SpecialCharacters

You may need characters or symbols that do not appear in any of the installed fonts. However, if they are simple enough you can draw your own, by defining a ".char" object (that automatically scales with changes in font size).

Example: define two new characters:

• \[MS] for Male Symbol
• \[FS] for Female symbol

 .char \[MS] \ \"begin char definition
 \Z'\Z'\[ci]'\ \"a circle
 \h'\w'\[ci]'u/13u*10u'\ \"move right 10/13 of the circle's width or diameter
 \v'-\w'\[ci]'u/13u*10u'\ \"move up 10/13 of the circle's height or diameter
 \D'l \w'\[ci]'u/3u -\w'\[ci]'u/3u'\ \"draw a line up and to the right = diameter/3
 \Z'\D'l -\w'\[ci]'u/5u 0\ \"draw a line horizontally = diameter/5
 \Z'\D'l 0 \w'\[ci]'u/5u\ \"draw a line vertically = diameter/5
 \h'\w'\[ci]'u/5u*6u' \"move right 6/5 a diameter
 .
 .char \[FS] \ \"begin char definition
 \Z'\Z'\[ci]'\ \"a circle
 \h'\w'\[ci]'u/2u'\ \"move right half a diameter
 \Z'\D'l 0 \w'\[ci]'u/2u'\ \"draw a vertical line down = diameter/2
 \v'-\w'\[ci]'u/6u'\ \"move down diameter/6
 \h'-\w'\[ci]'u/4u'\ \"move left diameter/4
 \D'l \w'\[ci]'u/2u 0\ \"draw a horozontal line right = diameter/2
 \h'\w'\[ci]'u' \"move right one diameter
 .
 .\" Example usage
 .LP
 \s[20]Male Symbol: MM\[MS]MM\s0
 .sp
 .LP
 \s[20]Female Symbol: MM\[FS]MM\s0

(Using ms macros and enclosing the symbols between "MM" and "MM" to show how they fit into running text).

Tip contributed by Ted Harding

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