Correctly typesetting a tilde

Question

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,
• \texttildelow is too low.
• $\sim$ can be tweaked to look more or less acceptable: {\raise.17ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle\sim$}} – but even that is a hack and uses the wrong symbol.

The point is – the tilde character is definitely an existing glyph in any font I am tempted to use. How can I just access and typeset that character, please? Without resorting to some other, similar-looking glyph that first needs to be nudged into place using a cunning combination of font size and raised boxes?

There must be a possibility to access that glyph directly from the font definition.

To demonstrate, look at this screenshot which attempts simply to display a C++ destructor of a type T (~T):

Compare this with the symbol we get in the browser: ~ – that’s what I want.

Answer 1

It all depends on what do you want this glyph to stand for.

If you want to use it in an url then add \usepackage{url} (or hyperref) to your preamble and then use \url{http://example.com/~user}.

If you want to use it inside a math formula as some kind of relation then use $a \sim b$.

According to the "Comprehensive Symbols List", to get a vertically centered ~ you can use \texttildelow in any font other than Computer Modern, txfonts, and pxfonts. For example the following does the trick for typesetting a C++ destructor

\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{textcomp}

\texttildelow T

Answer 2

Here’s a list for completeness’ sake.

If you want to typeset a URL or file path, use the url (or hyperref) package with the appropriate command and be done with. Otherwise, there are three distinct cases:

1. If you are using the standard Computer Modern font, txfonts or pxfonts: use DocBucket’s workaround:

   \usepackage{textcomp}
   \newcommand{\textapprox}{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\texttildelow}}
   

   … or use Latin Modern fonts instead (see next point).

2. If you are using a PostScript/Type1 font via a package such as mathptmx or lm: Set the font encoding to T1 (via \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}) and use \textasciitilde.

3. If you are using a TTF or OTF font via XeTeX or LuaTeX: Use \char`~ to insert a tilde.

Answer 3

This is a bug in Computer Modern. \textasciitilde is the correct character and should be rendered vertically centred. To fix it, the best way is to use Latin Modern with T1 encoding, as in

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\begin{document}
\textasciitilde T
\end{document}

This also works with any font that I bothered to try, like mathpazo, times, berasans, inconsolata, etc.

EDIT: Rewrote answer in response to comment.

Answer 4

None of the existing answers really do the trick for me. In particular,

• switching to another font (e.g. {\fontfamily{ptm}\selectfont\texttildelow}) hurts my stickler's heart;
• using $\sim$ doesn't look good, especially in bold typewriter;
• I'd really like a macro that typesets a vertically centred tilde regardless of the font and encoding used.

Here is a table summarising the tests I ran (mostly on TeX fonts):

The \midtilde macro is my attempt at typesetting a vertically centred tilde, regardless of the font being used. I haven't tested it on any other font than those listed in the table. Please let me know (in the comments) if you find fonts for which \midtilde doesn't produce a vertically centred tilde.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{pifont}
\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\newcommand{\cmark}{\textcolor{ForestGreen}{\ding{51}}}%
\newcommand{\xmark}{\textcolor{red}{\ding{55}}}%

\usepackage{textcomp}

\makeatletter

\newcommand\midtilde@raisedtilde[1][.5]{\raisebox{#1ex}{\texttildelow}}
\def\midtilde@normaltilde{\texttildelow}

\newcommand\midtilde%
{%
  \expandafter\in@\expandafter{\f@family}%
    {cmr,cmss,cmtt,cmm,cmsy,cmx,%
    lmr,lmss,lmtt,lmm,lmsy,lmx,%
    pxr,pxss,pxm,pxsy,pxx,%
    txr,txss,txm,txsy,txx}%
  \ifin@%
    \midtilde@raisedtilde%
  \else%
    \expandafter\in@\expandafter{\f@family}%
    {pxtt,txtt}%
    \ifin@%
      \midtilde@raisedtilde[.35]%
    \else%
      \midtilde@normaltilde%
    \fi%
  \fi%
}


\begin{document}

\section{Tests}

\newcommand\fontrow[2]{%
  \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont\f@family         &
  \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont A\texttildelow a & 
  #2                                          &
  \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont A\midtilde a      \\
}

\begin{tabular}{cccc}
  \toprule
    \texttt{Font family} & A\texttt{\string\texttildelow} a & centred? & A\texttt{\string\midtilde} a \\
  \midrule
    \fontrow{cmr}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{cmss}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{cmtt}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{cmm}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{cmsy}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{cmx}{\xmark}
  \midrule
    \fontrow{lmr}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{lmss}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{lmtt}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{lmm}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{lmsy}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{lmx}{\xmark}
  \midrule
    \fontrow{pxr}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{pxss}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{pxtt}{?}
    \fontrow{pxm}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{pxsy}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{pxx}{\xmark}
  \midrule
    \fontrow{txr}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{txss}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{txtt}{?}
    \fontrow{txm}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{txsy}{\xmark}
    \fontrow{txx}{\xmark}
  \midrule
    \fontrow{ptm}{\cmark}
    \fontrow{phv}{\cmark}
    \fontrow{pcr}{\cmark}
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\makeatother

\end{document}

Answer 5

according to the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List, \texttildelow "produces a vertically centered “~” in most fonts but a baseline-oriented “~” in Computer Modern, txfonts, pxfonts, and various other fonts originating from the TEX world." So to produce a centered Tilde, one can use something like

{\fontfamily{ptm}\selectfont\texttildelow}T()

(Taken from the symbol list source code. A different font might give a better result, depending on what the main font of your text is.)

Answer 6

Every time I google the tilde problem, this question comes up. I cannot be the only one finding the link this way.

In that case, here's the simple fix (edit: for the Computer Modern font) that I cannot believe I have yet to see anywhere else. Note that most of the code below is a MWE; the fix itself is only two lines (one line if you already use textcomp)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{textcomp}

\newcommand{\textapprox}{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\texttildelow}}
\usepackage{url}



\begin{document}

\section{Unsatisfying fixes}

Using \verb+\texttildelow{}12+ (with the \texttt{textcomp} package) gives: 
\begin{center}
My dog weighs \texttildelow{}12~kg.
\end{center}
Using \verb+\url{~12}+ (with the \texttt{url} package) gives:
\begin{center}
My dog weighs \url{~12}~kg.
\end{center}
Using \verb+$\sim$12+  gives:
\begin{center}
My dog weighs $\sim$12~kg.
\end{center}

\section{My fix}
In the preamble:
\begin{verbatim}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\newcommand{\textapprox}{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\texttildelow}}
\end{verbatim}
Using \verb+\textapprox{}12+ gives:
\begin{center}
My dog weighs \textapprox{}12~kg.
\end{center}
That looks about right to me. If you want to change the height, it's easy to do so globally by tweaking the \texttt{0.5ex} value.
\end{document}

Answer 7

This problem was also driving me crazy for typesetting code in an lstlisting. I solved it with

\usepackage{url}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstset{literate=%
{~}{{\url{~}}}1
}

Most of the other answers here either don't work in a listing, or require more gymnastics than I was ready to undertake.

Answer 8

I had the same difficulties. In my case, the context was indeed an URL but the existing suggestions didn't quite work as I expected and the \url{} command was reducing the size of the font (making the text weird compared to the rest of the paragraph).

Then, I found this suggestion that worked like a charm! :)

% [...]
\newcommand{\urlwofont}[1]{\urlstyle{same}\url{#1}}

\begin{document}

\urlwofont{http://www.site/~person}
% [...]