Provided by: groff_1.22.4-8build1_amd64 
NAME
groff_char - groff glyph names
DESCRIPTION
This manual page lists the standard groff glyph names and the default input mapping,
latin1. The glyphs in this document look different depending on which output device was
chosen (with option -T for the man(1) program or the roff formatter). Glyphs not
available for the device that is being used to print or view this manual page are marked
with ‘(N/A)’; the device currently used is ‘utf8’.
In the actual version, groff provides only 8-bit characters for direct input and named
entities for further glyphs. On ASCII platforms, input character codes in the range 0 to
127 (decimal) represent the usual 7-bit ASCII characters, while codes between 127 and 255
are interpreted as the corresponding characters in the latin1 (ISO-8859-1) code set by
default. This mapping is contained in the file latin1.tmac and can be changed by loading
a different input encoding. Note that some of the input characters are reserved by groff,
either for internal use or for special input purposes. On EBCDIC platforms, only code
page cp1047 is supported (which contains the same characters as latin1; the input encoding
file is called cp1047.tmac). Again, some input characters are reserved for internal and
special purposes.
All roff systems provide the concept of named glyphs. In traditional roff systems, only
names of length 2 were used, while groff also provides support for longer names. It is
strongly suggested that only named glyphs are used for all character representations
outside of the printable 7-bit ASCII range.
Some of the predefined groff escape sequences (with names of length 1) also produce single
glyphs; these exist for historical reasons or are printable versions of syntactical
characters. They include ‘\\’, ‘\'’, ‘\`’, ‘\-’, ‘\.’, and ‘\e’; see groff(7).
In groff, all of these different types of characters and glyphs can be tested positively
with the ‘.if c’ conditional.
REFERENCE
In this section, the glyphs in groff are specified in tabular form. The meaning of the
columns is as follows.
Output shows how the glyph is printed for the current device; although this can have quite
a different shape on other devices, it always represents the same glyph.
Input specifies how the glyph is input either directly by a key on the keyboard, or by a
groff escape sequence.
Code applies to glyphs which can be input with a single character, and gives the ISO
latin1 decimal code of that input character. Note that this code is equivalent to
the lowest 256 Unicode characters, including 7-bit ASCII in the range 0 to 127.
PostScript
gives the usual PostScript name of the glyph.
Unicode
is the glyph name used in composite glyph names. The names in the Unicode column
look like u0021 or u0041_0300. In groff, the corresponding Unicode characters can
be constructed by adding a backslash and a pair of square brackets, for example
\[u0021] or \[u0041_0300].
7-bit Character Codes 32–126
These are the basic glyphs having 7-bit ASCII code values assigned. They are identical to
the printable characters of the character standards ISO-8859-1 (latin1) and Unicode (range
Basic Latin). The glyph names used in composite glyph names are ‘u0020’ up to ‘u007E’.
Note that input characters in the range 0-31 and character 127 are not printable
characters. Most of them are invalid input characters for groff anyway, and the valid
ones have special meaning. For EBCDIC, the printable characters are in the range 66-255.
48-57 Decimal digits 0 to 9 (print as themselves).
65-90 Upper case letters A-Z (print as themselves).
97-122 Lower case letters a–z (print as themselves).
Most of the remaining characters not in the just described ranges print as themselves; the
only exceptions are the following characters:
` the ISO latin1 ‘Grave Accent’ (code 96) prints as ‘, a left single quotation mark
(Unicode u2018). The same output glyph can be requested explicitly with ‘\(oq’.
The original character can be obtained with ‘\`’ (Unicode u0060).
' the ISO latin1 ‘Apostrophe’ (code 39) prints as ’, a right single quotation mark
(Unicode u2019). The same output glyph is commonly used in typography to represent
a punctation apostrophe, for example in contractions. It can be requested
explicitly with ‘\(cq’. The original character can be obtained with ‘\(aq’
(Unicode u0027).
- the ISO latin1 ‘Hyphen, Minus Sign’ (code 45) prints as a hyphen (Unicode u2010).
The same output glyph can be requested explicitly with ‘\(hy’. A minus sign can be
obtained with ‘\-’ (Unicode u2212).
~ the ISO latin1 ‘Tilde’ (code 126) is reduced in size to be usable as a diacritic
(Unicode u02DC). A larger glyph can be obtained with ‘\(ti’ (Unicode u007E).
^ the ISO latin1 ‘Circumflex Accent’ (code 94) is reduced in size to be usable as a
diacritic (Unicode u02C6); a larger glyph can be obtained with ‘\(ha’ (Unicode
u005E).
Output Input Code PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
! ! 33 exclam u0021 exclamation mark (bang)
" " 34 quotedbl u0022 double quote
# # 35 numbersign u0023 number sign
$ $ 36 dollar u0024 currency dollar sign
% % 37 percent u0025 percent
& & 38 ampersand u0026 ampersand
’ ' 39 quoteright u2019 right quote
' \(aq quotesingle u0027 apostrophe quote
( ( 40 parenleft u0028 parentheses left
) ) 41 parenright u0029 parentheses right
* * 42 asterisk u002A asterisk
+ + 43 plus u002B plus
, , 44 comma u002C comma
‐ - 45 hyphen u2010 hyphen
- \- minus u2212 minus sign
. . 46 period u002E period, dot
/ / 47 slash u002F slash
: : 58 colon u003A colon
; ; 59 semicolon u003B semicolon
< < 60 less u003C less than
= = 61 equal u003D equal
> > 62 greater u003E greater than
? ? 63 question u003F question mark
@ @ 64 at u0040 at
[ [ 91 bracketleft u005B square bracket left
\ \ 92 backslash u005C backslash
] ] 93 bracketright u005D square bracket right
^ ^ 94 circumflex u02C6 modifier circumflex
^ \(ha asciicircum u005E circumflex accent
_ _ 95 underscore u005F underscore
‘ ` 96 quoteleft u2018 left quote
` \(ga grave u0060 grave accent
{ { 123 braceleft u007B curly brace left
| | 124 bar u007C bar
} } 125 braceright u007D curly brace right
˜ ~ 126 tilde u02DC small tilde
~ \(ti asciitilde u007E tilde
8-bit Character Codes 160 to 255
They are interpreted as printable characters according to the latin1 (ISO-8859-1) code
set, being identical to the Unicode range Latin-1 Supplement.
Input characters in range 128-159 (on non-EBCDIC hosts) are not printable characters.
160 the ISO latin1 no-break space is mapped to ‘\~’, the stretchable space character.
173 the soft hyphen control character. groff never uses this character for output
(thus it is omitted in the table below); the input character 173 is mapped onto
‘\%’.
The remaining ranges (161-172, 174-255) are printable characters that print as themselves.
Although they can be specified directly with the keyboard on systems with a latin1 code
page, it is better to use their glyph names; see the next section.
Output Input Code PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
¡ ¡ 161 exclamdown u00A1 inverted exclamation mark
¢ ¢ 162 cent u00A2 currency unit
£ £ 163 sterling u00A3 pound sterling
¤ ¤ 164 currency u00A4 generic currency symbol
¥ ¥ 165 yen u00A5 Japanese currency symbol
¦ ¦ 166 brokenbar u00A6 broken bar
§ § 167 section u00A7 section sign
¨ ¨ 168 dieresis u00A8 dieresis (umlaut)
© © 169 copyright u00A9 copyright symbol
ª ª 170 ordfeminine u00AA feminine ordinal (Spanish)
« « 171 guillemotleft u00AB left guillemet [sic]
¬ ¬ 172 logicalnot u00AC logical not
® ® 174 registered u00AE registered mark symbol
¯ ¯ 175 macron u00AF overbar accent
° ° 176 degree u00B0 degree sign
± ± 177 plusminus u00B1 plus-minus sign
² ² 178 twosuperior u00B2 superscript 2
³ ³ 179 threesuperior u00B3 superscript 3
´ ´ 180 acute u00B4 acute accent
µ µ 181 mu u00B5 micro sign
¶ ¶ 182 paragraph u00B6 end of paragraphs marker
· · 183 periodcentered u00B7 centered period
¸ ¸ 184 cedilla u00B8 cedilla accent
¹ ¹ 185 onesuperior u00B9 superscript 1
º º 186 ordmasculine u00BA masculine ordinal (Spanish)
» » 187 guillemotright u00BB right guillemet [sic]
¼ ¼ 188 onequarter u00BC 1/4 symbol
½ ½ 189 onehalf u00BD 1/2 symbol
¾ ¾ 190 threequarters u00BE 3/4 symbol
¿ ¿ 191 questiondown u00BF inverted question mark
À À 192 Agrave u0041_0300 A grave
Á Á 193 Aacute u0041_0301 A acute
  194 Acircumflex u0041_0302 A circumflex
à à 195 Atilde u0041_0303 A tilde
Ä Ä 196 Adieresis u0041_0308 A dieresis (umlaut)
Å Å 197 Aring u0041_030A A ring
Æ Æ 198 AE u00C6 A+E combined
Ç Ç 199 Ccedilla u0043_0327 C cedilla
È È 200 Egrave u0045_0300 E grave
É É 201 Eacute u0045_0301 E acute
Ê Ê 202 Ecircumflex u0045_0302 E circumflex
Ë Ë 203 Edieresis u0045_0308 E dieresis (umlaut)
Ì Ì 204 Igrave u0049_0300 I grave
Í Í 205 Iacute u0049_0301 I acute
Î Î 206 Icircumflex u0049_0302 I circumflex
Ï Ï 207 Idieresis u0049_0308 I dieresis
Ð Ð 208 Eth u00D0 E th
Ñ Ñ 209 Ntilde u004E_0303 N tilde
Ò Ò 210 Ograve u004F_0300 O grave
Ó Ó 211 Oacute u004F_0301 O acute
Ô Ô 212 Ocircumflex u004F_0302 O circumflex
Õ Õ 213 Otilde u004F_0303 O tilde
Ö Ö 214 Odieresis u004F_0308 O dieresis (umlaut)
× × 215 multiply u00D7 multiply
Ø Ø 216 Oslash u00D8 O slash
Ù Ù 217 Ugrave u0055_0300 U grave
Ú Ú 218 Uacute u0055_0301 U acute
Û Û 219 Ucircumflex u0055_0302 U circumflex
Ü Ü 220 Udieresis u0055_0308 U dieresis (umlaut)
Ý Ý 221 Yacute u0059_0301 Y acute
Þ Þ 222 Thorn u00DE Thorn
ß ß 223 germandbls u00DF German double s (sharp s)
à à 224 agrave u0061_0300 a grave
á á 225 aacute u0061_0301 a acute
â â 226 acircumflex u0061_0302 a circumflex
ã ã 227 atilde u0061_0303 a tilde
ä ä 228 adieresis u0061_0308 a dieresis (umlaut)
å å 229 aring u0061_030A a ring
æ æ 230 ae u00E6 a+e combined
ç ç 231 ccedilla u0063_0327 c cedilla
è è 232 egrave u0065_0300 e grave
é é 233 eacute u0065_0301 e acute
ê ê 234 ecircumflex u0065_0302 e circumflex
ë ë 235 edieresis u0065_0308 e dieresis (umlaut)
ì ì 236 igrave u0069_0300 i grave
í í 237 iacute u0069_0301 i acute
î î 238 icircumflex u0069_0302 i circumflex
ï ï 239 idieresis u0069_0308 i dieresis (umlaut)
ð ð 240 eth u00F0 e th
ñ ñ 241 ntilde u006E_0303 n tilde
ò ò 242 ograve u006F_0300 o grave
ó ó 243 oacute u006F_0301 o acute
ô ô 244 ocircumflex u006F_0302 o circumflex
õ õ 245 otilde u006F_0303 o tilde
ö ö 246 odieresis u006F_0308 o dieresis (umlaut)
÷ ÷ 247 divide u00F7 divide
ø ø 248 oslash u00F8 o slash
ù ù 249 ugrave u0075_0300 u grave
ú ú 250 uacute u0075_0301 u acute
û û 251 ucircumflex u0075_0302 u circumflex
ü ü 252 udieresis u0075_0308 u dieresis (umlaut)
ý ý 253 yacute u0079_0301 y acute
þ þ 254 thorn u00FE thorn
ÿ ÿ 255 ydieresis u0079_0308 y dieresis (umlaut)
Named Glyphs
Glyph names can be embedded into the document text by using escape sequences. groff(7)
describes how these escape sequences look. Glyph names can consist of quite arbitrary
characters from the ASCII or latin1 code set, not only alphanumeric characters. Here some
examples:
\(ch A glyph having the 2-character name ch.
\[char_name]
A glyph having the name char_name (having length 1, 2, 3, ...). Note that ‘c’ is
not the same as ‘\[c]’ (c a single character): The latter is internally mapped to
glyph name ‘\c’. By default, groff defines a single glyph name starting with a
backslash, namely ‘\-’, which can be either accessed as ‘\-’ or ‘\[-]’.
\[base_glyph composite_1 composite_2 ...]
A composite glyph; see below for a more detailed description.
In groff, each 8-bit input character can also referred to by the construct ‘\[charn]’
where n is the decimal code of the character, a number between 0 and 255 without leading
zeros (those entities are not glyph names). They are normally mapped onto glyphs using
the .trin request.
Another special convention is the handling of glyphs with names directly derived from a
Unicode code point; this is shown in the ‘Unicode’ column of the table below. In general,
all glyphs not having a name as listed in this manual page can be accessed with the
‘\[uXXXX]’ construct. Refer to section “Using Symbols” in Groff: The GNU Implementation
of troff, the groff Texinfo manual, which describes how groff glyph names are constructed.
Moreover, new glyph names can be created by the .char request; see groff(7).
In the following, a plus sign ‘+’ in the ‘Notes’ column indicates that this particular
glyph name appears in the PS version of the original troff documentation, CSTR 54.
Entries marked with ‘***’ denote glyphs for mathematical purposes (mainly used for DVI
output). Normally, such glyphs have metrics which make them unusable in normal text.
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Ð \[-D] Eth u00D0 uppercase eth
ð \[Sd] eth u00F0 lowercase eth
Þ \[TP] Thorn u00DE uppercase thorn
þ \[Tp] thorn u00FE lowercase thorn
ß \[ss] germandbls u00DF German double s (sharp s)
Ligatures and Other Latin Glyphs
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ff \[ff] ff u0066_0066 ff ligature +
fi \[fi] fi u0066_0069 fi ligature +
fl \[fl] fl u0066_006C fl ligature +
ffi \[Fi] ffi u0066_0066_0069 ffi ligature +
ffl \[Fl] ffl u0066_0066_006C ffl ligature +
Ł \[/L] Lslash u0141 L slash (Polish)
ł \[/l] lslash u0142 l slash (Polish)
Ø \[/O] Oslash u00D8 O slash (Scandinavian)
ø \[/o] oslash u00F8 o slash (Scandinavian)
Æ \[AE] AE u00C6 A+E combined
æ \[ae] ae u00E6 a+e combined
Π\[OE] OE u0152 O+E combined
œ \[oe] oe u0153 o+e combined
IJ \[IJ] IJ u0132 I+J combined (Dutch)
ij \[ij] ij u0133 i+j combined(Dutch)
ı \[.i] dotlessi u0131 i without a dot (Turkish)
ȷ \[.j] dotlessj u0237 j without a dot
Accented Characters
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Á \['A] Aacute u0041_0301 A acute
Ć \['C] Cacute u0043_0301 C acute
É \['E] Eacute u0045_0301 E acute
Í \['I] Iacute u0049_0301 I acute
Ó \['O] Oacute u004F_0301 O acute
Ú \['U] Uacute u0055_0301 U acute
Ý \['Y] Yacute u0059_0301 Y acute
á \['a] aacute u0061_0301 a acute
ć \['c] cacute u0063_0301 c acute
é \['e] eacute u0065_0301 e acute
í \['i] iacute u0069_0301 i acute
ó \['o] oacute u006F_0301 o acute
ú \['u] uacute u0075_0301 u acute
ý \['y] yacute u0079_0301 y acute
Ä \[:A] Adieresis u0041_0308 A dieresis (umlaut)
Ë \[:E] Edieresis u0045_0308 E dieresis (umlaut)
Ï \[:I] Idieresis u0049_0308 I dieresis (umlaut)
Ö \[:O] Odieresis u004F_0308 O dieresis (umlaut)
Ü \[:U] Udieresis u0055_0308 U dieresis (umlaut)
Ÿ \[:Y] Ydieresis u0059_0308 Y dieresis (umlaut)
ä \[:a] adieresis u0061_0308 a dieresis (umlaut)
ë \[:e] edieresis u0065_0308 e dieresis (umlaut)
ï \[:i] idieresis u0069_0308 i dieresis (umlaut)
ö \[:o] odieresis u006F_0308 o dieresis (umlaut)
ü \[:u] udieresis u0075_0308 u dieresis (umlaut)
ÿ \[:y] ydieresis u0079_0308 y dieresis (umlaut)
 \[^A] Acircumflex u0041_0302 A circumflex
Ê \[^E] Ecircumflex u0045_0302 E circumflex
Î \[^I] Icircumflex u0049_0302 I circumflex
Ô \[^O] Ocircumflex u004F_0302 O circumflex
Û \[^U] Ucircumflex u0055_0302 U circumflex
â \[^a] acircumflex u0061_0302 a circumflex
ê \[^e] ecircumflex u0065_0302 e circumflex
î \[^i] icircumflex u0069_0302 i circumflex
ô \[^o] ocircumflex u006F_0302 o circumflex
û \[^u] ucircumflex u0075_0302 u circumflex
À \[`A] Agrave u0041_0300 A grave
È \[`E] Egrave u0045_0300 E grave
Ì \[`I] Igrave u0049_0300 I grave
Ò \[`O] Ograve u004F_0300 O grave
Ù \[`U] Ugrave u0055_0300 U grave
à \[`a] agrave u0061_0300 a grave
è \[`e] egrave u0065_0300 e grave
ì \[`i] igrave u0069_0300 i grave
ò \[`o] ograve u006F_0300 o grave
ù \[`u] ugrave u0075_0300 u grave
à \[~A] Atilde u0041_0303 A tilde
Ñ \[~N] Ntilde u004E_0303 N tilde
Õ \[~O] Otilde u004F_0303 O tilde
ã \[~a] atilde u0061_0303 a tilde
ñ \[~n] ntilde u006E_0303 n tilde
õ \[~o] otilde u006F_0303 o tilde
Š \[vS] Scaron u0053_030C S caron
š \[vs] scaron u0073_030C s caron
Ž \[vZ] Zcaron u005A_030C Z caron
ž \[vz] zcaron u007A_030C z caron
Ç \[,C] Ccedilla u0043_0327 C cedilla
ç \[,c] ccedilla u0063_0327 c cedilla
Å \[oA] Aring u0041_030A A ring
å \[oa] aring u0061_030A a ring
Accents
The composite request is used to map most of the accents to non-spacing glyph names; the
values given in parentheses are the original (spacing) ones.
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
˝ \[a"] hungarumlaut u030B (u02DD) Hungarian umlaut
¯ \[a-] macron u0304 (u00AF) overbar accent
˙ \[a.] dotaccent u0307 (u02D9) dot accent
^ \[a^] circumflex u0302 (u005E) circumflex accent
´ \[aa] acute u0301 (u00B4) acute accent +
` \[ga] grave u0300 (u0060) grave accent +
˘ \[ab] breve u0306 (u02D8) breve accent
¸ \[ac] cedilla u0327 (u00B8) cedilla accent
¨ \[ad] dieresis u0308 (u00A8) umlaut accent
ˇ \[ah] caron u030C (u02C7) caron accent
˚ \[ao] ring u030A (u02DA) small circle, ring accent
~ \[a~] tilde u0303 (u007E) tilde accent
˛ \[ho] ogonek u0328 (u02DB) hook accent
^ \[ha] asciicircum u005E high circumflex, ASCII character, in
mathematics the power sign
~ \[ti] asciitilde u007E tilde in vertical middle, ASCII, in Unix-
like the home directory
Quotes
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
„ \[Bq] quotedblbase u201E low double comma quote
‚ \[bq] quotesinglbase u201A low single comma quote
“ \[lq] quotedblleft u201C left double quote
” \[rq] quotedblright u201D right double quote
‘ \[oq] quoteleft u2018 single open (left) quote
’ \[cq] quoteright u2019 single closing (right) quote
' \[aq] quotesingle u0027 apostrophe quote (ASCII 39)
" \[dq] quotedbl u0022 double quote (ASCII 34)
« \[Fo] guillemotleft u00AB left guillemet [sic]
» \[Fc] guillemotright u00BB right guillemet [sic]
‹ \[fo] guilsinglleft u2039 single left-pointing angle quotation mark
› \[fc] guilsinglright u203A single right-pointing angle quotation mark
Punctuation
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
¡ \[r!] exclamdown u00A1 inverted exclamation mark
¿ \[r?] questiondown u00BF inverted question mark
— \[em] emdash u2014 em-dash symbol +
– \[en] endash u2013 en-dash symbol
‐ \[hy] hyphen u2010 hyphen symbol +
Brackets
The extensible bracket pieces are font-invariant glyphs. In classical troff only one
glyph was available to vertically extend brackets, braces, and parentheses: ‘bv’. We map
it rather arbitrarily to u23AA.
Note that not all devices contain extensible bracket pieces which can be piled up with
‘\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 'pile'
.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'\$[\n[pile-#]]')
. nr pile-ht +(\n[rst] - \n[rsb])
. as pile-args \v'\n[rsb]u'\"
. as pile-args \Z'\$[\n[pile-#]]'\"
. as pile-args \v'-\n[rst]u'\"
. nr pile-# -1
. \}
.
. ds pile \v'(-0.5m + (\n[pile-ht]u / 2u))'\"
. as pile \*[pile-args]\"
. as pile \v'((\n[pile-ht]u / 2u) + 0.5m)'\"
. as pile \h'\n[pile-wd]u'\"
..
.ec
Another complication is the fact that some glyphs which represent bracket pieces in
original troff can be used for other mathematical symbols also, for example ‘lf’ and ‘rf’
which provide the ‘floor’ operator. Other devices (most notably for DVI output) don't
unify such glyphs. For this reason, the four glyphs ‘lf’, ‘rf’, ‘lc’, and ‘rc’ are not
unified with similarly looking bracket pieces. In groff, only glyphs with long names are
guaranteed to pile up correctly for all devices (provided those glyphs exist).
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[ \[lB] bracketleft u005B left square bracket
] \[rB] bracketright u005D right square bracket
{ \[lC] braceleft u007B left curly brace
} \[rC] braceright u007D right curly brace
⟨ \[la] angleleft u27E8 left angle bracket
⟩ \[ra] angleright u27E9 right angle bracket
⎪ \[bv] braceex u23AA curly brace vertical extension ***
+
⎪ \[braceex] braceex u23AA curly brace vertical extension
⎡ \[bracketlefttp] bracketlefttp u23A1 left square bracket top
⎣ \[bracketleftbt] bracketleftbt u23A3 left square bracket bottom
⎢ \[bracketleftex] bracketleftex u23A2 left square bracket extension
⎤ \[bracketrighttp] bracketrighttp u23A4 right square bracket top
⎦ \[bracketrightbt] bracketrightbt u23A6 right square bracket bottom
⎥ \[bracketrightex] bracketrightex u23A5 right square bracket extension
⎧ \[lt] bracelefttp u23A7 left curly brace top +
⎧ \[bracelefttp] bracelefttp u23A7 left curly brace top
⎨ \[lk] braceleftmid u23A8 left curly brace middle +
⎨ \[braceleftmid] braceleftmid u23A8 left curly brace middle
⎩ \[lb] braceleftbt u23A9 left curly brace bottom +
⎩ \[braceleftbt] braceleftbt u23A9 left curly brace bottom
⎪ \[braceleftex] braceleftex u23AA left curly brace extension
⎫ \[rt] bracerighttp u23AB right curly brace top +
⎫ \[bracerighttp] bracerighttp u23AB right curly brace top
⎬ \[rk] bracerightmid u23AC right curly brace middle +
⎬ \[bracerightmid] bracerightmid u23AC right curly brace middle
⎭ \[rb] bracerightbt u23AD right curly brace bottom +
⎭ \[bracerightbt] bracerightbt u23AD right curly brace bottom
⎪ \[bracerightex] bracerightex u23AA right curly brace extension
⎛ \[parenlefttp] parenlefttp u239B left parenthesis top
⎝ \[parenleftbt] parenleftbt u239D left parenthesis bottom
⎜ \[parenleftex] parenleftex u239C left parenthesis extension
⎞ \[parenrighttp] parenrighttp u239E right parenthesis top
⎠ \[parenrightbt] parenrightbt u23A0 right parenthesis bottoom
⎟ \[parenrightex] parenrightex u239F right parenthesis extension
Arrows
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
← \[<-] arrowleft u2190 horizontal arrow left +
→ \[->] arrowright u2192 horizontal arrow right +
↔ \[<>] arrowboth u2194 horizontal arrow in both directions
↓ \[da] arrowdown u2193 vertical arrow down +
↑ \[ua] arrowup u2191 vertical arrow up +
↕ \[va] arrowupdn u2195 vertical arrow in both directions
⇐ \[lA] arrowdblleft u21D0 horizontal double arrow left
⇒ \[rA] arrowdblright u21D2 horizontal double arrow right
⇔ \[hA] arrowdblboth u21D4 horizontal double arrow in both directions
⇓ \[dA] arrowdbldown u21D3 vertical double arrow down
⇑ \[uA] arrowdblup u21D1 vertical double arrow up
⇕ \[vA] uni21D5 u21D5 vertical double arrow in both directions
⎯ \[an] arrowhorizex u23AF horizontal arrow extension
Lines
The font-invariant glyphs ‘br’, ‘ul’, and ‘rn’ form corners; they can be used to build
boxes. Note that both the PostScript and the Unicode-derived names of these three glyphs
are just rough approximations.
‘rn’ also serves in classical troff as the horizontal extension of the square root sign.
‘ru’ is a font-invariant glyph, namely a rule of length 0.5m.
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
| \[ba] bar u007C
│ \[br] SF110000 u2502 box rule +
_ \[ul] underscore u005F +
‾ \[rn] overline u203E +
_ \[ru] --- --- baseline rule +
¦ \[bb] brokenbar u00A6
/ \[sl] slash u002F +
\ \[rs] backslash u005C reverse solidus
Use ‘\[radicalex]’, not ‘\[overline]’, for continuation of square root.
Text markers
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
○ \[ci] circle u25CB +
• \[bu] bullet u2022 +
‡ \[dd] daggerdbl u2021 double dagger sign +
† \[dg] dagger u2020 dagger +
◊ \[lz] lozenge u25CA lozenge, diamond, pound key
□ \[sq] uni25A1 u25A1 white square +
¶ \[ps] paragraph u00B6 end of paragraph marker
§ \[sc] section u00A7 section sign +
☜ \[lh] uni261C u261C hand pointing left +
☞ \[rh] a14 u261E hand pointing right +
@ \[at] at u0040 at
# \[sh] numbersign u0023 number sign
↵ \[CR] carriagereturn u21B5 carriage return
✓ \[OK] a19 u2713 check mark, tick
Legal Symbols
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
© \[co] copyright u00A9 +
® \[rg] registered u00AE +
™ \[tm] trademark u2122
\[bs] --- --- AT&T Bell Labs logo +
The Bell Labs logo is not supported in groff.
Currency symbols
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
$ \[Do] dollar u0024 dollar
¢ \[ct] cent u00A2 cent +
€ \[eu] --- u20AC official Euro symbol
€ \[Eu] Euro u20AC font-specific Euro glyph variant
¥ \[Ye] yen u00A5 Japanese Yen
£ \[Po] sterling u00A3 pound sterling (British)
¤ \[Cs] currency u00A4 Scandinavian currency sign
ƒ \[Fn] florin u0192 Dutch currency sign
Units
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
° \[de] degree u00B0 degree +
‰ \[%0] perthousand u2030 per thousand, per mille sign
′ \[fm] minute u2032 arc minute sign +
″ \[sd] second u2033 acr second sign
µ \[mc] mu u00B5 mu, micro sign
ª \[Of] ordfeminine u00AA feminine ordinal (Spanish)
º \[Om] ordmasculine u00BA masculine ordinal (Spanish)
Logical Symbols
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
∧ \[AN] logicaland u2227 logical and
∨ \[OR] logicalor u2228 logical or
¬ \[no] logicalnot u00AC logical not + ***
¬ \[tno] logicalnot u00AC text variant of ‘no’
∃ \[te] existential u2203 there exists
∀ \[fa] universal u2200 for all
∋ \[st] suchthat u220B sucht that
∴ \[3d] therefore u2234 therefore
∴ \[tf] therefore u2234 therefore
| \[or] bar u007C bitwise OR operator (as used in C) +
Mathematical Symbols
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
½ \[12] onehalf u00BD 1/2 symbol +
¼ \[14] onequarter u00BC 1/4 symbol +
¾ \[34] threequarters u00BE 3/4 symbol +
⅛ \[18] oneeighth u215B 1/8 symbol
⅜ \[38] threeeighths u215C 3/8 symbol
⅝ \[58] fiveeighths u215D 5/8 symbol
⅞ \[78] seveneighths u215E 7/8 symbol
¹ \[S1] onesuperior u00B9 superscript 1
² \[S2] twosuperior u00B2 superscript 2
³ \[S3] threesuperior u00B3 superscript 3
+ \[pl] plus u002B plus in special font +
− \[mi] minus u2212 minus in special font +
∓ \[-+] uni2213 u2213 minus-plus
± \[+-] plusminus u00B1 plus-minus + ***
± \[t+-] plusminus u00B1 text variant of \[+-]
· \[pc] periodcentered u00B7 period centered
⋅ \[md] dotmath u22C5 multiplication dot
× \[mu] multiply u00D7 multiply sign + ***
× \[tmu] multiply u00D7 text variant of \[mu]
⊗ \[c*] circlemultiply u2297 multiply sign in circle
⊕ \[c+] circleplus u2295 plus sign in circle
÷ \[di] divide u00F7 division sign + ***
÷ \[tdi] divide u00F7 text variant of \[di]
⁄ \[f/] fraction u2044 bar for fractions
∗ \[**] asteriskmath u2217 mathematical asterisk +
≤ \[<=] lessequal u2264 less or equal +
≥ \[>=] greaterequal u2265 greater or equal +
≪ \[<<] uni226A u226A much less
≫ \[>>] uni226B u226B much greater
= \[eq] equal u003D equals in special font +
≠ \[!=] notequal u003D_0338 not equal +
≡ \[==] equivalence u2261 equivalent +
≢ \[ne] uni2262 u2261_0338 not equivalent
≅ \[=~] congruent u2245 congruent, approx. equal
≃ \[|=] uni2243 u2243 asymptot. equal to +
∼ \[ap] similar u223C similar +
≈ \[~~] approxequal u2248 almost equal to
≈ \[~=] approxequal u2248 almost equal to
∝ \[pt] proportional u221D proportional +
∅ \[es] emptyset u2205 empty set +
∈ \[mo] element u2208 element of a set +
∉ \[nm] notelement u2208_0338 not element of set
⊂ \[sb] propersubset u2282 proper subset +
⊄ \[nb] notsubset u2282_0338 not supset
⊃ \[sp] propersuperset u2283 proper superset +
⊅ \[nc] uni2285 u2283_0338 not superset
⊆ \[ib] reflexsubset u2286 subset or equal +
⊇ \[ip] reflexsuperset u2287 superset or equal +
∩ \[ca] intersection u2229 intersection, cap +
∪ \[cu] union u222A union, cup +
∠ \[/_] angle u2220 angle
⊥ \[pp] perpendicular u22A5 perpendicular
∫ \[is] integral u222B integral +
∫ \[integral] integral u222B integral ***
∑ \[sum] summation u2211 summation ***
∏ \[product] product u220F product ***
∐ \[coproduct] uni2210 u2210 coproduct ***
∇ \[gr] gradient u2207 gradient +
√ \[sr] radical u221A square root +
√ \[sqrt] radical u221A square root
\[radicalex] radicalex --- square root continuation ***
\[sqrtex] radicalex --- square root continuation ***
⌈ \[lc] uni2308 u2308 left ceiling +
⌉ \[rc] uni2309 u2309 right ceiling +
⌊ \[lf] uni230A u230A left floor +
⌋ \[rf] uni230B u230B right floor +
∞ \[if] infinity u221E infinity +
ℵ \[Ah] aleph u2135 aleph
ℑ \[Im] Ifraktur u2111 Gothic I, imaginary
ℜ \[Re] Rfraktur u211C Gothic R, real
℘ \[wp] weierstrass u2118 Weierstrass p
∂ \[pd] partialdiff u2202 partial differentiation +
ℏ \[-h] uni210F u210F Planck constant / 2pi (h-bar)
ℏ \[hbar] uni210F u210F Planck constant / 2pi (h-bar)
Greek glyphs
These glyphs are intended for technical use, not for real Greek; normally, the uppercase
letters have upright shape, and the lowercase ones are slanted. There is a problem with
the mapping of letter phi to Unicode. Prior to Unicode version 3.0, the difference
between U+03C6, GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI, and U+03D5, GREEK PHI SYMBOL, was not clearly
described; only the glyph shapes in the Unicode book could be used as a reference.
Starting with Unicode 3.0, the reference glyphs have been exchanged and described verbally
also: In mathematical context, U+03D5 is the stroked variant and U+03C6 the curly glyph.
Unfortunately, most font vendors didn't update their fonts to this (incompatible) change
in Unicode. At the time of this writing (January 2006), it is not clear yet whether the
Adobe Glyph Names ‘phi’ and ‘phi1’ also change its meaning if used for mathematics, thus
compatibility problems are likely to happen – being conservative, groff currently assumes
that ‘phi’ in a PostScript symbol font is the stroked version.
In groff, symbol ‘\[*f]’ always denotes the stroked version of phi, and ‘\[+f]’ the curly
variant.
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Α \[*A] Alpha u0391 +
Β \[*B] Beta u0392 +
Γ \[*G] Gamma u0393 +
Δ \[*D] Delta u0394 +
Ε \[*E] Epsilon u0395 +
Ζ \[*Z] Zeta u0396 +
Η \[*Y] Eta u0397 +
Θ \[*H] Theta u0398 +
Ι \[*I] Iota u0399 +
Κ \[*K] Kappa u039A +
Λ \[*L] Lambda u039B +
Μ \[*M] Mu u039C +
Ν \[*N] Nu u039D +
Ξ \[*C] Xi u039E +
Ο \[*O] Omicron u039F +
Π \[*P] Pi u03A0 +
Ρ \[*R] Rho u03A1 +
Σ \[*S] Sigma u03A3 +
Τ \[*T] Tau u03A4 +
Υ \[*U] Upsilon u03A5 +
Φ \[*F] Phi u03A6 +
Χ \[*X] Chi u03A7 +
Ψ \[*Q] Psi u03A8 +
Ω \[*W] Omega u03A9 +
α \[*a] alpha u03B1 +
β \[*b] beta u03B2 +
γ \[*g] gamma u03B3 +
δ \[*d] delta u03B4 +
ε \[*e] epsilon u03B5 +
ζ \[*z] zeta u03B6 +
η \[*y] eta u03B7 +
θ \[*h] theta u03B8 +
ι \[*i] iota u03B9 +
κ \[*k] kappa u03BA +
λ \[*l] lambda u03BB +
μ \[*m] mu u03BC +
ν \[*n] nu u03BD +
ξ \[*c] xi u03BE +
ο \[*o] omicron u03BF +
π \[*p] pi u03C0 +
ρ \[*r] rho u03C1 +
ς \[ts] sigma1 u03C2 terminal sigma +
σ \[*s] sigma u03C3 +
τ \[*t] tau u03C4 +
υ \[*u] upsilon u03C5 +
ϕ \[*f] phi u03D5 (stroked glyph) +
χ \[*x] chi u03C7 +
ψ \[*q] psi u03C8 +
ω \[*w] omega u03C9 +
ϑ \[+h] theta1 u03D1 variant theta
φ \[+f] phi1 u03C6 variant phi (curly shape)
ϖ \[+p] omega1 u03D6 variant pi, looking like omega
ϵ \[+e] uni03F5 u03F5 variant epsilon
Card symbols
Output Input PostScript Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
♣ \[CL] club u2663 black club suit
♠ \[SP] spade u2660 black spade suit
♥ \[HE] heart u2665 black heart suit
♡ \[u2661] uni2661 u2661 white heart suit
♦ \[DI] diamond u2666 black diamond suit
♢ \[u2662] uni2662 u2662 white diamond suit
AUTHORS
This document was written by James Clark ⟨jjc@jclark.com⟩, with additions by Werner
Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩ and Bernd Warken ⟨groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de⟩, and revised to use
real tables by Eric S. Raymond ⟨esr@thyrsus.com⟩.
SEE ALSO
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg, is the
primary groff manual. Section “Using Symbols” may be of particular note. You can browse
it interactively with “info '(groff)Using Symbols'”.
groff(1)
the GNU roff formatter
groff(7)
a short reference of the groff formatting language
An extension to the troff character set for Europe, E.G. Keizer, K.J. Simonsen, J.
Akkerhuis; EUUG Newsletter, Volume 9, No. 2, Summer 1989
The Unicode Standard ⟨http://www.unicode.org⟩