Unicode symbols and corresponding LaTeX math mode commands

Date: Last revised 2011-04-04
Copyright: © 2011 Günter Milde <milde@users.sf.net>
Licence: This work may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3 of this license or (at your option) any later version.

This project provides a text-mode database of Unicode ↔ LaTeX mappings for mathematical symbols, scripts for the work with the data, documents in more eye-friendly data formats as well as discussion and background information.

While the data represents the best information available to the author as of the date referenced above, it contains omissions and maybe errors. It is likely that the information will change from time to time.

Contents

Database
Documents
Discussion
Scripts
References

Database

The database is intended for use as reference and as source for automatic conversion scripts.

data/unimathsymbols.txt

Unicode math symbols and related LaTeX math control sequences. The format, inspired by the UNIDATA files, is explained in the file’s preamble and unimathsymbols.html.

The database includes all symbols that are tagged as math-related by Unicode and/or accessible via a LaTeX math mode command:

2751 Unicode math-related symbols (2089 without (traditional) LaTeX support)
1158 Math-commands provided by LaTeX + packages (including aliases)

Due to history and conceptual differences, the mapping between them is ambiguous and incomplete.

Auxiliary data files using the Python ConfigParser syntax:

data/category2mathtype.txt: maps Unicode category codes to TeX math types (cf. [fntguide]).
data/packages.txt: lists alternative LaTeX packages (packages providing the command(s) of another package).

Copies of Unicode data files:

MathClassEx-dd.txt: classification of characters based on their usage in mathematical notation and mapping to standard entity sets commonly used for SGML and MathML documents. (from ftp://unicode.org/Public/math)
Blocks.txt: Unicode character blocks (see http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44)

Documents

The generated documents list the mappings in user-friendly formats.

unimathsymbols.html

Unicode math symbols and corresponding LaTeX commands (RST source: unimathsymbols.rst).

unimathsymbols.pdf

Unicode math symbols, corresponding LaTeX commands and their output (source: unimathsymbols.tex).

Due to (8-bit) TeX’s limitation to 16 math alphabets, not all symbols can be made available in one math version: [na] in the math symbol column indicates that the symbol is not available with the selected packages (cf. tools/symbols_xetex.py).

unimathcmds.pdf

LaTeX math commands and corresponding Unicode symbols (source: unimathcmds.tex).

cmd_substitutions.pdf

LaTeX math commands with approximately matching Unicode character

mathpackages/

Symbols provided by standard LaTeX and math packages1:

1: Most of the listed math packages are available at CTAN. Exceptions include wrisym by Jens-Peer Kuska and the auxiliary styles mathsfbf.sty omlmathbf.sty omlmathit.sty omlmathrm.sty omlmathsfbf.sty omlmathsfit.sty
2(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10): These packages provide also alternative glyphs for the standard symbols.

nameclashes.pdf: Commands used for different symbols by different packages.

Discussion

math font selection in LaTeX and Unicode

review and discussion of

Math alphabets, Math versions, and Math styles,
a naming scheme mapping Unicode mathematical alphanumeric symbols to LaTeX math alphabets, and
the unicode-math package

unicode-math-diff.html

differences between math symbol commands in «traditional» LaTeX and the unicode-math package (source: unicode-math-diff.rst).

unimathalpha.pdf

Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols in Unicode and LaTeX (source: unimathalpha.tex).

Scripts

The tools directory contains example scripts.

Data extraction and filtering

tools/parse_unimathsymbols.py.html (source tools/parse_unimathsymbols.py)

Document generation

Parse references

Statistics

tools/coverage.py

Use cases

Python Unicode->LaTeX translation table generated from the database with tools/write_unichar2tex.py.
Python LaTeX->Unicode translation dictionaries generated from the database with tools/write_tex2unichar.py.

References

The database is compiled from a number of sources including

the unicode-math package for XeTeX/LuaTeX documentation and unimath-symbols list,
LaTeX->HTML converters like MathJax, eLyXer, or ttm,
LaTeX frontends like LyX,
The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List,
documentation of the math packages (in most cases available via TeXLive’s texdoc or a CTAN search). Exceptions:
- wrisym documentation is called msymdoc.pdf
- oz documentation is called ozguide.pdf