groff_char
GROFF_CHAR(7) GROFF_CHAR(7)
NAME
groff_char - groff character names
DESCRIPTION
This manual page lists the standard groff input characters. The output
characters in this document will look different depending on which out-
put device was chosen (with option -T for the man(1) program or the
roff formatter). Only the characters that are available for the device
that is being used to print or view this manual page will be displayed
(the device currently used is `ascii8').
In the actual version, groff provides only 8-bit characters for direct
input and named characters for further glyphs. On ASCII platforms,
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 Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) code set.
On EBCDIC platforms, only the code page cp1047 is supported (which con-
tains the same characters as Latin-1). It is rather straightforward
(for the experienced user) to set up other 8bit encodings like Latin-2;
since groff will use Unicode in the next major version, no additional
encodings are provided.
All roff systems provide the concept of named characters. In tradi-
tional roff systems, only names of length 2 were used, while groff also
provides support for longer names. It is strongly suggested that only
named characters are used for all characters outside of the 7-bit ASCII
range.
Some of the predefined groff escape sequences (with names of length 1)
also produce single characters; 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 can be tested pos-
itively with the .if c conditional.
REFERENCE
In this section, the characters in groff are specified in tabular form.
The meaning of the columns is as follows.
Output shows how the character is printed for the current device;
although this can have quite a different shape on other devices,
it always represents the same glyph.
Input name
specifies how the character is input either directly by a key on
the keyboard, or by a groff escape sequence.
Input code
applies to characters which can be input with a single charac-
ter, and gives the ISO Latin-1 decimal code of that input char-
acter. Note that this code is equivalent to the lowest 256 Uni-
code characters; (including 7-bit ASCII in the range 0 to 127).
PostScript name
gives the usual PostScript name of the output character.
ASCII Characters
These are the basic characters having 7-bit ASCII code values. These
are identical to the first 127 characters of the character standards
ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) and Unicode (range C0 Controls and Basic Latin).
To save space, not every code has an entry in the following because the
following code ranges are well known.
0-32 Control characters (print as themselves).
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).
127 Control character (prints as itself).
The remaining ranges constitute the printable, non-alphanumeric ASCII
characters; only these are listed below. As can be seen in the table
below, most of these characters print as themselves; the only excep-
tions are the following characters:
` the ISO Latin-1 `Grave Accent' (code 96) prints as `, a left
single quotation mark,
' the ISO Latin-1 `Apostrophe' (code 39) prints as ', a right sin-
gle quotation mark; the corresponding ISO Latin-1 characters can
be obtained with \` and \(aq.
- the ISO Latin-1 `Hyphen, Minus Sign' (code 45) prints as a
hyphen; a minus sign can be obtained with \-.
~ the ISO Latin-1 `Tilde' (code 126); a larger glyph can be
obtained with \(ti.
^ the ISO Latin-1 `Circumflex Accent' (code 94); a larger glyph
can be obtained with \(ha.
Output Input Input PostScript Notes
name code name
! ! 33 exclam
" " 34 quotedbl
# # 35 numbersign
$ $ 36 dollar
% % 37 percent
& & 38 ampersand
' ' 39 quoteright
( ( 40 parenleft
) ) 41 parenright
* * 42 asterisk
+ + 43 plus
, , 44 comma
- - 45 hyphen
. . 46 period
/ / 47 slash
: : 58 colon
; ; 59 semicolon
< < 60 less
= = 61 equal
> > 62 greater
? ? 63 question
@ @ 64 at
[ [ 91 bracketleft
\ \ 92 backslash
] ] 93 bracketright
^ ^ 94 circumflex circumflex accent
_ _ 95 underscore
` ` 96 quoteleft
{ { 123 braceleft
| | 124 bar
} } 125 braceright
~ ~ 126 tilde tilde accent
Latin-1 Special Characters
These characters have character codes between 128 and 255. They are
interpreted as characters according to the Latin-1 (iso-8859-1) code
set, being identical to the Unicode range C1 Controls and Latin-1 Sup-
plement.
128-159
the C1 Controls; they print as themselves, but the effect is
mostly undefined.
160 the ISO Latin-1 no-break space is mapped to `\ ', the escaped
space character.
173 the soft hyphen control character (prints as itself). groff
never use 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), called the Latin-1 Supplement
in Unicode, are printable characters that print as themselves.
Although they can be specified directly with the keyboard on systems
with a Latin-1 code page, it is better to use their named character
equivalent; see next section.
Output Input Input PostScript Notes
name code name
161 exclamdown inverted exclamation mark
162 cent
163 sterling
164 currency
165 yen
166 brokenbar
167 section
168 dieresis
169 copyright
170 ordfeminine
171 guillemotleft
172 logicalnot
174 registered
175 macron
176 degree
! ! 177 plusminus
# # 178 twosuperior
% % 179 threesuperior
' ' 180 acute acute accent
) ) 181 mu micro sign
+ + 182 paragraph
- - 183 periodcentered
/ / 184 cedilla
1 1 185 onesuperior
3 3 186 ordmasculine
5 5 187 guillemotright
7 7 188 onequarter
9 9 189 onehalf
; ; 190 threequarters
= = 191 questiondown
? ? 192 Agrave
A A 193 Aacute
C C 194 Acircumflex
E E 195 Atilde
G G 196 Adieresis
I I 197 Aring
K K 198 AE
M M 199 Ccedilla
O O 200 Egrave
Q Q 201 Eacute
S S 202 Ecircumflex
U U 203 Edieresis
W W 204 Igrave
Y Y 205 Iacute
[ [ 206 Icircumflex
] ] 207 Idieresis
_ _ 208 Eth
a a 209 Ntilde
c c 210 Ograve
e e 211 Oacute
g g 212 Ocircumflex
i i 213 Otilde
k k 214 Odieresis
m m 215 multiply
o o 216 Oslash
q q 217 Ugrave
s s 218 Uacute
u u 219 Ucircumflex
w w 220 Udieresis
y y 221 Yacute
{ { 222 Thorn
} } 223 germandbls
224 agrave
225 aacute
226 acircumflex
227 atilde
228 adieresis
229 aring
230 ae
231 ccedilla
232 egrave
233 eacute
234 ecircumflex
235 edieresis
236 igrave
237 iacute
238 icircumflex
239 idieresis
240 eth
241 ntilde
242 ograve
243 oacute
244 ocircumflex
245 otilde
246 odieresis
247 divide
248 oslash
249 ugrave
250 uacute
251 ucircumflex
252 udieresis
253 yacute
254 thorn
255 ydieresis
Named Characters
The named character idiom is the standard way to specify special char-
acters in roff systems. They can be embedded into the document text by
using escape sequences. groff(7) describes how these escape sequences
look. The character names can consist of quite arbitrary characters
from the ASCII or Latin-1 code set, not only alphanumeric characters.
Here some examples:
\c named character having the name c, which consists of a single
character (length 1).
\(ch named character having the 2-character name ch.
\[char_name]
named character having the name char_name (having length 1, 2,
3, ...).
In groff, each 8bit input character can also referred to by the con-
struct \n[charn] where n is the decimal code of the character, a number
between 0 and 255 without leading zeros. They are mapped onto glyph
entities using the .trin request. Moreover, new character names can be
created by the .char request; see groff(7).
Output Input PostScript Notes
name name
D \[-D] Eth Icelandic uppercase eth
o \[Sd] eth Icelandic lowercase eth
b \[TP] Thorn Icelandic uppercase thorn
b \[Tp] thorn Icelandic lowercase thorn
B \[ss] germandbls German sharp s
Ligatures
ff \[ff] ff ff ligature
fi \[fi] fi fi ligature
fl \[fl] fl fl ligature
ffi \[Fi] ffi ffi ligature
ffl \[Fl] ffl ffl ligature
AE \[AE] AE
ae \[ae] ae
OE \[OE] OE
oe \[oe] oe
i \[.i] dotlessi i without a dot (Turkish)
Accented Characters
A \['A] Aacute
E \['E] Eacute
I \['I] Iacute
O \['O] Oacute
U \['U] Uacute
Y \['Y] Yacute
a \['a] aacute
e \['e] eacute
i \['i] iacute
o \['o] oacute
u \['u] uacute
y \['y] yacute
A \[:A] Adieresis A with umlaut
E \[:E] Edieresis
I \[:I] Idieresis
O \[:O] Odieresis
U \[:U] Udieresis
a \[:a] adieresis
e \[:e] edieresis
i \[:i] idieresis
o \[:o] odieresis
u \[:u] udieresis
y \[:y] ydieresis
A \[^A] Acircumflex
E \[^E] Ecircumflex
I \[^I] Icircumflex
O \[^O] Ocircumflex
U \[^U] Ucircumflex
a \[^a] acircumflex
e \[^e] ecircumflex
i \[^i] icircumflex
o \[^o] ocircumflex
u \[^u] ucircumflex
A \[`A] Agrave
E \[`E] Egrave
I \[`I] Igrave
O \[`O] Ograve
U \[`U] Ugrave
a \[`a] agrave
e \[`e] egrave
i \[`i] igrave
o \[`o] ograve
u \[`u] ugrave
A \[~A] Atilde
N \[~N] Ntilde
O \[~O] Otilde
a \[~a] atilde
n \[~n] ntilde
o \[~o] otilde
C \[,C] Ccedilla
c \[,c] ccedilla
L \[/L] Lslash Polish L with a slash
l \[/l] lslash Polish l with a slash
O \[/O] Oslash Scandinavic slashed O
o \[/o] oslash Scandinavic slashed o
A \[oA] Aring
a \[oa] aring
Accents
_ \[a"] hungarumlaut Hungarian umlaut
\[a-] macron macron or bar accent
^ \[a^] circumflex circumflex accent
' \[aa] acute acute accent
` \[ga] grave grave accent
` \[ab] breve breve accent
, \[ac] cedilla cedilla accent
" \[ad] dieresis umlaut or dieresis
v \[ah] caron havek accent
o \[ao] ring ring or circle accent
~ \[a~] tilde tilde accent
, \[ho] ogonek hook or ogonek accent
^ \[ha] asciicircum ASCII circumflex, hat, caret
\[ti] asciitilde ASCII tilde, large tilde
Quotes
,, \[Bq] quotedblbase low double comma quote
, \[bq] quotesinglbase low single comma quote
" \[lq] quotedblleft
" \[rq] quotedblright
' \[oq] quoteleft single open quote
' \[cq] quoteright single closing quote (ASCII 39)
' \[aq] quotesingle apostrophe quote
" \[dq] quotedbl double quote (ASCII 34)
<< \[Fo] guillemotleft
>> \[Fc] guillemotright
< \[fo] guilsinglleft
> \[fc] guilsinglright
Punctuation
i \[r!] exclamdown
c \[r?] questiondown
\[em] emdash em dash
- \[en] endash en dash
- \[hy] hyphen
Brackets
[ \[lB] bracketleft
] \[rB] bracketright
{ \[lC] braceleft
} \[rC] braceright
< \[la] angleleft left angle bracket
> \[ra] angleright right angle bracket
Arrows
<- \[<-] arrowleft
-> \[->] arrowright
<-> \[<>] arrowboth horizontal double-headed arrow
v \[da] arrowdown
^ \[ua] arrowup
<= \[lA] arrowdblleft
=> \[rA] arrowdblright
<=> \[hA] arrowdblboth horizontal double-headed double arrow
v \[dA] arrowdbldown
^ \[uA] arrowdblup
- \[an] arrowhorizex horizontal arrow extension
Lines
| \[or] bar
| \[ba] bar
| \[br] br box rule with traditional troff metrics
_ \[ru] ru baseline rule
_ \[ul] ul underline with traditional troff metrics
| \[bv] bv bar vertical
| \[bb] brokenbar
/ \[sl] slash
\ \[rs] backslash
Text markers
O \[ci] circle
o \[bu] bullet
= \[dd] daggerdbl double dagger sign
\[dg] dagger
<> \[lz] lozenge
[] \[sq] square
9| \[ps] paragraph
S \[sc] section
<= \[lh] handleft
=> \[rh] handright
@ \[at] at
# \[sh] numbersign
_| \[CR] carriagereturn carriage return symbol
Legalize
(C) \[co] copyright
(R) \[rg] registered
tm \[tm] trademark
Currency symbols
$ \[Do] dollar
c \[ct] cent
EUR \[eu] official Euro symbol
EUR \[Eu] Euro font-specific Euro glyph variant
Y \[Ye] yen
L \[Po] sterling British currency sign
x \[Cs] currency Scandinavian currency sign
f \[Fn] florin Dutch currency sign
Units
o \[de] degree
%o \[%0] perthousand per thousand, per mille sign
' \[fm] minute footmark, prime
'' \[sd] second
u \[mc] mu micro sign
a \[Of] ordfeminine
o \[Om] ordmasculine
Logical Symbols
^ \[AN] logicaland
v \[OR] logicalor
~ \[no] logicalnot
3 \[te] existential there exists, existential quantifier
V \[fa] universal for all, universal quantifier
-) \[st] suchthat
.:. \[tf] therefore
Mathematical Symbols
1/2 \[12] onehalf
1/4 \[14] onequarter
3/4 \[34] threequarters
1 \[S1] onesuperior
2 \[S2] twosuperior
3 \[S3] threesuperior
+ \[pl] plusmath plus sign in special font
- \- minus minus sign from current font
+- \[+-] plusminus
+- \[t+-] plusminus text variant of `+-'
. \[pc] periodcentered multiplication dot
. \[md] dotmath
x \[mu] multiply
x \[c*] circlemultiply multiply sign in a circle
+ \[c+] circleplus plus sign in a circle
-:- \[di] divide division sign
-:- \[tdi] divide text variant of `di'
/ \[f/] fraction bar for fractions
* \[**] asteriskmath
<= \[<=] lessequal
>= \[>=] greaterequal
!= \[!=] notequal
= \[eq] equalmath equals sign in special font
== \[==] equivalence
=~ \[=~] congruent
~ \[ap] similar
~~ \[~~] approxequal
~= \[~=] approxequal
oc \[pt] proportional
{} \[es] emptyset
E \[mo] element
E \[nm] notelement
(= \[sb] propersubset
=) \[sp] propersuperset
(_ \[ib] reflexsubset
_) \[ip] reflexsuperset
(^) \[ca] intersection intersection, cap
U \[cu] union union, cup
/ \[/_] angle
| \[pp] perpendicular
_ \[is] integral
V \[gr] gradient
\/ \[sr] radical square root
\[rn] overline
oo \[if] infinity
N \[Ah] aleph
I \[Im] Ifraktur Gothic I, imaginary
R \[Re] Rfraktur Gothic R, real
p \[wp] weierstrass Weierstrass p
a \[pd] partialdiff partial differentiation sign
Greek characters
A \[*A] Alpha
B \[*B] Beta
H \[*C] Xi
/\ \[*D] Delta
E \[*E] Epsilon
O_ \[*F] Phi
| \[*G] Gamma
O \[*H] Theta
I \[*I] Iota
K \[*K] Kappa
/\ \[*L] Lambda
M \[*M] Mu
N \[*N] Nu
O \[*O] Omicron
TT \[*P] Pi
Y \[*Q] Psi
_ \[*R] Rho
> \[*S] Sigma
T \[*T] Tau
Y \[*U] Upsilon
O \[*W] Omega
X \[*X] Chi
H \[*Y] Eta
Z \[*Z] Zeta
a \[*a] alpha
B \[*b] beta
E \[*c] xi
d \[*d] delta
e \[*e] epsilon
o \[*f] phi
o \[+f] phi1 variant phi
y \[*g] gamma
0 \[*h] theta
0 \[+h] theta1 variant theta
i \[*i] iota
k \[*k] kappa
\ \[*l] lambda
u \[*m] mu
v \[*n] nu
o \[*o] omicron
n \[*p] pi
w \[+p] omega1 variant pi, looking like omega
u \[*q] psi
p \[*r] rho
o \[*s] sigma
t \[*t] tau
u \[*u] upsilon
w \[*w] omega
x \[*x] chi
n \[*y] eta
C \[*z] zeta
s \[ts] sigma1 terminal sigma
Card symbols
AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu-
mentation License) version 1.1 or later. You should have received a
copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GNU
copyleft site <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>.
This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution. It was
written by James Clark <jjc@jclark.com> with additions by Werner Lem-
berg <wl@gnu.org> and Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>.
SEE ALSO
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>
Groff Version 1.18.1 19 July 2002 GROFF_CHAR(7)
