groff_char
Section: Environments, Tables, and Troff Macros (7)
Updated: 2 July 2023
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Name
groff_char - GNU
roff
special character and glyph repertoire
.nr d-fallback 1
.nr d-fallback 1
Description
The GNU
roff
typesetting system has a large glyph repertoire suitable for production
of varied literary,
professional,
technical,
and mathematical documents.
groff
works with
characters;
an output device renders
glyphs.
groff's
input character set is restricted to that defined by the standards
ISO Lati-1
(ISO 885-1)
and CCSID [lq]code page[rq] 1047
(an EBCDIC arrangement of Lati-1).
For ease of document maintenance in UT-8 environments,
it is advisable to use only the Unicode basic Latin code points,
a subset of all of the foregoing historically referred to as U-ASCII,
which has only 94 visible,
printable code points.
In
groff,
these are termed
ordinary characters.
Often,
many more are desired in output.
AT&T
troff
in the 1970s faced a similar problem:
the available typesetter's glyph repertoire differed from that of the
computers that controlled it.
troff's
solution was a form of escape sequence known as a
special character
to access several dozen additional glyphs available in the fonts
prepared for mounting in the phototypesetter.
These glyphs were mapped onto a tw-character name space for a degree
of mnemonic convenience;
for example,
the escape sequence
(aa
encoded an acute accent and
(sc
a section sign.
groff
has lifted historical
roff
limitations on special character name lengths,
but recognizes and retains compatibility with the historical names.
groff
expands the lexicon of glyphs available by name and permits users to
define their own special character escape sequences with the
char
request.
Special character names are
groff
identifiers;
see section [lq]Identifiers[rq] in
Our discussion uses the terms [lq]glyph name[rq] and [lq]special
character name[rq] interchangeably;
we assume no character translations or redefinitions.
This document lists all of the glyph names predefined by
groff's
font description files and presents the systematic notation by which it
enables access to arbitrary Unicode code points and construction of
composite glyphs.
Glyphs listed may be unavailable,
or may vary in appearance,
depending on the output device and font chosen when the page was
formatted.
This page was rendered for device
.T]
using font
.fn].
A few escape sequences that are not
groff
special characters also produce glyphs;
these exist for syntactical or historical reasons.
[aq],
[ga],
-,
and
_
are translated on input to the special character escape sequences
[aa],
[ga],
[-],
and
[ul],
respectively.
Others include
,
.
(backslas-dot),
and
e;
see
A small number of special characters represent glyphs that are not
encoded in Unicode;
examples include the baseline rule
[ru]
and the Bell System logo
[bs].
In
groff,
you can test output device support for any character
(ordinary or special)
with the conditional expression operator
[lq]
c[rq].
-
.ie c [bs] {Welcome to the [bs] Bell System;
did you get the Wehrmacht helmet or the Death Star?}
.el No Bell System logo.
For brevity in the remainder of this document,
we shall refer to systems conforming to the
ISO 646:1991 IRV,
ISO 8859,
or
ISO 10646 ([lq]Unicode[rq])
character encoding standards as [lq]ISO[rq] systems,
and those employing IBM code page 1047 as [lq]EBCDIC[rq] systems.
That said,
EBCDIC systems that support
groff
are known to also support UT-8.
While
groff
accepts eigh-bit encoded input,
not all such code points are valid as input.
On ISO platforms,
character codes
0,
11,
13[en]31,
and
128[en]159
are invalid.
(This is all C0 and C1 controls except for
SOH through LF
[Control+A to Control+J],
and FF
[Control+L].)
On EBCDIC platforms,
0,
8[en]9,
11,
13[en]20,
23[en]31,
and
48[en]63
are invalid.
Some of these code points are used by
groff
for internal purposes,
which is one reason it does not support UT-8 natively.
Fundamental character set
The ordinary characters catalogued above,
plus the space,
tab,
newline,
and leader (Control+A),
form the fundamental character
set for
groff
input;
anything in the language,
even over one million code points in Unicode,
can be expressed using it.
On ISO systems,
code points in the range 33[en]126 comprise a common set of
printable glyphs in all of the aforementioned ISO character encoding
standards.
It is this character set and
(with some noteworthy exceptions)
the corresponding glyph repertoire for which AT&T
troff
was implemented.
On EBCDIC systems,
printable characters are in the range 66[en]201 and 203[en]254;
those without counterparts in the ISO range 33[en]126 are discussed
in the next subsection.
All of the following characters map to glyphs as you would expect.
| ! # $ % & ( ) * + , . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ |
|
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ ] _ |
|
| a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } |
|
|
The remaining ordinary characters surprise computing professionals and
others intimately familiar with the ISO character encodings.
The developers of AT&T
troff
chose mappings for them that would be useful for typesetting technical
literature in a broad range of scientific disciplines:
Bell Labs used the system for preparation of AT&T's patent filings with
the U.S. government.
Further,
the prevailing character encoding standard in the 1970s,
USAS X3.-1968 ([lq]ASCII[rq]),
deliberately supported semantic ambiguity at some code points,
and outright substitution at several others,
to suit the localization demands of various national standards bodies.
The table below presents the seven exceptional code points
with their typical keycap engravings,
their glyph mappings and semantics in
roff
systems,
and the escape sequences producing the Unicode basic Latin character
they replace.
The first,
the neutral double quote,
is a partial exception because it does represent itself,
but since the
roff
language also uses it to quote macro arguments,
groff
supports a special character escape sequence as an alternative form so
that the glyph can be easily included in macro arguments without
requiring the user to master the quoting rules that AT&T
troff
required in that context.
(Some requests,
like
ds,
also treat
[dq]
no-literally.)
Furthermore,
not all of the special character escape sequences are portable to AT&T
troff
and all of its descendants;
these
groff
extensions are presented using its special character form
[rs][],
whereas portable special character escape sequences are shown in the
traditional
[rs](
form.
[rs]-
and
[rs]e
are portable to all known
troffs.
[rs]e
means [lq]the glyph of the current escape character[rq];
it therefore can produce unexpected output if the
ec
request is used.
On devices with a limited glyph repertoire,
glyphs in the [lq]keycap[rq] and [lq]appearance[rq] columns on the
same row of the table may look identical;
except for the neutral double quote,
this will
not
be the case on mor-capable devices.
Review your document using as many different output devices as possible.
| Keycap | Appearance and meaning | Special character and meaning
|
|
| " | " neutral double quote | CR][rs][dq]] neutral double quote
|
| [aq] | [cq] closing single quote | CR][rs][aq]] neutral apostrophe
|
| - | - hyphen | CR][rs-] or CR][rs]-]] minus sign/Unix dash
|
| [rs] | (escape character) | CR][rs]e] or CR][rs][rs]] reverse solidus
|
| [ha] | [u02C6] modifier circumflex | CR][rs](ha] circumflex/caret/[lq]hat[rq]
|
| [ga] | [oq] opening single quote | CR][rs](ga] grave accent
|
| [ti] | [u02DC] modifier tilde | CR][rs](ti] tilde
|
|
The hyphe-minus is a particularly unfortunate case of overloading.
Its awkward name in ISO 8859 and later standards reflects the many
distinguishable purposes to which it had already been put by the 1980s,
including
a hyphen,
a minus sign,
and
(alone or in repetition)
dashes of varying widths.
For best results in
roff
systems,
use the
[lq]
-[rq]
character in input outside an escape sequence
only
to mean a hyphen,
as in the phrase [lq]lon-term[rq].
For a minus sign in running text or a Unix comman-line option dash,
use
[rs]-
(or
[rs][-]
in
groff
if you find it helps the clarity of the source document).
(Another minus sign,
for use in mathematical equations,
is available as
[rs][mi]).
AT&T
troff
supported e-dashes as
[rs](em,
as does
groff.
The special character escape sequence for the apostrophe as a neutral
single quote is typically needed only in technical content;
typing words like [lq]can't[rq] and [lq]Anne's[rq] in a natural way
will render correctly,
because in ordinary prose an apostrophe is typeset either as a closing
single quotation mark or as a neutral single quote,
depending on the capabilities of the output device.
By contrast,
special character escape sequences should be used for quotation marks
unless portability to limited or historical
troff
implementations is necessary;
on those systems,
the input convention is to pair the grave accent with the apostrophe for
single quotes,
and to double both characters for double quotes.
AT&T
troff
defined no special characters for quotation marks or the apostrophe.
Repeated single quotes
([oq][oq]thus[cq][cq])
will be visually distinguishable from double quotes
([lq]thus[rq])
on terminal devices,
and perhaps on others
(depending on the font selected).
| AT&T I]troff] input | recommended I]groff] input
|
|
| A Winter[aq]s Tale | A Winter[aq]s Tale
|
|
|
| [ga]U.K. outer quotes[aq] | [rs][oq]U.K. outer quotes[rs][cq]
|
|
|
| [ga]U.K. [ga][ga]inner[aq][aq] quotes[aq] | [rs][oq]U.K. [rs][lq]inner[rs][rq] quotes[rs][cq]
|
|
|
| [ga][ga]U.S. outer quotes[aq][aq] | [rs][lq]U.S. outer quotes[rs][rq]
|
|
|
| [ga][ga]U.S. [ga]inner[aq] quotes[aq][aq] | [rs][lq]U.S. [rs][oq]inner[rs][cq] quotes[rs][rq]
|
|
|
|
If you frequently require quotation marks in your document,
see if the macro package you're using supplies strings or macros to
facilitate quotation,
or define them yourself
(except in man pages).
Using Unicode basic Latin characters to compose boxes and lines is
il-advised.
roff
systems have special characters for drawing horizontal and vertical
lines;
see subsection [lq]Rules and lines[rq] below.
Preprocessors like
and
draw boxes and will produce the best possible output for the device,
falling back to basic Latin glyphs only when necessary.
Eigh-bit encodings and Lati-1 supplement
ISO 646 is a seve-bit code encoding 128 code points;
eigh-bit codes are twice the size.
ISO 885-1 and code page 1047 allocated the additional space to what
Unicode calls [lq]C1 controls[rq]
(control characters)
and the [lq]Lati-1 supplement[rq].
The C1 controls are neither printable nor usable as
groff
input.
Two Lati-1 supplement characters are handled specially on input.
troff
never produces them as output.
- NBSP
-
encodes a n-break space;
it is mapped to
[rs][ti],
the adjustable no-breaking space escape sequence.
- SHY
-
encodes a soft hyphen;
it is mapped to
[rs]%,
the hyphenation control escape sequence.
The remaining characters in the Lati-1 supplement represent
themselves.
Although they can be specified directly with the keyboard on systems
configured to use Lati-1 as the character encoding,
it is more portable,
both to other
roff
systems and to UT-8 environments,
to use their special character escape sequences,
shown below.
The glyph descriptions we use are no-standard in some cases,
for brevity.
| [r!] | [r!] | inverted exclamation mark | [~N] | [[ti]N] | N tilde | |
|
| [ct] | [ct] | cent sign | [`O] | [[ga]O] | O grave | |
|
| [Po] | [Po] | pound sign | ['O] | [[aq]O] | O acute | |
|
| [Cs] | [Cs] | currency sign | [^O] | [[ha]O] | O circumflex | |
|
| [Ye] | [Ye] | yen sign | [~O] | [[ti]O] | O tilde | |
|
| [bb] | [bb] | broken bar | [:O] | [:O] | O dieresis | |
|
| [sc] | [sc] | section sign | [mu] | [mu] | multiplication sign | |
|
| [ad] | [ad] | dieresis accent | [/O] | [/O] | O slash | |
|
| [co] | [co] | copyright sign | [`U] | [[ga]U] | U grave | |
|
| [Of] | [Of] | feminine ordinal indicator | ['U] | [[aq]U] | U acute | |
|
| [Fo] | [Fo] | left double chevron | [^U] | [[ha]U] | U circumflex | |
|
| [no] | [no] | logical not | [:U] | [:U] | U dieresis | |
|
| [rg] | [rg] | registered sign | ['Y] | [[aq]Y] | Y acute | |
|
| [-] | [-] | macron accent | [TP] | [TP] | uppercase thorn | |
|
| [de] | [de] | degree sign | [ss] | [ss] | lowercase sharp s | |
|
| [-] | [-] | plu-minus | [`a] | [[ga]a] | a grave | |
|
| [S2] | [S2] | superscript two | ['a] | [[aq]a] | a acute | |
|
| [S3] | [S3] | superscript three | [^a] | [[ha]a] | a circumflex | |
|
| [aa] | [aa] | acute accent | [~a] | [[ti]a] | a tilde | |
|
| [mc] | [mc] | micro sign | [:a] | [:a] | a dieresis | |
|
| [ps] | [ps] | pilcrow sign | [oa] | [oa] | a ring | |
|
| [pc] | [pc] | centered period | [ae] | [ae] | ae ligature | |
|
| [ac] | [ac] | cedilla accent | [,c] | [,c] | c cedilla | |
|
| [S1] | [S1] | superscript one | [`e] | [[ga]e] | e grave | |
|
| [Om] | [Om] | masculine ordinal indicator | ['e] | [[aq]e] | e acute | |
|
| [Fc] | [Fc] | right double chevron | [^e] | [[ha]e] | e circumflex | |
|
| [14] | [14] | one quarter symbol | [:e] | [:e] | e dieresis | |
|
| [12] | [12] | one half symbol | [`i] | [[ga]i] | i grave | |
|
| [34] | [34] | three quarters symbol | ['i] | [[aq]i] | e acute | |
|
| [r?] | [r?] | inverted question mark | [^i] | [[ha]i] | i circumflex | |
|
| [`A] | [[ga]A] | A grave | [:i] | [:i] | i dieresis | |
|
| ['A] | [[aq]A] | A acute | [Sd] | [Sd] | lowercase eth | |
|
| [^A] | [[ha]A] | A circumflex | [~n] | [[ti]n] | n tilde | |
|
| [~A] | [[ti]A] | A tilde | [`o] | [[ga]o] | o grave | |
|
| [:A] | [:A] | A dieresis | ['o] | [[aq]o] | o acute | |
|
| [oA] | [oA] | A ring | [^o] | [[ha]o] | o circumflex | |
|
| [AE] | [AE] | AE ligature | [~o] | [[ti]o] | o tilde | |
|
| [,C] | [,C] | C cedilla | [:o] | [:o] | o dieresis | |
|
| [`E] | [[ga]E] | E grave | [di] | [di] | division sign | |
|
| ['E] | [[aq]E] | E acute | [/o] | [/o] | o slash | |
|
| [^E] | [[ha]E] | E circumflex | [`u] | [[ga]u] | u grave | |
|
| [:E] | [:E] | E dieresis | ['u] | [[aq]u] | u acute | |
|
| [`I] | [[ga]I] | I grave | [^u] | [[ha]u] | u circumflex | |
|
| ['I] | [[aq]I] | I acute | [:u] | [:u] | u dieresis | |
|
| [^I] | [[ha]I] | I circumflex | ['y] | [[aq]y] | y acute | |
|
| [:I] | [:I] | I dieresis | [Tp] | [Tp] | lowercase thorn | |
|
| -D] | -D] | uppercase eth | [:y] | [:y] | y dieresis | |
|
Special character escape forms
Glyphs that lack a character code in the basic Latin repertoire to
directly represent them are entered by one of several special character
escape forms.
Such glyphs can be simple or composite,
and accessed either by name or numerically by code point.
Code points and combining properties are determined by character
encoding standards,
whereas glyph names as used here originated in AT&T
troff special character escape sequences.
Predefined glyph names use only characters in the basic Latin
repertoire.
- [rs](gl
-
is a special character escape sequence for the glyph with the
tw-character name
gl.
This is the original syntax form supported by AT&T
troff.
The acute accent,
[rs](aa,
is an example.
- [rs]C[aq]glyp-name[aq]
-
is a special character escape sequence for
glyp-name,
which can be of arbitrary length.
The delimiter,
shown here as a neutral apostrophe,
can be any character not occurring in
glyp-name.
This syntax form was introduced in later versions of AT&T
devic-independent
troff.
The foregoing acute accent example can be expressed
as
[rs]C[aq]aa[aq].
- [rs][glyp-name]
-
is a special character escape sequence for
glyp-name,
which can be of arbitrary length but must not contain a closing square
bracket
[lq]][rq].
(No glyph names predefined by
groff
employ
[lq]][rq].)
The foregoing acute accent example can be expressed in
groff
as
[rs][aa].
[rs]C[aq]c[aq]
and
[rs][c]
are not synonyms for the ordinary character
[lq]c[rq],
but request the special character named
[lq][rs]c[rq].
For example,
[lq][rs][a][rq]
is not [lq]a[rq],
but rather a special character with the internal glyph name
(used in font description files and diagnostic messages)
[rs]a,
which is typically undefined.
The only such glyph name
groff
predefines is the minus sign,
which can therefore be accessed as
[rs]C[aq]-[aq]
or
[rs][-].
- [rs][bas-char composit-1 composit-2~
-
...~composit-n]
is a composite glyph.
Glyphs like a lowercase [lq]e[rq] with an acute accent,
as in the word [lq]caf[e aa][rq],
can be expressed as
[rs][e aa].
See subsection [lq]Accents[rq] below for a table of combining glyph
names.
Unicode encodes far more characters than
groff
has glyph names for;
special character escape forms based on numerical code points enable
access to any of them.
Frequently used glyphs or glyph combinations can be stored in strings,
and new glyph names can be created
ad hoc
with the
char
request;
see
- [rs][unnnn
-
[n[n]]]
is a Unicode numeric special character escape sequence.
Any Unicode code point can be accessed with four to six hexadecimal
digits,
with hexadecimal letters accepted in uppercase form only.
Thus,
[rs][u02DA]
accesses the (spacing) ring accent,
producing [lq][u02DA][rq].
Unicode code points can be composed as well;
when they are,
GNU
troff requires NFD
(Normalization Form D),
where all Unicode glyphs are maximally decomposed.
(Exception:
precomposed characters in the Lati-1 supplement described above are
also accepted.
Do not count on this exception remaining in a future
GNU
troff that accepts UT-8 input directly.)
Thus,
GNU
troff accepts
[lq]caf[rs][[aq]e][rq],
[lq]caf[rs][e~aa][rq],
and
[lq]caf[rs][u0065_0301][rq],
as ways to input [lq]caf['e][rq].
(Due to its legacy -bit encoding compatibility,
at present it also accepts
[lq]caf[rs][u00E9][rq]
on ISO Lati-1 systems.)
- [rs][ubas-char
-
[_combinin-component]...]
constructs a composite glyph from Unicode numeric special character
escape sequences.
The code points of the base glyph and the combining components are each
expressed in hexadecimal,
with an underscore
(_)
separating each component.
Thus,
[rs][u006E_0303]
produces [lq][u006E_0303][rq].
- [rs][charnnn]
-
expresses an eigh-bit code point where
nnn
is the code point of the character,
a decimal number between 0 and~255
without leading zeroes.
This legacy numeric special character escape sequence is used to map
characters onto glyphs via the
trin
request in macro files loaded by
Glyph tables
In this section,
groff's
glyph name repertoire is presented in tabular form.
The meanings of the columns are as follows.
- Output
-
shows the glyph as it appears on the device used to render this
document;
although it can have a notably different shape on other devices
(and is subject to use-directed translation and replacement),
groff
attempts reasonable equivalency on all output devices.
- Input
-
shows the
groff
character
(ordinary or special)
that normally produces the glyph.
Some code points have multiple glyph names.
- Unicode
-
is the code point notation for the glyph or combining glyph sequence as
described in subsection [lq]Special character escape forms[rq] above.
It corresponds to the standard notation for Unicode short identifiers
such that
groff's
unnnn
is equivalent to Unicode's
U+nnnn.
- Notes
-
describes the glyph,
elucidating the mnemonic value of the glyph name where possible.
-
A plus sign [lq]+[rq] indicates that the glyph name appears in the
AT&T
troff
user's manual,
CSTR~#54
(1992 revision).
When using the AT&T special character syntax
[rs](xx, widespread portability can be expected from such names.
-
Entries marked with [lq]***[rq] denote glyphs used for mathematical
purposes.
On typesetting devices,
such glyphs are typically drawn from a
special
font
(see
Often,
such glyphs lack bold or italic style forms or have metrics that look
incongruous in ordinary prose.
A few which are not uncommon in running text have [lq]text
variants[rq],
which should work better in that context.
Conversely,
a handful of glyphs that are normally drawn from a text font may be
required in mathematical equations.
Both sets of exceptions are noted in the tables where they appear
([lq]Logical symbols[rq] and [lq]Mathematical symbols[rq]).
Basic Latin
Apart from basic Latin characters with special mappings,
described in subsection [lq]Fundamental character set[rq] above,
a few others in that range have special character glyph names.
These were defined for ease of input on no-U.S. keyboards lacking
keycaps for them,
or for symmetry with other special character glyph names serving a
similar purpose.
The vertical bar is overloaded;
the
[rs][ba]
and
[rs][or]
escape sequences may render differently.
See subsection [lq]Mathematical symbols[rq] below for special variants
of the plus,
minus,
and equals
signs normally drawn from this range.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [dq] | [dq] | u0022 | neutral double quote
|
|
| [sh] | [sh] | u0023 | number sign
|
|
| [Do] | [Do] | u0024 | dollar sign
|
|
| [aq] | [aq] | u0027 | apostrophe, neutral single quote
|
|
| [sl] | [sl] | u002F | slash, solidus +
|
|
| [at] | [at] | u0040 | at sign
|
|
| [lB] | [lB] | u005B | left square bracket
|
|
| [rs] | [rs] | u005C | reverse solidus
|
|
| [rB] | [rB] | u005D | right square bracket
|
|
| [ha] | [ha] | u005E | circumflex, caret, [lq]hat[rq]
|
|
| [lC] | [lC] | u007B | left brace
|
|
| | | | | u007C | bar
|
|
| [ba] | [ba] | u007C | bar
|
|
| [or] | [or] | u007C | bitwise or +
|
|
| [rC] | [rC] | u007D | right brace
|
|
| [ti] | [ti] | u007E | tilde
|
|
Supplementary Latin letters
Historically,
[rs][ss]
could be considered a ligature of [lq]sz[rq].
An uppercase form is available as
[rs][u1E9E],
but in the German language it is of specialized use;
[ss] does
not
normally uppercas-transform to it,
but rather to [lq]SS[rq].
[lq]Lowercase f with hook[rq] is also used as a function symbol;
see subsection [lq]Mathematical symbols[rq] below.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| -D] | -D] | u00D0 | uppercase eth
|
|
| [Sd] | [Sd] | u00F0 | lowercase eth
|
|
| [TP] | [TP] | u00DE | uppercase thorn
|
|
| [Tp] | [Tp] | u00FE | lowercase thorn
|
|
| [ss] | [ss] | u00DF | lowercase sharp s
|
|
| [.i] | [.i] | u0131 | i without tittle
|
|
| [.j] | [.j] | u0237 | j without tittle
|
|
| [Fn] | [Fn] | u0192 | lowercase f with hook, function
|
|
| [/L] | [/L] | u0141 | L with stroke
|
|
| [/l] | [/l] | u0142 | l with stroke
|
|
| [/O] | [/O] | u00D8 | O with stroke
|
|
| [/o] | [/o] | u00F8 | o with stroke
|
|
Ligatures and digraphs
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [ff] | [ff] | u0066_0066 | ff ligature +
|
|
| [fi] | [fi] | u0066_0069 | fi ligature +
|
|
| [fl] | [fl] | u0066_006C | fl ligature +
|
|
| [Fi] | [Fi] | u0066_0066_0069 | ffi ligature +
|
|
| [Fl] | [Fl] | u0066_0066_006C | ffl ligature +
|
|
| [AE] | [AE] | u00C6 | AE ligature
|
|
| [ae] | [ae] | u00E6 | ae ligature
|
|
| [OE] | [OE] | u0152 | OE ligature
|
|
| [oe] | [oe] | u0153 | oe ligature
|
|
| [IJ] | [IJ] | u0132 | IJ digraph
|
|
| [ij] | [ij] | u0133 | ij digraph
|
|
Accents
Normally,
the formatting of a special character advances the drawing position as
an ordinary character does.
groff's
composite
request designates a special character as combining.
The
composite.tmac
macro file,
loaded automatically by the default
troffrc,
maps the following special characters to the combining characters shown
below.
The no-combining code point in parentheses is used when the special
character occurs in isolation
(compare
[lq]
caf[rs][e aa][rq]
and
[lq]
caf[rs][aa]e[rq]).
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [a"] | [a"] | u030B (u02DD) | double acute accent
|
|
| [-] | [-] | u0304 (u00AF) | macron accent
|
|
| [a.] | [a.] | u0307 (u02D9) | dot accent
|
|
| [a^] | [a[ha]] | u0302 (u005E) | circumflex accent
|
|
| [aa] | [aa] | u0301 (u00B4) | acute accent +
|
|
| [ga] | [ga] | u0300 (u0060) | grave accent +
|
|
| [ab] | [ab] | u0306 (u02D8) | breve accent
|
|
| [ac] | [ac] | u0327 (u00B8) | cedilla accent
|
|
| [ad] | [ad] | u0308 (u00A8) | dieresis accent
|
|
| [ah] | [ah] | u030C (u02C7) | caron accent
|
|
| [ao] | [ao] | u030A (u02DA) | ring accent
|
|
| [a~] | [a[ti]] | u0303 (u007E) | tilde accent
|
|
| [ho] | [ho] | u0328 (u02DB) | hook accent
|
|
Accented characters
All of these glyphs can be composed using combining glyph names as
described in subsection [lq]Special character escape forms[rq] above;
the names below are short aliases for convenience.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| ['A] | [[aq]A] | u0041_0301 | A acute
|
|
| ['C] | [[aq]C] | u0043_0301 | C acute
|
|
| ['E] | [[aq]E] | u0045_0301 | E acute
|
|
| ['I] | [[aq]I] | u0049_0301 | I acute
|
|
| ['O] | [[aq]O] | u004F_0301 | O acute
|
|
| ['U] | [[aq]U] | u0055_0301 | U acute
|
|
| ['Y] | [[aq]Y] | u0059_0301 | Y acute
|
|
| ['a] | [[aq]a] | u0061_0301 | a acute
|
|
| ['c] | [[aq]c] | u0063_0301 | c acute
|
|
| ['e] | [[aq]e] | u0065_0301 | e acute
|
|
| ['i] | [[aq]i] | u0069_0301 | i acute
|
|
| ['o] | [[aq]o] | u006F_0301 | o acute
|
|
| ['u] | [[aq]u] | u0075_0301 | u acute
|
|
| ['y] | [[aq]y] | u0079_0301 | y acute
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [:A] | [:A] | u0041_0308 | A dieresis
|
|
| [:E] | [:E] | u0045_0308 | E dieresis
|
|
| [:I] | [:I] | u0049_0308 | I dieresis
|
|
| [:O] | [:O] | u004F_0308 | O dieresis
|
|
| [:U] | [:U] | u0055_0308 | U dieresis
|
|
| [:Y] | [:Y] | u0059_0308 | Y dieresis
|
|
| [:a] | [:a] | u0061_0308 | a dieresis
|
|
| [:e] | [:e] | u0065_0308 | e dieresis
|
|
| [:i] | [:i] | u0069_0308 | i dieresis
|
|
| [:o] | [:o] | u006F_0308 | o dieresis
|
|
| [:u] | [:u] | u0075_0308 | u dieresis
|
|
| [:y] | [:y] | u0079_0308 | y dieresis
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [^A] | [[ha]A] | u0041_0302 | A circumflex
|
|
| [^E] | [[ha]E] | u0045_0302 | E circumflex
|
|
| [^I] | [[ha]I] | u0049_0302 | I circumflex
|
|
| [^O] | [[ha]O] | u004F_0302 | O circumflex
|
|
| [^U] | [[ha]U] | u0055_0302 | U circumflex
|
|
| [^a] | [[ha]a] | u0061_0302 | a circumflex
|
|
| [^e] | [[ha]e] | u0065_0302 | e circumflex
|
|
| [^i] | [[ha]i] | u0069_0302 | i circumflex
|
|
| [^o] | [[ha]o] | u006F_0302 | o circumflex
|
|
| [^u] | [[ha]u] | u0075_0302 | u circumflex
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [`A] | [[ga]A] | u0041_0300 | A grave
|
|
| [`E] | [[ga]E] | u0045_0300 | E grave
|
|
| [`I] | [[ga]I] | u0049_0300 | I grave
|
|
| [`O] | [[ga]O] | u004F_0300 | O grave
|
|
| [`U] | [[ga]U] | u0055_0300 | U grave
|
|
| [`a] | [[ga]a] | u0061_0300 | a grave
|
|
| [`e] | [[ga]e] | u0065_0300 | e grave
|
|
| [`i] | [[ga]i] | u0069_0300 | i grave
|
|
| [`o] | [[ga]o] | u006F_0300 | o grave
|
|
| [`u] | [[ga]u] | u0075_0300 | u grave
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [~A] | [[ti]A] | u0041_0303 | A tilde
|
|
| [~N] | [[ti]N] | u004E_0303 | N tilde
|
|
| [~O] | [[ti]O] | u004F_0303 | O tilde
|
|
| [~a] | [[ti]a] | u0061_0303 | a tilde
|
|
| [~n] | [[ti]n] | u006E_0303 | n tilde
|
|
| [~o] | [[ti]o] | u006F_0303 | o tilde
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [vS] | [vS] | u0053_030C | S caron
|
|
| [vs] | [vs] | u0073_030C | s caron
|
|
| [vZ] | [vZ] | u005A_030C | Z caron
|
|
| [vz] | [vz] | u007A_030C | z caron
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [,C] | [,C] | u0043_0327 | C cedilla
|
|
| [,c] | [,c] | u0063_0327 | c cedilla
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [oA] | [oA] | u0041_030A | A ring
|
|
| [oa] | [oa] | u0061_030A | a ring
|
|
Quotation marks
The neutral double quote,
often useful when documenting programming languages,
is also available as a special character for convenient embedding in
macro arguments;
see subsection [lq]Fundamental character set[rq] above.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [Bq] | [Bq] | u201E | low double comma quote
|
|
| [bq] | [bq] | u201A | low single comma quote
|
|
| [lq] | [lq] | u201C | left double quote
|
|
| [rq] | [rq] | u201D | right double quote
|
|
| [oq] | [oq] | u2018 | single opening (left) quote
|
|
| [cq] | [cq] | u2019 | single closing (right) quote
|
|
| [aq] | [aq] | u0027 | apostrophe, neutral single quote
|
|
| [dq] | " | u0022 | neutral double quote
|
|
| [dq] | [dq] | u0022 | neutral double quote
|
|
| [Fo] | [Fo] | u00AB | left double chevron
|
|
| [Fc] | [Fc] | u00BB | right double chevron
|
|
| [fo] | [fo] | u2039 | left single chevron
|
|
| [fc] | [fc] | u203A | right single chevron
|
|
Punctuation
The Unicode name for U+00B7 is [lq]middle dot[rq],
which is unfortunately confusable with the
groff
mnemonic for the visually similar but semantically distinct
multiplication dot;
see subsection [lq]Mathematical symbols[rq] below.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [r!] | [r!] | u00A1 | inverted exclamation mark
|
|
| [r?] | [r?] | u00BF | inverted question mark
|
|
| [pc] | [pc] | u00B7 | centered period
|
|
| [em] | [em] | u2014 | e-dash +
|
|
| [en] | [en] | u2013 | e-dash
|
|
| [hy] | [hy] | u2010 | hyphen +
|
|
Brackets
On typesetting devices,
the bracket extensions are fon-invariant glyphs;
that is,
they are rendered the same way regardless of font
(with a drawing escape sequence).
On terminals,
they are
not
fon-invariant;
groff
maps them rather arbitrarily to U+23AA
([lq]curly bracket extension[rq]).
In AT&T
troff,
only one glyph was available to vertically extend
brackets,
braces,
and
parentheses:
[rs](bv.
Not all devices supply bracket pieces that can be piled up with
[rs]b
due to the restrictions of the escape's piling algorithm.
A general solution to build brackets out of pieces is the following
macro:
-
." Make a pile centered vertically 0.5em above the baseline.
." The first argument is placed at the top.
." The pile is returned in string [aq]pile[aq].
.eo
.de pile-make
. nr pile-wd 0
. nr pile-ht 0
. ds pile-args
.
. nr pile-# n[.$]
. while n[pile-#] {
. nr pile-wd (n[pile-wd] >? w[aq]$[n[pile-#]][aq])
. nr pile-ht +(n[rst] - n[rsb])
. as pile-args v[aq]n[rsb]u[aq]"
. as pile-args Z[aq]$[n[pile-#]][aq]"
. as pile-args v[aq]-n[rst]u[aq]"
. nr pile-# -1
. }
.
. ds pile v[aq](-0.5m + (n[pile-ht]u / 2u))[aq]"
. as pile *[pile-args]"
. as pile v[aq]((n[pile-ht]u / 2u) + 0.5m)[aq]"
. as pile h[aq]n[pile-wd]u[aq]"
..
.ec
Another complication is the fact that some glyphs which represent
bracket pieces in AT&T
troff
can be used for other mathematical symbols as well,
for example
[rs](lf
and
[rs](rf,
which provide the floor operator.
Some output devices,
such as
dvi,
don't unify such glyphs.
For this reason,
the glyphs
[rs][lf],
[rs][rf],
[rs][lc],
and
[rs][rc]
are not unified with simila-looking bracket pieces.
In
groff,
only glyphs with long names are guaranteed to pile up correctly for all
devices[em]provided those glyphs are available.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [lB] | [ | u005B | left square bracket
|
|
| [lB] | [lB] | u005B | left square bracket
|
|
| [rB] | ] | u005D | right square bracket
|
|
| [rB] | [rB] | u005D | right square bracket
|
|
| [lC] | { | u007B | left brace
|
|
| [lC] | [lC] | u007B | left brace
|
|
| [rC] | } | u007D | right brace
|
|
| [rC] | [rC] | u007D | right brace
|
|
| [la] | [la] | u27E8 | left angle bracket
|
|
| [ra] | [ra] | u27E9 | right angle bracket
|
|
| [bv] | [bv] | u23AA | brace vertical extension + ***
|
|
| [braceex] | [braceex] | u23AA | brace vertical extension
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [bracketlefttp] | [bracketlefttp] | u23A1 | left square bracket top
|
|
| [bracketleftex] | [bracketleftex] | u23A2 | left square bracket extension
|
|
| [bracketleftbt] | [bracketleftbt] | u23A3 | left square bracket bottom
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [bracketrighttp] | [bracketrighttp] | u23A4 | right square bracket top
|
|
| [bracketrightex] | [bracketrightex] | u23A5 | right square bracket extension
|
|
| [bracketrightbt] | [bracketrightbt] | u23A6 | right square bracket bottom
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [lt] | [lt] | u23A7 | left brace top +
|
|
| [lk] | [lk] | u23A8 | left brace middle +
|
|
| [lb] | [lb] | u23A9 | left brace bottom +
|
|
| [bracelefttp] | [bracelefttp] | u23A7 | left brace top
|
|
| [braceleftmid] | [braceleftmid] | u23A8 | left brace middle
|
|
| [braceleftbt] | [braceleftbt] | u23A9 | left brace bottom
|
|
| [braceleftex] | [braceleftex] | u23AA | left brace extension
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [rt] | [rt] | u23AB | right brace top +
|
|
| [rk] | [rk] | u23AC | right brace middle +
|
|
| [rb] | [rb] | u23AD | right brace bottom +
|
|
| [bracerighttp] | [bracerighttp] | u23AB | right brace top
|
|
| [bracerightmid] | [bracerightmid] | u23AC | right brace middle
|
|
| [bracerightbt] | [bracerightbt] | u23AD | right brace bottom
|
|
| [bracerightex] | [bracerightex] | u23AA | right brace extension
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [parenlefttp] | [parenlefttp] | u239B | left parenthesis top
|
|
| [parenleftex] | [parenleftex] | u239C | left parenthesis extension
|
|
| [parenleftbt] | [parenleftbt] | u239D | left parenthesis bottom
|
|
| [parenrighttp] | [parenrighttp] | u239E | right parenthesis top
|
|
| [parenrightex] | [parenrightex] | u239F | right parenthesis extension
|
|
| [parenrightbt] | [parenrightbt] | u23A0 | right parenthesis bottom
|
|
Arrows
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [<-] | [<-] | u2190 | horizontal arrow left +
|
|
| ->] | ->] | u2192 | horizontal arrow right +
|
|
| [<>] | [<>] | u2194 | bidirectional horizontal arrow
|
|
| [da] | [da] | u2193 | vertical arrow down +
|
|
| [ua] | [ua] | u2191 | vertical arrow up +
|
|
| [va] | [va] | u2195 | bidirectional vertical arrow
|
|
| [lA] | [lA] | u21D0 | horizontal double arrow left
|
|
| [rA] | [rA] | u21D2 | horizontal double arrow right
|
|
| [hA] | [hA] | u21D4 | bidirectional horizontal double arrow
|
|
| [dA] | [dA] | u21D3 | vertical double arrow down
|
|
| [uA] | [uA] | u21D1 | vertical double arrow up
|
|
| [vA] | [vA] | u21D5 | bidirectional vertical double arrow
|
|
| [an] | [an] | u23AF | horizontal arrow extension
|
|
Rules and lines
On typesetting devices,
the fon-invariant glyphs
(see subsection [lq]Brackets[rq] above)
[rs][br],
[rs][ul],
and
[rs][rn]
form corners when adjacent;
they can be used to build boxes.
On terminal devices,
they are mapped as shown in the table.
The Unicod-derived names of these three glyphs are approximations.
The input character
_
always accesses the underscore glyph in a font;
[rs][ul],
by contrast,
may be fon-invariant on typesetting devices.
The baseline rule
[rs][ru]
is a fon-invariant glyph,
namely a rule of on-half em.
In AT&T
troff,
[rs][rn]
also served as a one~en extension of the square root symbol.
groff
favors
[rs][radicalex]
for this purpose;
see subsection [lq]Mathematical symbols[rq] below.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| | | | | u007C | bar
|
|
| [ba] | [ba] | u007C | bar
|
|
| [br] | [br] | u2502 | box rule +
|
|
| _ | _ | u005F | underscore, low line +
|
|
| [ul] | [ul] | - | underrule +
|
|
| [rn] | [rn] | u203E | overline +
|
|
| [ru] | [ru] | - | baseline rule +
|
|
| [bb] | [bb] | u00A6 | broken bar
|
|
| [sl] | / | u002F | slash, solidus +
|
|
| [sl] | [sl] | u002F | slash, solidus +
|
|
| [rs] | [rs] | u005C | reverse solidus
|
|
Text markers
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [ci] | [ci] | u25CB | circle +
|
|
| [bu] | [bu] | u2022 | bullet +
|
|
| [dg] | [dg] | u2020 | dagger +
|
|
| [dd] | [dd] | u2021 | double dagger +
|
|
| [lz] | [lz] | u25CA | lozenge, diamond
|
|
| [sq] | [sq] | u25A1 | square +
|
|
| [ps] | [ps] | u00B6 | pilcrow sign
|
|
| [sc] | [sc] | u00A7 | section sign +
|
|
| [lh] | [lh] | u261C | hand pointing left +
|
|
| [rh] | [rh] | u261E | hand pointing right +
|
|
| [at] | @ | u0040 | at sign
|
|
| [at] | [at] | u0040 | at sign
|
|
| [sh] | # | u0023 | number sign
|
|
| [sh] | [sh] | u0023 | number sign
|
|
| [CR] | [CR] | u21B5 | carriage return
|
|
| [OK] | [OK] | u2713 | check mark
|
|
Legal symbols
The Bell System logo is not supported in
groff.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [co] | [co] | u00A9 | copyright sign +
|
|
| [rg] | [rg] | u00AE | registered sign +
|
|
| [tm] | [tm] | u2122 | trade mark sign
|
|
| [bs] | [bs] | - | Bell System logo +
|
|
Currency symbols
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [Do] | $ | u0024 | dollar sign
|
|
| [Do] | [Do] | u0024 | dollar sign
|
|
| [ct] | [ct] | u00A2 | cent sign +
|
|
| [eu] | [eu] | u20AC | Euro sign
|
|
| [Eu] | [Eu] | u20AC | variant Euro sign
|
|
| [Ye] | [Ye] | u00A5 | yen sign
|
|
| [Po] | [Po] | u00A3 | pound sign
|
|
| [Cs] | [Cs] | u00A4 | currency sign
|
|
Units
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [de] | [de] | u00B0 | degree sign +
|
|
| [%0] | [%0] | u2030 | per thousand, per mille sign
|
|
| [fm] | [fm] | u2032 | arc minute sign, foot mark +
|
|
| [sd] | [sd] | u2033 | arc second sign
|
|
| [mc] | [mc] | u00B5 | micro sign
|
|
| [Of] | [Of] | u00AA | feminine ordinal indicator
|
|
| [Om] | [Om] | u00BA | masculine ordinal indicator
|
|
Logical symbols
The variants of the not sign may differ in appearance or spacing
depending on the device and font selected.
Unicode does not encode a discrete [lq]bitwise or[rq] sign:
on typesetting devices,
it is drawn shorter than the bar,
about the same height as a capital letter.
Terminal devices unify
[rs][ba]
and
[rs][or].
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [AN] | [AN] | u2227 | logical and
|
|
| [OR] | [OR] | u2228 | logical or
|
|
| [no] | [no] | u00AC | logical not + ***
|
|
| [tno] | [tno] | u00AC | text variant of B][no]]
|
|
| [te] | [te] | u2203 | there exists
|
|
| [fa] | [fa] | u2200 | for all
|
|
| [st] | [st] | u220B | such that
|
|
| [3d] | [3d] | u2234 | therefore
|
|
| [tf] | [tf] | u2234 | therefore
|
|
| | | | | u007C | bar
|
|
| [or] | [or] | u007C | bitwise or +
|
|
Mathematical symbols
[rs][Fn]
also appears in subsection [lq]Supplementary Latin letters[rq] above.
Observe the two varieties of the
plu-minus,
multiplication,
and division signs;
[rs][+-],
[rs][mu],
and
[rs][di]
are normally drawn from the special font,
but have text font variants.
Also be aware of three glyphs available in special font variants that
are normally drawn from text fonts:
the plus,
minus,
and equals signs.
These variants may differ in appearance or spacing depending on the
device and font selected.
In AT&T
troff,
[rs](rn
([lq]root en extender[rq])
served as the horizontal extension of the radical
(square root)
sign,
[rs](sr,
and was drawn at the maximum height of the typeface's bounding box;
this enabled the special character to double as an overline
(see subsection [lq]Rules and lines[rq] above).
A contemporary font's radical sign might not ascend to such an extreme.
In
groff,
you can instead use
[rs][radicalex]
to continue the radical sign
[rs][sr];
these special characters are intended for use with text fonts.
[rs][sqrt]
and
[rs][sqrtex]
are their counterparts with mathematical spacing.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [12] | [12] | u00BD | one half symbol +
|
|
| [14] | [14] | u00BC | one quarter symbol +
|
|
| [34] | [34] | u00BE | three quarters symbol +
|
|
| [18] | [18] | u215B | one eighth symbol
|
|
| [38] | [38] | u215C | three eighths symbol
|
|
| [58] | [58] | u215D | five eighths symbol
|
|
| [78] | [78] | u215E | seven eighths symbol
|
|
| [S1] | [S1] | u00B9 | superscript one
|
|
| [S2] | [S2] | u00B2 | superscript two
|
|
| [S3] | [S3] | u00B3 | superscript three
|
|
| | |
|
|
| + | + | u002B | plus
|
|
| [pl] | [pl] | u002B | special variant of plus + ***
|
|
| - | -] | u002D | minus
|
|
| [mi] | [mi] | u2212 | special variant of minus + ***
|
|
| -+] | -+] | u2213 | minu-plus
|
|
| [-] | [-] | u00B1 | plu-minus + ***
|
|
| [t-] | [t-] | u00B1 | text variant of B][-]]
|
|
| [md] | [md] | u22C5 | multiplication dot
|
|
| [mu] | [mu] | u00D7 | multiplication sign + ***
|
|
| [tmu] | [tmu] | u00D7 | text variant of B][mu]]
|
|
| [c*] | [c*] | u2297 | circled times
|
|
| [c+] | [c+] | u2295 | circled plus
|
|
| [di] | [di] | u00F7 | division sign + ***
|
|
| [tdi] | [tdi] | u00F7 | text variant of B][di]]
|
|
| [f/] | [f/] | u2044 | fraction slash
|
|
| * | * | u002A | asterisk
|
|
| [**] | [**] | u2217 | mathematical asterisk +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [<=] | [<=] | u2264 | less than or equal to +
|
|
| [>=] | [>=] | u2265 | greater than or equal to +
|
|
| [<<] | [<<] | u226A | much less than
|
|
| [>>] | [>>] | u226B | much greater than
|
|
| = | = | u003D | equals
|
|
| [eq] | [eq] | u003D | special variant of equals + ***
|
|
| [!=] | [!=] | u003D_0338 | not equals +
|
|
| [==] | [==] | u2261 | equivalent +
|
|
| [ne] | [ne] | u2261_0338 | not equivalent
|
|
| [=~] | [=[ti]] | u2245 | approximately equal to
|
|
| [|=] | [|=] | u2243 | asymptotically equal to +
|
|
| [ti] | [ti] | u007E | tilde +
|
|
| [ap] | [ap] | u223C | similar to, tilde operator +
|
|
| [~~] | [[ti][ti]] | u2248 | almost equal to
|
|
| [~=] | [[ti]=] | u2248 | almost equal to
|
|
| [pt] | [pt] | u221D | proportional to +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [es] | [es] | u2205 | empty set +
|
|
| [mo] | [mo] | u2208 | element of a set +
|
|
| [nm] | [nm] | u2208_0338 | not element of set
|
|
| [sb] | [sb] | u2282 | proper subset +
|
|
| [nb] | [nb] | u2282_0338 | not subset
|
|
| [sp] | [sp] | u2283 | proper superset +
|
|
| [nc] | [nc] | u2283_0338 | not superset
|
|
| [ib] | [ib] | u2286 | subset or equal +
|
|
| [ip] | [ip] | u2287 | superset or equal +
|
|
| [ca] | [ca] | u2229 | intersection, cap +
|
|
| [cu] | [cu] | u222A | union, cup +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [/_] | [/_] | u2220 | angle
|
|
| [pp] | [pp] | u22A5 | perpendicular
|
|
| [is] | [is] | u222B | integral +
|
|
| [integral] | [integral] | u222B | integral ***
|
|
| [sum] | [sum] | u2211 | summation ***
|
|
| [product] | [product] | u220F | product ***
|
|
| [coproduct] | [coproduct] | u2210 | coproduct ***
|
|
| [gr] | [gr] | u2207 | gradient +
|
|
| [sr] | [sr] | u221A | radical sign, square root +
|
|
| [rn] | [rn] | u203E | overline +
|
|
| [radicalex] | [radicalex] | - | radical extension
|
|
| [sqrt] | [sqrt] | u221A | radical sign, square root ***
|
|
| [sqrtex] | [sqrtex] | - | radical extension ***
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [lc] | [lc] | u2308 | left ceiling +
|
|
| [rc] | [rc] | u2309 | right ceiling +
|
|
| [lf] | [lf] | u230A | left floor +
|
|
| [rf] | [rf] | u230B | right floor +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [if] | [if] | u221E | infinity +
|
|
| [Ah] | [Ah] | u2135 | aleph symbol
|
|
| [Fn] | [Fn] | u0192 | lowercase f with hook, function
|
|
| [Im] | [Im] | u2111 | blackletter I, imaginary part
|
|
| [Re] | [Re] | u211C | blackletter R, real part
|
|
| [wp] | [wp] | u2118 | Weierstrass p
|
|
| [pd] | [pd] | u2202 | partial differential
|
|
| -h] | -h] | u210F | h bar
|
|
| [hbar] | [hbar] | u210F | h bar
|
|
Greek glyphs
These glyphs are intended for technical use,
not for typesetting Greek language text;
normally,
the uppercase letters have upright shape,
and the lowercase ones are slanted.
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [*A] | [*A] | u0391 | uppercase alpha +
|
|
| [*B] | [*B] | u0392 | uppercase beta +
|
|
| [*G] | [*G] | u0393 | uppercase gamma +
|
|
| [*D] | [*D] | u0394 | uppercase delta +
|
|
| [*E] | [*E] | u0395 | uppercase epsilon +
|
|
| [*Z] | [*Z] | u0396 | uppercase zeta +
|
|
| [*Y] | [*Y] | u0397 | uppercase eta +
|
|
| [*H] | [*H] | u0398 | uppercase theta +
|
|
| [*I] | [*I] | u0399 | uppercase iota +
|
|
| [*K] | [*K] | u039A | uppercase kappa +
|
|
| [*L] | [*L] | u039B | uppercase lambda +
|
|
| [*M] | [*M] | u039C | uppercase mu +
|
|
| [*N] | [*N] | u039D | uppercase nu +
|
|
| [*C] | [*C] | u039E | uppercase xi +
|
|
| [*O] | [*O] | u039F | uppercase omicron +
|
|
| [*P] | [*P] | u03A0 | uppercase pi +
|
|
| [*R] | [*R] | u03A1 | uppercase rho +
|
|
| [*S] | [*S] | u03A3 | uppercase sigma +
|
|
| [*T] | [*T] | u03A4 | uppercase tau +
|
|
| [*U] | [*U] | u03A5 | uppercase upsilon +
|
|
| [*F] | [*F] | u03A6 | uppercase phi +
|
|
| [*X] | [*X] | u03A7 | uppercase chi +
|
|
| [*Q] | [*Q] | u03A8 | uppercase psi +
|
|
| [*W] | [*W] | u03A9 | uppercase omega +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [*a] | [*a] | u03B1 | lowercase alpha +
|
|
| [*b] | [*b] | u03B2 | lowercase beta +
|
|
| [*g] | [*g] | u03B3 | lowercase gamma +
|
|
| [*d] | [*d] | u03B4 | lowercase delta +
|
|
| [*e] | [*e] | u03B5 | lowercase epsilon +
|
|
| [*z] | [*z] | u03B6 | lowercase zeta +
|
|
| [*y] | [*y] | u03B7 | lowercase eta +
|
|
| [*h] | [*h] | u03B8 | lowercase theta +
|
|
| [*i] | [*i] | u03B9 | lowercase iota +
|
|
| [*k] | [*k] | u03BA | lowercase kappa +
|
|
| [*l] | [*l] | u03BB | lowercase lambda +
|
|
| [*m] | [*m] | u03BC | lowercase mu +
|
|
| [*n] | [*n] | u03BD | lowercase nu +
|
|
| [*c] | [*c] | u03BE | lowercase xi +
|
|
| [*o] | [*o] | u03BF | lowercase omicron +
|
|
| [*p] | [*p] | u03C0 | lowercase pi +
|
|
| [*r] | [*r] | u03C1 | lowercase rho +
|
|
| [*s] | [*s] | u03C3 | lowercase sigma +
|
|
| [*t] | [*t] | u03C4 | lowercase tau +
|
|
| [*u] | [*u] | u03C5 | lowercase upsilon +
|
|
| [*f] | [*f] | u03D5 | lowercase phi +
|
|
| [*x] | [*x] | u03C7 | lowercase chi +
|
|
| [*q] | [*q] | u03C8 | lowercase psi +
|
|
| [*w] | [*w] | u03C9 | lowercase omega +
|
|
| | |
|
|
| [+e] | [+e] | u03F5 | variant epsilon (lunate)
|
|
| [+h] | [+h] | u03D1 | variant theta (cursive form)
|
|
| [+p] | [+p] | u03D6 | variant pi (similar to omega)
|
|
| [+f] | [+f] | u03C6 | variant phi (curly shape)
|
|
| [ts] | [ts] | u03C2 | terminal lowercase sigma +
|
|
Playing card symbols
| Output | Input | Unicode | Notes
|
|
| [CL] | [CL] | u2663 | solid club suit
|
|
| [SP] | [SP] | u2660 | solid spade suit
|
|
| [HE] | [HE] | u2665 | solid heart suit
|
|
| [DI] | [DI] | u2666 | solid diamond suit
|
|
History
A consideration of the typefaces originally available to AT&T
nroff and
troff illuminates many conventions that one might regard as idiosyncratic
fifty years afterward.
(See section [lq]History[rq] of
for more context.)
The face used by the Teletype Model~37 terminals of the Murray Hill
Unix Room was based on ASCII,
but assigned multiple meanings to several code points,
as suggested by that standard.
Decimal 34
(
[dq])
served as a dieresis accent and neutral double quotation mark;
decimal 39
(
[aq])
as an acute accent,
apostrophe,
and closing (right) single quotation mark;
decimal 45
(
[-])
as a hyphen and a minus sign;
decimal 94
(
[ha])
as a circumflex accent and caret;
decimal 96
(
[ga])
as a grave accent and opening (left) single quotation mark;
and decimal 126
(
[ti])
as a tilde accent and
(with a hal-line motion)
swung dash.
The Model~37 bore an optional extended character set offering upright
Greek letters and several mathematical symbols;
these were documented as early as the
kbd(VII)
man page of the
(First Edition)
Unix Programmer's Manual.
At the time Graphic Systems delivered the C/A/T phototypesetter to AT&T,
the ASCII character set was not considered a standard basis for a glyph
repertoire by traditional typographers.
In the stock Times roman,
italic,
and bold styles available,
several ASCII characters were not present at all,
nor was most of the Teletype's extended character set.
AT&T commissioned a [lq]special[rq] font to ensure no loss of
repertoire.
A representation of the coverage of the C/A/T's text fonts follows.
The glyph resembling an underscore is a baseline rule,
and that resembling a vertical line is a box rule.
In italics,
the box rule was not slanted.
We also observe that the hyphen and minus sign were already
[lq]d-unified[rq] by the fonts provided;
a decision whither to map an input [lq]-[rq] therefore had to be
taken.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [fi] [fl] [Fi] [Fl]
|
! $ % & ( ) [oq] [cq] * +- . , / : ; = ? [ ] [br]
|
[bu] [sq] [em] [hy] [ru] [14] [12] [34] [de] [dg] [fm] [ct] [rg] [co]
|
|
The special font supplied the missing ASCII and Teletype extended
glyphs,
among several others.
The plus,
minus,
and equals signs appeared in the special font despite availability in
text fonts [lq]to insulate the appearance of equations from the choice
of standard [read: text] fonts[rq][em]a priority since
troff was turned to the task of mathematical typesetting as soon as it was
developed.
We note that AT&T took the opportunity to d-unify the apostrophe/right
single quotation mark from the acute accent
(a choice ISO later duplicated in its 8859 series of standards).
A slash intended to be mirro-symmetric with the backslash was also
included,
as was the Bell System logo;
we do not attempt to depict the latter.
[*a] [*b] [*g] [*d] [*e] [*z] [*y] [*h] [*i] [*k] [*l] [*m] [*n] [*c] [*o] [*p] [*r] [*s] [ts] [*t] [*u] [*f] [*x] [*q] [*w]
|
[*G] [*D] [*H] [*L] [*C] [*P] [*S] [*U] [*F] [*Q] [*W]
|
[dq] [aa] [rs] [ha] [ul] [ga] [ti] [sl] < > { } # @ [pl] [mi] [eq] [**]
|
[>=] [<=] [==] [~=] [ap] [!=] [ua] [da] [<-] ->] [mu] [di] [-] [if] [pd] [gr] [no] [is] [pt] [sr] [radicalex] [cu] [ca] [sb] [sp] [ib] [ip] [es] [mo]
|
[sc] [dd] [lh] [rh] [or] [ci] [lt] [lb] [rt] [rb] [lk] [rk] [bv] [lf] [rf] [lc] [rc]
|
|
One ASCII character as rendered by the Model 37 was apparently
abandoned.
That device printed decimal 124 ([or]) as a broken vertical line,
like Unicode U+00A6 ([bb]).
No equivalent was available on the C/A/T;
the box rule
[rs][br],
brace vertical extension
[rs][bv],
and [lq]or[rq] operator
[rs][or]
were used as contextually appropriate.
Devices supported by AT&T devic-independent
troff
exhibited some differences in glyph detail.
For example,
on the Autologic AP-5 phototypesetter,
the square
[rs](sq
became filled in the Times bold face.
Files
The files below are loaded automatically by the default
troffrc.
- /usr/:share/:groff/:1.23.0/:tmac/:composite:.tmac
-
assigns alternate mappings for identifiers after the first in a
composite special character escape sequence.
See subsection [lq]Accents[rq] above.
- /usr/:share/:groff/:1.23.0/:tmac/:fallbacks:.tmac
-
defines fallback mappings for Unicode code points such as the increment
sign (U+2206) and uppe- and lowercase Roman numerals.
Authors
This document was written by
James Clark
with additions by
Werner Lemberg
and
Bernd Warken
revised to use
by
Eric S. Raymond
and largely rewritten by
G. Branden Robinson
See also
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff,
by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg,
is the primary
groff
manual.
Section [lq]Using Symbols[rq] may be of particular note.
You can browse it interactively with [lq]info [aq](groff) Using
Symbols[aq][rq].
[lq]An extension to the
troff
character set for Europe[rq],
E.G. Keizer,
K.J. Simonsen,
J. Akkerhuis;
EUUG Newsletter,
Volume 9,
No. 2,
Summer 1989
The Unicode Standard
[lq]-bit Character Sets[rq]
by Tuomas Salste documents the inherent ambiguity and configurable code
points of the ASCII encoding standard.
[lq]Nroff/Troff User's Manual[rq]
by Joseph F. Ossanna,
1976,
AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report No. 54,
features two tables that throw light on the glyph repertoire available
to [lq]typesetter
roff[rq]
when it was first written.
Be careful of r-typeset versions of this document that can be found on
the Internet.
Some do not accurately represent the original document:
several glyphs are obviously missing.
More subtly,
lowercase Greek letters are rendered upright,
not slanted as they appeared in the C/A/T's special font and as expected
by
troff users.
describes an alternative set of special character glyph names,
which extends and in some cases overrides the definitions listed above.
Index
- Name
-
- Description
-
- Fundamental character set
-
- Eight-bit encodings and Latin-1 supplement
-
- Special character escape forms
-
- Glyph tables
-
- Basic Latin
-
- Supplementary Latin letters
-
- Ligatures and digraphs
-
- Accents
-
- Accented characters
-
- Quotation marks
-
- Punctuation
-
- Brackets
-
- Arrows
-
- Rules and lines
-
- Text markers
-
- Legal symbols
-
- Currency symbols
-
- Units
-
- Logical symbols
-
- Mathematical symbols
-
- Greek glyphs
-
- Playing card symbols
-
- History
-
- Files
-
- Authors
-
- See also
-
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|
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