[Tex/LaTex] How to write a spiral symbol

pdftexsymbols

How can I get a spiral like

enter image description here

There seems to be a spiral-like unicode codepoint: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/aa5c/index.htm

I tried

\documentclass[varwidth=true, border=2pt]{standalone}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
% Color
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.95}

\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{43612}{\spiral}

%document
\begin{document}{\textcolor{lightgray}{a}}\spiral{\textcolor{lightgray}{b}}
\end{document}

but I got

! Undefined control sequence.
l.13 ...document}{\textcolor{lightgray}{a}}\spiral
                                              {\textcolor{lightgray}{b}}

edit: I know How to look up a symbol or identify a math symbol or character?. None of the answers gave me a spiral symbol.

Best Answer

I would imagine that if font samples are viewable, they're in the public domain. As such, a search for font with spiral symbol yields a host of ideas.

Below I've used the Altemus Spirals Regular font's PDF sample:

enter image description here

Then you can clip out the element you're interested in:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\spiral}[1][]{\includegraphics[
  height=.7\baselineskip,
  origin=c,% For rotation purposes, rotate around centre
  viewport=154mm 173mm 176mm 194mm,clip,
  #1% Any other graphicx options
  ]{altemus_spiral_regular}%
}
\begin{document}
{\setlength{\fboxsep}{0pt}\fbox{\spiral}}

\spiral{}
\spiral[angle=90]
\reflectbox{\spiral}

A regular \spiral{} together with text and even \spiral[angle=180] rotated.
\end{document}

Alternatively, if you have access to a font containing a spiral, you can use XeLaTeX or LauLaTeX directly.

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