37
• this symbol is not in unicode. if it appears in a published document, please post a reference. i will be happy to submit it for consideration to the unicode technical committee. – barbara beeton Apr 9 '15 at 20:48
• @JamesMcmillan This symbol is probably unique to that textbook. I am curious as to which Statistics Book this symbol is used for range. – R. Schumacher Apr 9 '15 at 20:58

## 3 Answers

The symbol can be constructed from the sans serif math font, e.g.:

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand*{\RangeX}{%
\mathsf{X}\mkern-9mu\mathsf{X}%
}

\begin{document}
, the \textbf{range} of $X$, denoted $\RangeX$,
\end{document}


If the symbol is also used in the smaller math styles (\scriptstyle, \scriptscriptstyle), then the width approximation by the \mkern command does not work too well. The following more complicate definition measures the width of the symbol to get a better spacing between the symbols:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\RangeX}{%
{%
\mathpalette\@RangeOf{X}%
}%
}
\newcommand*{\@RangeOf}[2]{%
% #1: math style
% #2: symbol, which is duplicated
\sbox0{$\m@th#1\mathsf{#2}$}%
\mathsf{#2}%
\kern-\wd0 %
\mkern2.75mu\relax
\nonscript\mkern.25mu\relax
\mathsf{#2}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
$\RangeX \scriptstyle \RangeX \scriptscriptstyle \RangeX$
\end{document}


• To make it perfect, you should hide the textbf in some semantic macro as well ;-) Nevertheless, +1 – Johannes_B Apr 9 '15 at 20:43
• @Johannes_B The semantic macro \emph is provided in egreg's answer. He also uses \mathop for the symbol, also a good idea. – Heiko Oberdiek Apr 9 '15 at 21:01
• I was talking of textbf which is now gone anyway. Great answer. I would upvote again, if i could :-) – Johannes_B Apr 9 '15 at 21:05

It's easy to use a zero space sans serif X, then a small space and then another sans serif X:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}

\newcommand{\range}{%
\mathop{\mathrlap{\mathsf{X}}\mspace{3mu}\mathsf{X}}%
}

\begin{document}

The \emph{range} of $X$, denoted $\range$.

The range of $f$ is $\range f$.

\end{document}


Here is the same if I add \usepackage{newtxmath,newtxtext}:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\newcommand{\statrange}{{\sffamily X\kern-.5em X}}
\begin{document}
the range of X, denoted \statrange,
\end{document}


• Of course, this answer lacks the math support the other answers (so far) provide. – Johannes_B Apr 9 '15 at 20:45