7

In letters written in the early 20th century, for the German word “bei”, the author commonly uses the abbreviation “ᵇ/”. Currently I typeset as follows:

26.4.17 \textsuperscript{b}/La Selve

The result, however, is an unpleasant space between the superscript “b” and the slash. Of course I could manually adjust space, but I wonder:

Is there a recommended way of typesetting abbreviations like that? Any dedicated package?

| improve this question | |
  • 1
    How about creating a command that takes the abbreviation letter as an argument, then puts it in superscript and adds negative kerning and a slash? – ienissei Dec 16 '15 at 11:54
  • 1
    Or something a bit more complex using a box to resize and place the letter exactly where you want it, because even though I have not tested the result, I feel like you may want a bigger font size than regular superscript and maybe better vertical positioning too. – ienissei Dec 16 '15 at 11:56
  • 1
    As for packages, I think the best you can find is a package that wraps all of your commands into a list of abbreviations, but it will not provide for the typography. – ienissei Dec 16 '15 at 11:58
5

Never seen such an abbreviation, but it's easy to obtain it:

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\bei}{\textsuperscript{b}\kern-.3em}

\begin{document}

Abcdef \bei/La Selve

\end{document}

You could also add the / in the definition of \bei, if you prefer, but it has the disadvantage that a space after \bei would need {}.

Alternatively, in order to be sure you do have a slash after \bei is

\newcommand{\bei}{}% just for safety
\def\bei/{\textsuperscript{b}\kern-.3em/}

and the usage is as before.

enter image description here

| improve this answer | |
  • are you quite sure there shouldn't be a space between the slash and the word that follows? – barbara beeton Dec 16 '15 at 19:30
  • @barbarabeeton I took the input from the OP – egreg Dec 16 '15 at 20:35
4

I'm not familiar with this specific abbreviation. For what I understand from your question, I'd suggest the microtype package (needs LuaLaTex).

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{xspace}

\newcommand*{\mybei}{\textls[-190]{\emph{\textsuperscript{b}}/}\xspace}
\newcommand*{\mybeis}{\textls[-300]{\textsuperscript{b}/}\xspace}
\newcommand*{\mybeit}{\textls[-190]{\textsuperscript{b}/}\xspace}

\begin{document}
    There is a \mybei here. Can I use the abbreviation \mybeit to say \mybeis uns in Deutschland?
\end{document}

The kerning between "b" and "/" can be adapted by \textls.

| improve this answer | |

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.