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 user-
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 'Special
character escape forms' 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 '+' 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 \(xx,
widespread portability can be expected from such names.
Entries marked with '***' denote glyphs used for
mathematical purposes. On typesetter devices, such
glyphs are typically drawn from a special font (see
groff_font(5)). Often, such glyphs have metrics which
look incongruous in normal text. A few which are not
uncommon in running text have 'text variants', which
should work better in that context. Conversely, a
handful of glyphs that are normally drawn from a regular
font are required in mathematical text. Both sets of
exceptions are noted in the tables where they appear
('Logical symbols' and 'Mathematical symbols').
Basic Latin
Apart from basic Latin characters with special mappings,
described in subsection 'Fundamental character set' above, a few
others in that range have special character glyph names. These
were defined for ease of input on non-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 \[ba] and \[or] escape
sequences may render differently. See subsection 'Mathematical
symbols' below for special variants of the plus, minus, and
equals signs normally drawn from this range.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
" \[dq] u0022 neutral double quote
# \[sh] u0023 number sign
$ \[Do] u0024 dollar sign
' \[aq] u0027 apostrophe, neutral single quote
/ \[sl] u002F slash, solidus +
@ \[at] u0040 at sign
[ \[lB] u005B left square bracket
\ \[rs] u005C reverse solidus
] \[rB] u005D right square bracket
^ \[ha] u005E circumflex, caret, 'hat' +
{ \[lC] u007B left brace
| | u007C bar
| \[ba] u007C bar
| \[or] u007C bitwise or +
} \[rC] u007D right brace
~ \[ti] u007E tilde +
Supplementary Latin letters
Historically, \[ss] could be considered a ligature of 'sz'. An
uppercase form is available as \[u1E9E], but in the German
language it is of specialized use; ß does not normally uppercase-
transform to it, but rather to 'SS'. 'Lowercase f with hook' is
also used as a function symbol; see subsection 'Mathematical
symbols' below.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Ð \[-D] u00D0 uppercase eth
ð \[Sd] u00F0 lowercase eth
Þ \[TP] u00DE uppercase thorn
þ \[Tp] u00FE lowercase thorn
ß \[ss] u00DF lowercase sharp s
ı \[.i] u0131 i without tittle
ȷ \[.j] u0237 j without tittle
ƒ \[Fn] u0192 lowercase f with hook, function
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 +
ffi \[Fi] u0066_0066_0069 ffi ligature +
ffl \[Fl] u0066_0066_006C ffl ligature +
Æ \[AE] u00C6 AE ligature
æ \[ae] u00E6 ae ligature
Π\[OE] u0152 OE ligature
œ \[oe] u0153 oe ligature
IJ \[IJ] u0132 IJ digraph
ij \[ij] u0133 ij digraph
Ł \[/L] u0141 L with stroke
ł \[/l] u0142 l with stroke
Ø \[/O] u00D8 O with stroke
ø \[/o] u00F8 o with stroke
Accented characters
All of these glyphs can be composed using combining glyph names
as described in subsection 'Special character escape forms'
above; the names below can be thought of as convenient short
aliases.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Á \['A] u0041_0301 A acute
Ć \['C] u0043_0301 C acute
É \['E] u0045_0301 E acute
Í \['I] u0049_0301 I acute
Ó \['O] u004F_0301 O acute
Ú \['U] u0055_0301 U acute
Ý \['Y] u0059_0301 Y acute
á \['a] u0061_0301 a acute
ć \['c] u0063_0301 c acute
é \['e] u0065_0301 e acute
í \['i] u0069_0301 i acute
ó \['o] u006F_0301 o acute
ú \['u] u0075_0301 u acute
ý \['y] u0079_0301 y acute
Ä \[:A] u0041_0308 A dieresis
Ë \[:E] u0045_0308 E dieresis
Ï \[:I] u0049_0308 I dieresis
Ö \[:O] u004F_0308 O dieresis
Ü \[:U] u0055_0308 U dieresis
Ÿ \[:Y] u0059_0308 Y dieresis
ä \[:a] u0061_0308 a dieresis
ë \[:e] u0065_0308 e dieresis
ï \[:i] u0069_0308 i dieresis
ö \[:o] u006F_0308 o dieresis
ü \[:u] u0075_0308 u dieresis
ÿ \[:y] u0079_0308 y dieresis
 \[^A] u0041_0302 A circumflex
Ê \[^E] u0045_0302 E circumflex
Î \[^I] u0049_0302 I circumflex
Ô \[^O] u004F_0302 O circumflex
Û \[^U] u0055_0302 U circumflex
â \[^a] u0061_0302 a circumflex
ê \[^e] u0065_0302 e circumflex
î \[^i] u0069_0302 i circumflex
ô \[^o] u006F_0302 o circumflex
û \[^u] u0075_0302 u circumflex
À \[`A] u0041_0300 A grave
È \[`E] u0045_0300 E grave
Ì \[`I] u0049_0300 I grave
Ò \[`O] u004F_0300 O grave
Ù \[`U] u0055_0300 U grave
à \[`a] u0061_0300 a grave
è \[`e] u0065_0300 e grave
ì \[`i] u0069_0300 i grave
ò \[`o] u006F_0300 o grave
ù \[`u] u0075_0300 u grave
à \[~A] u0041_0303 A tilde
Ñ \[~N] u004E_0303 N tilde
Õ \[~O] u004F_0303 O tilde
ã \[~a] u0061_0303 a tilde
ñ \[~n] u006E_0303 n tilde
õ \[~o] u006F_0303 o tilde
Š \[vS] u0053_030C S caron
š \[vs] u0073_030C s caron
Ž \[vZ] u005A_030C Z caron
ž \[vz] u007A_030C z caron
Ç \[,C] u0043_0327 C cedilla
ç \[,c] u0063_0327 c cedilla
Å \[oA] u0041_030A A ring
å \[oa] u0061_030A a ring
Accents
The .composite request is used to map the accents to code points
with non-spacing semantics; the values given in parentheses are
their spacing counterparts.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
˝ \[a"] u030B (u02DD) double acute accent
¯ \[a-] u0304 (u00AF) macron accent
˙ \[a.] u0307 (u02D9) dot accent
^ \[a^] u0302 (u005E) circumflex accent
´ \[aa] u0301 (u00B4) acute accent +
` \[ga] u0300 (u0060) grave accent +
˘ \[ab] u0306 (u02D8) breve accent
¸ \[ac] u0327 (u00B8) cedilla accent
¨ \[ad] u0308 (u00A8) dieresis accent
ˇ \[ah] u030C (u02C7) caron accent
˚ \[ao] u030A (u02DA) ring accent
~ \[a~] u0303 (u007E) tilde accent
˛ \[ho] u0328 (u02DB) hook accent
Quotation marks
The neutral double quote, often useful when documenting
programming languages, is also available as a special character
for convenience when including it in macro arguments; see
subsection 'Fundamental character set' above.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
„ \[Bq] u201E low double comma quote
‚ \[bq] u201A low single comma quote
' \[lq] u201C left double quote
' \[rq] u201D right double quote
' \[oq] u2018 single opening (left) quote
' \[cq] u2019 single closing (right) quote
' \[aq] u0027 apostrophe, neutral single quote
" " u0022 neutral double quote
" \[dq] u0022 neutral double quote
« \[Fo] u00AB left double chevron
» \[Fc] u00BB right double chevron
‹ \[fo] u2039 left single chevron
› \[fc] u203A right single chevron
Punctuation
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
¡ \[r!] u00A1 inverted exclamation mark
¿ \[r?] u00BF inverted question mark
— \[em] u2014 em-dash +
– \[en] u2013 en-dash
‐ \[hy] u2010 hyphen +
Brackets
On typestter devices, the bracket extensions are font-invariant
glyphs; that is, they are rendered the same way regardless of
font (with a drawing escape sequence). On terminals, they are
not font-invariant; groff maps them rather arbitrarily to U+23AA
('curly bracket extension'). In AT&T troff, only one glyph was
available to vertically extend brackets, braces, and parentheses:
\(bv.
Not all devices supply bracket pieces that 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 AT&T troff can be used for other mathematical
symbols as well, for example \(lf and \(rf which provide the
floor operator. Some output drivers, such as grodvi(1), don't
unify such glyphs. For this reason, the four glyphs \[lf],
\[rf], \[lc], and \[rc], are not unified with similar-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 Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[ [ u005B left square bracket
[ \[lB] u005B left square bracket
] ] u005D right square bracket
] \[rB] u005D right square bracket
{ { u007B left brace
{ \[lC] u007B left brace
} } u007D right brace
} \[rC] u007D right brace
⟨ \[la] u27E8 left angle bracket
⟩ \[ra] u27E9 right angle bracket
⎪ \[bv] u23AA brace vertical extension + ***
⎪ \[braceex] u23AA brace vertical extension
⎡ \[bracketlefttp] u23A1 left square bracket top
⎢ \[bracketleftex] u23A2 left square bracket extension
⎣ \[bracketleftbt] u23A3 left square bracket bottom
⎤ \[bracketrighttp] u23A4 right square bracket top
⎥ \[bracketrightex] u23A5 right square bracket extension
⎦ \[bracketrightbt] u23A6 right square bracket bottom
⎧ \[lt] u23A7 left brace top +
⎨ \[lk] u23A8 left brace middle +
⎩ \[lb] u23A9 left brace bottom +
⎧ \[bracelefttp] u23A7 left brace top
⎨ \[braceleftmid] u23A8 left brace middle
⎩ \[braceleftbt] u23A9 left brace bottom
⎪ \[braceleftex] u23AA left brace extension
⎫ \[rt] u23AB right brace top +
⎬ \[rk] u23AC right brace middle +
⎭ \[rb] u23AD right brace bottom +
⎫ \[bracerighttp] u23AB right brace top
⎬ \[bracerightmid] u23AC right brace middle
⎭ \[bracerightbt] u23AD right brace bottom
⎪ \[bracerightex] u23AA right brace extension
⎛ \[parenlefttp] u239B left parenthesis top
⎜ \[parenleftex] u239C left parenthesis extension
⎝ \[parenleftbt] u239D left parenthesis bottom
⎞ \[parenrighttp] u239E right parenthesis top
⎟ \[parenrightex] u239F right parenthesis extension
⎠ \[parenrightbt] u23A0 right parenthesis bottom
Arrows
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
← \[<-] u2190 horizontal arrow left +
→ \[->] u2192 horizontal arrow right +
↔ \[<>] u2194 bidirectional horizontal arrow
↓ \[da] u2193 vertical arrow down +
↑ \[ua] u2191 vertical arrow up +
↕ \[va] u2195 bidirectional vertical arrow
⇐ \[lA] u21D0 horizontal double arrow left
⇒ \[rA] u21D2 horizontal double arrow right
⇔ \[hA] u21D4 bidirectional horizontal double arrow
⇓ \[dA] u21D3 vertical double arrow down
⇑ \[uA] u21D1 vertical double arrow up
⇕ \[vA] u21D5 bidirectional vertical double arrow
⎯ \[an] u23AF horizontal arrow extension
Rules and lines
On typesetter devices, the font-invariant glyphs (see subsection
'Brackets' above) \[br], \[ul], and \[rn] form corners when
adjacent; they can be used to build boxes. On terminal devices,
they are mapped as shown in the table. The Unicode-derived names
of these three glyphs are approximations.
The input character _ always accesses the underscore glyph in a
font; \[ul], by contrast, may be font-invariant on typesetter
devices.
The baseline rule \[ru] is a font-invariant glyph, namely a rule
of one-half em.
\[rn] also appears in subsection 'Mathematical symbols' below.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
| | u007C bar
| \[ba] u007C bar
│ \[br] u2502 box rule +
_ _ u005F underscore, low line +
_ \[ul] u005F underscore, low line +
‾ \[rn] u203E radical extension, overline +
_ \[ru] --- baseline rule +
¦ \[bb] u00A6 broken bar
/ / u002F slash, solidus +
/ \[sl] u002F slash, solidus +
\ \[rs] u005C reverse solidus
Text markers
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
○ \[ci] u25CB circle +
• \[bu] u2022 bullet +
† \[dg] u2020 dagger +
‡ \[dd] u2021 double dagger +
◊ \[lz] u25CA lozenge, diamond
□ \[sq] u25A1 square +
¶ \[ps] u00B6 pilcrow sign
§ \[sc] u00A7 section sign +
☜ \[lh] u261C hand pointing left +
☞ \[rh] u261E hand pointing right +
@ @ u0040 at sign
@ \[at] u0040 at sign
# # u0023 number sign
# \[sh] u0023 number sign
↵ \[CR] u21B5 carriage return
✓ \[OK] u2713 check mark
Legal symbols
The Bell Systems logo is not supported in groff.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
© \[co] u00A9 copyright sign +
® \[rg] u00AE registered sign +
™ \[tm] u2122 trade mark sign
\[bs] --- Bell Systems logo +
Currency symbols
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
$ $ u0024 dollar sign
$ \[Do] u0024 dollar sign
¢ \[ct] u00A2 cent sign +
€ \[eu] u20AC Euro sign
€ \[Eu] u20AC variant Euro sign
¥ \[Ye] u00A5 yen sign
£ \[Po] u00A3 pound sign
¤ \[Cs] u00A4 currency sign
Units
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
° \[de] u00B0 degree sign +
‰ \[%0] u2030 per thousand, per mille sign
′ \[fm] u2032 arc minute sign +
″ \[sd] u2033 arc second sign
µ \[mc] u00B5 micro sign
ª \[Of] u00AA feminine ordinal indicator
º \[Om] u00BA masculine ordinal indicator
Logical symbols
Whether the two variants of the not sign differ in appearance or
spacing will depend on the device and font selected.
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
∧ \[AN] u2227 logical and
∨ \[OR] u2228 logical or
¬ \[no] u00AC logical not + ***
¬ \[tno] u00AC text variant of \[no]
∃ \[te] u2203 there exists
∀ \[fa] u2200 for all
∋ \[st] u220B such that
∴ \[3d] u2234 therefore
∴ \[tf] u2234 therefore
| | u007C bitwise or +
| \[or] u007C bitwise or +
Mathematical symbols
\[Fn] also appears in subsection 'Supplementary Latin letters'
above. Observe the two varieties of the plus-minus,
multiplication, and division signs; \[+-], \[mu], and \[di] are
normally drawn from the special font, but have regular ('text')
font variants. Also be aware of three glyphs available in
special font variants that are normally drawn from regular fonts:
the plus, minus, and equals signs. Whether these variants differ
in appearance or spacing will depend on the device and font
selected.
In AT&T troff, \(rn served as the horizontal extension of the
radical (square root) sign, \(sr. In groff, you can use
\[radicalex] instead of \[rn] for continuation of the radical
sign \[sr]; these have text metrics. \[sqrt] and \[sqrtex] are
their counterparts with mathematical spacing.
Output Input Unicode Notes
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
½ \[12] u00BD one half symbol +
¼ \[14] u00BC one quarter symbol +
¾ \[34] u00BE three quarters symbol +
⅛ \[18] u215B one eighth symbol
⅜ \[38] u215C three eighths symbol
⅝ \[58] u215D five eighths symbol
⅞ \[78] u215E seven eighths symbol
¹ \[S1] u00B9 superscript one
² \[S2] u00B2 superscript two
³ \[S3] u00B3 superscript three
+ + u002B plus
+ \[pl] u002B special variant of plus + ***
- \[-] u002D minus
− \[mi] u2212 special variant of minus + ***
∓ \[-+] u2213 minus-plus
± \[+-] u00B1 plus-minus + ***
± \[t+-] u00B1 text variant of \[+-]
· \[pc] u00B7 centered period
⋅ \[md] u22C5 multiplication dot
× \[mu] u00D7 multiplication sign + ***
× \[tmu] u00D7 text variant of \[mu]
⊗ \[c*] u2297 circled times
⊕ \[c+] u2295 circled plus
÷ \[di] u00F7 division sign + ***
÷ \[tdi] u00F7 text variant of \[di]
⁄ \[f/] u2044 fraction slash
∗ \[**] 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] u003D special variant of equals + ***
≠ \[!=] u003D_0338 not equals +
≡ \[==] u2261 equivalent +
≢ \[ne] u2261_0338 not equivalent
≅ \[=~] u2245 approximately equal to
≃ \[|=] u2243 asymptotically equal to +
∼ \[ap] u223C similar to, tilde operator +
≈ \[~~] u2248 almost equal to
≈ \[~=] u2248 almost equal to
∝ \[pt] u221D proportional to +
∅ \[es] u2205 empty set +
∈ \[mo] u2208 element of a set +
∉ \[nm] u2208_0338 not element of set
⊂ \[sb] u2282 proper subset +
⊄ \[nb] u2282_0338 not subset
⊃ \[sp] u2283 proper superset +
⊅ \[nc] u2283_0338 not superset
⊆ \[ib] u2286 subset or equal +
⊇ \[ip] u2287 superset or equal +
∩ \[ca] u2229 intersection, cap +
∪ \[cu] u222A union, cup +
∠ \[/_] u2220 angle
⊥ \[pp] u22A5 perpendicular
∫ \[is] u222B integral +
∫ \[integral] u222B integral ***
∑ \[sum] u2211 summation ***
∏ \[product] u220F product ***
∐ \[coproduct] u2210 coproduct ***
∇ \[gr] u2207 gradient +
√ \[sr] u221A radical sign, square root +
‾ \[rn] u203E radical extension, overline +
\[radicalex] --- radical extension
√ \[sqrt] u221A radical sign, square root ***
\[sqrtex] --- radical extension ***
⌈ \[lc] u2308 left ceiling +
⌉ \[rc] u2309 right ceiling +
⌊ \[lf] u230A left floor +
⌋ \[rf] u230B right floor +
∞ \[if] u221E infinity +
ℵ \[Ah] u2135 aleph symbol
ƒ \[Fn] u0192 lowercase f with hook, function
ℑ \[Im] u2111 blackletter I, imaginary part
ℜ \[Re] u211C blackletter R, real part
℘ \[wp] u2118 Weierstrass p
∂ \[pd] u2202 partial differential
ℏ \[-h] u210F h bar
ℏ \[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
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Α \[*A] u0391 uppercase alpha +
Β \[*B] u0392 uppercase beta +
Γ \[*G] u0393 uppercase gamma +
Δ \[*D] u0394 uppercase delta +
Ε \[*E] u0395 uppercase epsilon +
Ζ \[*Z] u0396 uppercase zeta +
Η \[*Y] u0397 uppercase eta +
Θ \[*H] u0398 uppercase theta +
Ι \[*I] u0399 uppercase iota +
Κ \[*K] u039A uppercase kappa +
Λ \[*L] u039B uppercase lambda +
Μ \[*M] u039C uppercase mu +
Ν \[*N] u039D uppercase nu +
Ξ \[*C] u039E uppercase xi +
Ο \[*O] u039F uppercase omicron +
Π \[*P] u03A0 uppercase pi +
Ρ \[*R] u03A1 uppercase rho +
Σ \[*S] u03A3 uppercase sigma +
Τ \[*T] u03A4 uppercase tau +
Υ \[*U] u03A5 uppercase upsilon +
Φ \[*F] u03A6 uppercase phi +
Χ \[*X] u03A7 uppercase chi +
Ψ \[*Q] u03A8 uppercase psi +
Ω \[*W] u03A9 uppercase omega +
α \[*a] u03B1 lowercase alpha +
β \[*b] u03B2 lowercase beta +
γ \[*g] u03B3 lowercase gamma +
δ \[*d] u03B4 lowercase delta +
ε \[*e] u03B5 lowercase epsilon +
ζ \[*z] u03B6 lowercase zeta +
η \[*y] u03B7 lowercase eta +
θ \[*h] u03B8 lowercase theta +
ι \[*i] u03B9 lowercase iota +
κ \[*k] u03BA lowercase kappa +
λ \[*l] u03BB lowercase lambda +
μ \[*m] u03BC lowercase mu +
ν \[*n] u03BD lowercase nu +
ξ \[*c] u03BE lowercase xi +
ο \[*o] u03BF lowercase omicron +
π \[*p] u03C0 lowercase pi +
ρ \[*r] u03C1 lowercase rho +
ς \[ts] u03C2 terminal lowercase sigma +
σ \[*s] u03C3 lowercase sigma +
τ \[*t] u03C4 lowercase tau +
υ \[*u] u03C5 lowercase upsilon +
ϕ \[*f] u03D5 lowercase phi +
χ \[*x] u03C7 lowercase chi +
ψ \[*q] u03C8 lowercase psi +
ω \[*w] u03C9 lowercase omega +
ϑ \[+h] u03D1 variant theta
φ \[+f] u03C6 variant phi (curly shape)
ϖ \[+p] u03D6 variant pi (similar to omega)
ϵ \[+e] u03F5 variant epsilon (lunate)
Playing card symbols
Output Input Unicode Notes
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
♣ \[CL] u2663 solid club suit
♠ \[SP] u2660 solid spade suit
♥ \[HE] u2665 solid heart suit
♦ \[DI] u2666 solid diamond suit
