How can I use a dice symbol inside a math equation?

Question

I would like to use a dice symbol such as those defined in Andrew Swann's answer, given to Dice symbols for digits up to 9, inside a math equation.

For instance, to model the set of results after a throw, I would like to write :

$$ \Omega = \{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6\} $$

Where each number is replaced by the corresponding dice symbol.

Answer 1

(31 Jan 2024: Updated the answer to mention that one more package -- fontawesome5 -- is listed in the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List.)

(29 June 2021: Updated the answer to mention that two more packages -- ifsym and utfsym -- provide macros that let users draw dice.)

According to the current (3 Jan 2024) edition of the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List, there are 6 packages that provide macros to draw dice: epsdice, hhcount, stix, ifsym, utfsym, and fontawesome5.

• The first 5 packages let users draw black-on-white die symbols; in contrast, the fontawesome5 package provides macros to draw white-on-black die symbols.

• Unfortunately, the customdice package, which is introduced in @PeterRowlett's answer, is not mentioned in the "Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List" document.

Here's an example that makes use of the epsdice package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{epsdice}
\begin{document}
\[
\Omega=\{ \epsdice{1}, \epsdice{2}, \epsdice{3}, 
          \epsdice{4}, \epsdice{5}, \epsdice{6} \}
\]
\end{document}

---

Addendum to address the OP's follow-up query: To align the die symbols on the math axis, you could encase them in \vcenter{\hbox{...}} "wrappers".

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{epsdice}
\newcommand\vcdice[1]{\vcenter{\hbox{\epsdice{#1}}}}
\begin{document}
\[
\Omega=\{ \vcdice{1}, \vcdice{2}, \vcdice{3}, 
          \vcdice{4}, \vcdice{5}, \vcdice{6} 
       \}
\]
\end{document}

---

2nd addendum: If you're free to use LuaLaTeX, you could use a Lua for loop to generate all 6 die symbols programmatically. This functionality may not seem like a big deal if just 6 symbols need to be generated. Naturally, it's a lot more relevant for use cases that involve a dozen or more calls to the same macro.

% !TEX program = lualatex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{epsdice}
\newcommand\vcdice[1]{\vcenter{\hbox{\epsdice{#1}}}}
\begin{document}
\[
  \Omega = \{ 
     \directlua{ for i=1,6 do 
                    tex.sprint ( "\\vcdice{" .. i .. "}" ) 
                    if i<6 then tex.sprint "," end
                 end }
            \}
\]
\end{document}

Answer 2

I recently wrote a dice package customdice that can do this.

The command to draw standard dice is \dice{n}. The content inside the {...} looks to me like it is sitting below the line, because it is in line with the surrounding text and the {...} part is below the line. In the customdice package, I provided a command \setdicebaseline{} which can be increased from its default of 0.02 to lower the drawing. Via trial and error, I came to think 0.2 looked okay. This is demonstrated below.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{customdice}
\begin{document}
    \[ \Omega =  \{\dice{1},\dice{2},\dice{3},\dice{4},\dice{5},\dice{6}\} \]
    \setdicebaseline{0.2}
    \[ \Omega =  \{\dice{1},\dice{2},\dice{3},\dice{4},\dice{5},\dice{6}\} \] 
\end{document}

This produces output like this

There are various options within the package to customise the size and colour of the dice faces.

You would need to \setdicebaseline{0.02} if you later want to use \dice inline with regular text.

Actually, I would probably prefer to reduce the amount of code needed to produce the equation by writing a little loop in a command I've called \drawdice, like this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{customdice}
\newcounter{num_dice}
\newcommand{\drawdice}[1]{%
    % count the items
    \foreach \i in {#1}{%
        \setcounter{num_dice}{\i}
    }%
    % draw a dice for each
    \foreach \i in {#1}{%
        \dice{\i}%
        \ifnum\i<\value{num_dice}% include a comma if it's not the last one
            ,%
        \fi%
    }
}
\begin{document}
    \setdicebaseline{0.2}
    
    \[ \Omega = \{\drawdice{1,2,3,4,5,6}\}  \]
    
    \[ \Omega = \{\drawdice{1,3,5,6,8}\}  \]
    
    \[ \Omega = \{\drawdice{2,4,6}\}  \]
    
    \[ \Omega = \{\drawdice{6}\}  \]
\end{document}

Which produces