[Tex/LaTex] How to create Candle Symbol in LaTeX

Question

I have a need to insert a candle symbol in "elite" in the place of "i".
I browsed through the comprehensive LaTeX symbols pdf and could not find any one matching up.
Is there any easy way to achieve this? An image processing tool is always a way but I wanted to see if LaTeX has any solutions for it.

Answer 1

Here is a custom-designed Bezier-curve flame in TikZ combined with a dotless letter ‘i’:

Here is the source:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcommand{\iflame}[2]{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=#1]
    \fill[color=#2]
      (0,0) .. controls (-1.5,1.25) and (.5,2) .. (-.2,4)
            .. controls (1,2.5) and (1,.5) .. (0,0);
  \end{tikzpicture}
}

\newcommand{\icandle}[1]{%
  \rlap{\kern-.0275em\raisebox{1.2ex}{\iflame{.035}{#1}}}$\i$%
}

\begin{document}

\noindent
el\icandle{red}te\\
el\icandle{orange}te\\
el\icandle{yellow!80!red}te\\
el\icandle{gray}te\\
elite\\
\par

\end{document}

If you find the serifs on the ‘i’ to be undesirable, you can substitute instead a vertical rule of height 1ex, depth 0ex, and width .7pt, with about .09em kerning on each side, and then lower the flame by .1ex. I tried it both ways and I personally like it better with the serifs on the ‘i’.

Addendum

I just noticed today that the middle three letters of “elite” are “lit” and that the last four letters are “lite”. There is also the visual pun “e-lite”, e.g., “electronic light.”