[Tex/LaTex] Asterism and similar breaking / non-breaking options

line-breaking

What are the options that can be considered an alternative to the old asterism (⁂) symbol ?

I would like to denote a small break in the flow of the text, I noticed that this days many people like to just add more whitespace than the usual new line; but still, I would like to use a symbol, a more explicit glyph and I don't know if there are more "modern" ways to express this.

Best Answer

Fleurons could be an alternative; the pgfornament package can be used in this case:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfornament}

\newcommand\myasterismi{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\pgfornament[width=17pt]{7}\hfill\null\par\bigskip
}
\newcommand\myasterismii{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\pgfornament[width=17pt]{1}\hfill\null\par\bigskip
}
\newcommand\myasterismiii{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\pgfornament[width=17pt]{4}\hfill\null\par\bigskip
}

\newcommand\Text{%
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida
mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.
Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus
et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Cras viverra
metus rhoncus sem. Nulla et lectus vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices. Phasellus
}

\begin{document}
\Text
\myasterismi
\Text
\myasterismii
\Text
\myasterismiii
\Text
\end{document}

enter image description here

The Web-O-Mints fonts offer another set of glyphs that could be used:

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand*\wb[3]{%
  {\fontsize{#1}{#2}\usefont{U}{webo}{xl}{n}#3}}

\newcommand\myasterismi{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\wb{10}{12}{I}\hfill\null\par\bigskip
}
\newcommand\myasterismii{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\wb{15}{18}{UV}\hfill\null\par\medskip
}
\newcommand\myasterismiii{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\hfill\wb{15}{18}{z}\hfill\null\par\bigskip
}

\newcommand\Text{%
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida
mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.
Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus
et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Cras viverra
metus rhoncus sem. Nulla et lectus vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices. Phasellus
}

\begin{document}
\Text
\myasterismi
\Text
\myasterismii
\Text
\myasterismiii
\Text
\end{document}

enter image description here

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