fontssymbols
I would like to use symbols which look like the pigpen cypher symbols
One symbol I need consists of the two horizontal edges of the square, and the other has the vertical edges in it. I cannot just use = (and its rotation) because the lines are too close to each other. I've looked in the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List but could not find any symbol like that. Where could I get hold of such a symbol?
The graphics package also lets you rotate boxes, as explained in Section 7.2 of Lamport's LaTeX: A document preparation system. You use \rotatebox{x}{text}, where x is a specified angle in the positive (counterclockwise) direction with the "positive x-axis", which extends horizontally from the basepoint of the box that contains text.
You could, of course, use TikZ for this:
The symbol will scale with your font size, since it uses ex to define the path.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\newcommand\shield{%
\tikz [baseline] \draw (0,1.75ex) -- (0,0.75ex) arc [radius=0.75ex, start angle=-180, end angle=0] -- (1.5ex,1.75ex) -- cycle;%
}
A shield: \shield
\end{document}
If you're feeling fancy, you could parametrise it a bit:
\documentclass[border=3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\newcommand\shield[1][]{%
\tikzset{
shield width/.store in=\shieldwidth,
shield width=1.5ex,
shield height/.store in=\shieldheight,
shield height=1.75ex
}%
\tikz [baseline,#1] \draw (0,\shieldheight) -- (0,\shieldwidth/2) arc [radius=\shieldwidth/2, start angle=-180, end angle=0] -- (\shieldwidth,\shieldheight) -- cycle;%
}
A shield: \shield
A wide shield: \shield[shield width=2ex]
A tall shield: \shield[shield height=3ex]
\end{document}
Best Answer
Here, I introduce
\pigpenXXXXwhereXXXXis some combination of0and1that signify strokes on the left, top, right, bottom (i.e., clockwise starting on left). Stroke length and width are defined by\rllnand\rlwd, respectively. The symbols are defined to sit on the baseline.Naturally, one could define letters like
\def\ppA{\pigpen0011}, etc.EDITED to make suitable for use in math mode, though it will also function in text mode.
UPDATE:
The OP requested a version with rounded endcaps. To do so, I use my custom style file
roundrule.sty, found exclusively at the end of this answer:Is there such a thing as a `\mathrule`? (rounded endcaps)
I then modify my above answer to use round rules instead of rules. I probably need to update
roundrule.sty, because I found that if one of the rule dimensions is 0pt, it still outputs a thin line. To circumvent that problem for this answer, I perform a check on the roundrule dimensions.