[Chapter 12] 12.9 Special Characters
Author: Daniel Gilly & the Staff of O'Reilly & Associates
Date: 1998-08-06T22:01:00Z

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| Chapter 12 Nroff and Troff |

## 12.9 Special Characters

This subsection lists the following special characters:

- Characters that reside on the standard fonts

- Miscellaneous characters

- Bracket building symbols

- Mathematics symbols

- Greek characters

The characters in the first table below are available on the standard fonts. The characters in the remaining tables are available only on the special font.

Table 12.1: On the Standard Fonts
Char | Input | Character Name
--- | --- | ---
' | ' | Close quote
` | ` | Open quote
- | \(em | 3\4 em dash
- | - | Hyphen or
- | \(hy | Hyphen
- | \- | Minus in current font
| \(bu | Bullet
| \(sq | Square
_ | \(ru | Rule
¼ | \(14 | 1/4
½ | \(12 | 1/2
¾ | \(34 | 3/4
| \(fi | fi ligature
| \(fl | fl ligature
| \(ff | ff ligature
| \(Fi | ffi ligature
| \(Fl | ffl ligature
° | \(de | Degree
| \(dg | Dagger
' | \(fm | Foot mark
¢ | \(ct | Cent sign
® | \(rg | Registered
© | \(co | Copyright

Table 12.2: Miscellaneous Characters
Char | Input | Character Name
--- | --- | ---
§ | \(sc | Section
´ | \(aa | Acute accent
` | \(ga | Grave accent
_ | \(ul | Underrule
| \(-> | Right arrow
| \(<- | Left arrow
| \(ua | Up arrow
| \(da | Down arrow
| | \(br | Box rule
| \(dd | Double dagger
| \(rh | Right hand
| \(lh | Left hand
| \(ci | Circle
| \(vs | Visible space indicator (ditroff only)

Table 12.3: Bracket Building Symbols
Char | Input | Character Name
--- | --- | ---
| \(lt | Left top of big curly bracket
| \(lk | Left center of big curly bracket
| \(lb | Left bottom of big curly bracket
| \(rt | Right top of big curly bracket
| \(rk | Right center of big curly bracket
| \(rb | Right bottom of big curly bracket
| \(lc | Left ceiling (left top) of big square bracket
| | \(bv | Bold vertical
| \(lf | Left floor left bottom of big square bracket
| \(rc | Right ceiling (right top) of big square bracket
| \(rf | Right floor (right bottom) of big square bracket

Table 12.4: Mathematics Symbols
Char | Input | Character Name
--- | --- | ---
+ | \(pl | Math plus
- | \(mi | Math minus
= | \(eq | Math equals
* | \(** | Math star
/ | \(sl | Slash (matching backslash)
| \(sr | Square root
| \(rn | Root en extender
| \(>= | Greater than or equal to
| \(<= | Less than or equal to
| \(== | Identically equal
| \(~~ | Approx equal
~ | \(ap | Approximates
| \(!= | Not equal
× | \(mu | Multiply
÷ | \(di | Divide
± | \(+- | Plus-minus
| \(cu | Cup (union)
| \(ca | Cap (intersection)
| \(sb | Subset of
| \(sp | Superset of
| \(ib | Improper subset
| \(ip | Improper superset
| \(if | Infinity
| \(pd | Partial derivative
| \(gr | Gradient
¬ | \(no | Not
| \(is | Integral sign
| \(pt | Proportional to
| \(es | Empty set
| \(mo | Member of
| | \(or | Or

### 12.9.1 Greek Characters

Characters that have equivalents as uppercase English letters are available on the standard fonts; otherwise, the characters below exist only on the special font.

Char | Input | Char Name | Char | Input | Char Name
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
| \(*a | alpha | A | \(*A | ALPHA
| \(*b | beta | B | \(*B | BETA
| \(*g | gamma |  | \(*G | GAMMA
| \(*d | delta |  | \(*D | DELTA
| \(*e | epsilon | E | \(*E | EPSILON
| \(*z | zeta | Z | \(*Z | ZETA
| \(*y | eta | H | \(*Y | ETA
| \(*h | theta |  | \(*H | THETA
| \(*i | iota | I | \(*I | IOTA
| \(*k | kappa | K | \(*K | KAPPA
| \(*l | lambda |  | \(*L | LAMBDA
| \(*m | mu | M | \(*M | MU
| \(*n | nu | N | \(*N | NU
| \(*c | xi |  | \(*C | XI
| \(*o | omicron | O | \(*O | OMICRON
| \(*p | pi |  | \(*P | PI
| \(*r | rho | P | \(*R | RHO
| \(*s | sigma |  | \(*S | SIGMA
| \(ts | terminal sigma |  |  |
| \(*t | tau | T | \(*T | TAU
| \(*u | upsilon |  | \(*U | UPSILON
| \(*f | phi |  | \(*F | PHI
| \(*x | chi | X | \(*X | CHI
| \(*q | psi |  | \(*Q | PSI
| \(*w | omega |  | \(*W | OMEGA

12.8 Predefined Number Registers |  | 13. mm Macros