# Unicode symbols and corresponding LaTeX math mode commands

Date
Last revised 2011-04-04
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

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.xhtml.

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).

# Documents

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

unimathsymbols.xhtml

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).

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.xhtml

Commands used for different symbols by different packages.

# Discussion

math font selection in LaTeX and Unicode

review and discussion of

unicode-math-diff.xhtml

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
Document generation
Parse references
Statistics
Use cases

# 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,

• 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

The technical report [tr25] presents an in-depth discussion of the mathematics character repertoire of the Unicode Standard as well as mathematical notation in general. [MathClassEx] provides additional information for Unicode math symbols.

[isoent]

SGML/XML character entity reference: http://www.bitjungle.com/isoent/

[tr25]

Unicode Support for Mathematics, Unicode Technical Report #25: http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr25/

[MathClassEx]

Classification of characters based on their usage in mathematical notation and mapping to standard entity sets commonly used for SGML and MathML documents: http://www.unicode.org/Public/math/revision-11/MathClassEx-11.txt

[fntguide]

LaTeX2ε font selection http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/doc/fntguide.pdf.

[xml-entity-names]

XML Entity Definitions for Characters, W3C Recommendation 01 April 2010: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-entity-names/

[mathML-entities]

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0 Chapter 7: Characters, Entities and Fonts, W3C Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-MathML3-20101021/chapter7.html

[Math-characters-unicode]

How to map Unicode entities to LaTeX, and various SGML/XML entity sets http://www.w3.org/Math/characters/unicode.xml

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