I was wondering if there is way to change the symbols of footnotes to any symbol I want. I know there are some packages that put away the numbers and use predefined symbols, but I want to use some arbitrary symbol. Is there a way?
-
1Welcome to TeX.SX! "Arbitrary" is a bit too vague, may you be more specific? – egreg Oct 18 '12 at 18:05
-
Thank you. \Mobilefone, \Telefon, \chi, \frownie, etc. Just any symbol. – Francisco Oct 18 '12 at 18:15
-
Related Question: Changing footnote symbol within mdframed. – Peter Grill May 8 '14 at 1:45
The footnote symbol code is actually very simple:
\def\@fnsymbol#1{\ensuremath{\ifcase#1\or *\or \dagger\or \ddagger\or
\mathsection\or \mathparagraph\or \|\or **\or \dagger\dagger
\or \ddagger\ddagger \else\@ctrerr\fi}}
So, if you were to copy that definition and replace \ddagger
by \forall
, then the third footnote would get an inverted A.
Do not forget to actually change the footnote counter to fnsymbol
:
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}
-
Note that if you redefine \@fnsymbol, you need to preceded the command above by a "\makeatletter" and follow it with a "\makeatother". – Jon Jun 5 '17 at 16:19
-
-
No offense. I read the answer and was confused as to why the second one should be changing and figured I just didn't get it. After going through the code with a little more care, I noticed why my understanding didn't align with what was written. Then, I decided other people might be as offset (p.i.) as me when reading the answer, so I changed it. Happy Easter! :D – thymaro Mar 29 '18 at 16:57
-
@thymaro that's fine thanks for the edit, I never mind if typos and falsehoods get edited out of my answers, that's how the site is supposed to work.. – David Carlisle Mar 29 '18 at 18:05
-
your method may work for this tex.stackexchange.com/q/471861/41144, if so, feel free to comment? – wonderich Jan 25 '19 at 16:59
As starting point the definition of \@fnsymbol
can be used (latex.ltx
, source2e.pdf
: "21 Counter and Lengths".
The following example goes a step further and removes the upper limit for the counter value. If needed the symbol will be multiplied (see the doubling of symbols in \@fnsymbol
) with the help of package alphalph
:
\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\myfnsymbolsingle}[1]{%
\ensuremath{%
\ifcase#1% 0
\or % 1
*%
\or % 2
\dagger
\or % 3
\ddagger
\or % 4
\mathsection
\or % 5
\mathparagraph
\else % >= 6
\@ctrerr
\fi
}%
}
\makeatother
\newcommand*{\myfnsymbol}[1]{%
\myfnsymbolsingle{\value{#1}}%
}
% remove upper boundary by multiplying the symbols if needed
\usepackage{alphalph}
\newalphalph{\myfnsymbolmult}[mult]{\myfnsymbolsingle}{}
\renewcommand*{\thefootnote}{%
\myfnsymbolmult{\value{footnote}}%
}
\begin{document}
\footnote{a}\footnote{b}\footnote{c}\footnote{d}\footnote{e}%
\footnote{f}\footnote{g}\footnote{h}\footnote{i}\footnote{j}%
\footnote{k}\footnote{l}\footnote{m}\footnote{n}\footnote{o}%
\end{document}
-
2
-
your method may work for this tex.stackexchange.com/q/471861/41144, if so, feel free to comment? – wonderich Jan 25 '19 at 16:59
You can use footmisc
and define a set of symbols with \DefineFNsymbols
(text-only symbols, i.e. no math) and \DefineFNsymbolsTM
(for text or math symbols)
\DefineFNsymbolsTM{myfnsymbols}{% def. from footmisc.sty "bringhurst" symbols
\textasteriskcentered *
\textdagger \dagger
\textdaggerdbl \ddagger
\textsection \mathsection
\textbardbl \|%
\textparagraph \mathparagraph
}%
And call it with
\setfnsymbol{myfnsymbols}
Here's a MWE
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[symbol*]{footmisc}
\DefineFNsymbolsTM{myfnsymbols}{% def. from footmisc.sty "bringhurst" symbols
\textasteriskcentered *
\textdagger \dagger
\textdaggerdbl \ddagger
\textsection \mathsection
\textbardbl \|%
\textparagraph \mathparagraph
}%
\setfnsymbol{myfnsymbols}
\begin{document}
\footnote{a}\footnote{b}\footnote{c}
\footnote{d}\footnote{e}\footnote{f}
\end{document}
I found these explanations a bit confusing. I wanted $\star$
as a footnote symbol, so I just did
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{$\star$}
and now I get what I want on the next footnote.
I assume that this generalizes to any symbol X
by writing
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{X}
-
10While this might work, it also fixes the footnote symbol to
$\star$
for all subsequent footnotes. – Werner Oct 27 '13 at 17:39