typographyunits
I'd be much obliged if somebody could tell me how to do the following.
"?. Neither Lamport nor Knuth seem to mention it.\inchcommand is the command that produces the inch symbol, does one insert a thin space before the command: 1\,\inchcommand?To typeset units without numbers, you can use \si{<unit>} (note the lower case).
The mathematically correct way to typeset ranges of values with units is to include the unit with each of the numbers. This is what the command \SIrange{<lower>}{<upper>} does. If you don't want to repeat the units, you can set [range-units = single].
Note that the most common units can be accessed using abbreviations (like \km for \kilo\metre).
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\begin{document}
The bird can fly \SIrange{40}{50}{\km\per\hour}.
The bird can fly \SIrange[range-units=single]{40}{50}{\km\per\hour}.
The data table above uses \si{\kg}.
\end{document}
Here's one possibility, using TikZ and its decorations.text library (the digits are used as text for a decoration); I also used the fulloldstylenums option for the kpfonts package:
\documentclass[extrafontsizes,48pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[fulloldstylenums]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}
\newcommand{\sirdot}{\smash{\raisebox{.2ex}{$\odot$}}}
\newcommand{\apple}{\smash{$\Delta$}}
\begin{document}
\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}[
decoration={text along path,
text={184809493{\apple}918664573{\sirdot}6211{\apple\apple}15%
1551{\sirdot}05729290{\sirdot}7809{\ldots}}}
]
\draw [decorate,rotate=-90] (0,0) circle (7.3cm);
\node at (0,0) {3.};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Two variations:
\documentclass[extrafontsizes,48pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[fulloldstylenums]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}
\newcommand{\sirdot}{\smash{\scalebox{.8}{$\odot$}}}
\newcommand{\apple}{\smash{\scalebox{.8}{$\Delta$}}}
\begin{document}
\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}[
decoration={text along path,
text={184809493{\apple}918664573{\sirdot}6211{\apple\apple}15%
1551{\sirdot}05729290{\sirdot}7809{\ldots}}}]
\draw [decorate,rotate=-90] (0,0) circle (7.1cm);
\node at (0,0) {\fontsize{200}{12}\selectfont 3.};
\end{tikzpicture}
\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}[
decoration={text along path,
text={184809493{\apple}918664573{\sirdot}6211{\apple\apple}15%
1551{\sirdot}05729290{\sirdot}7809{\ldots}}}]
\draw [decorate,rotate=-90] (0,0) circle (7.1cm);
\node at (0,0) {\fontsize{100}{12}\selectfont$\pi\approx 3.$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Another one (with a little more patience the font size can be better diminished):
\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage[fulloldstylenums]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}
\newcommand{\sirdot}{\smash{\scalebox{.8}{$\odot$}}}
\newcommand{\apple}{\smash{\scalebox{.8}{$\Delta$}}}
\newcommand\myfont[1]{\fontsize{#1}{12}\selectfont}
\begin{document}
\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}[
decoration={text along path,
text={{\myfont{150}1}{\myfont{130}8}{\myfont{140}4}{\myfont{130}8}{\myfont{120}0}{\myfont{110}9}{\myfont{100}%
4}{\myfont{90}9}{\myfont{80}3}{\myfont{70}\apple9}{\myfont{60}18}{\myfont{50}6645}{\myfont{40}73{\sirdot}62}{\myfont{30}11{\apple\apple}15}%
{\myfont{20}1551{\sirdot}}{\myfont{10}05729290}{\sirdot}7809{\ldots}}}]
\draw [decorate,rotate=-90] (0,0) circle (6.8cm);
\node at (0,0) {\fontsize{200}{12}\selectfont 3.};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
For the new requirement made in an edit to the original question, you can use \ooalign to superimpose a \cdot over an "O" or over a "0" and get the desired symbol; the following code illustrates two possible definitions and shows a comparison with the original symbol:
\documentclass[extrafontsizes,48pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[fulloldstylenums]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\sirdot}{\smash{\scalebox{.8}{$\odot$}}}
\newcommand\sirdoti{%
\mathord{\ooalign{\hss\raisebox{-0.1ex}{$\cdot$}\hss\cr 0}}}
\newcommand\sirdotii{%
\mathord{\ooalign{\hss$\cdot$\hss\cr\small O}}}
\begin{document}
$\sirdot\qquad\sirdoti\qquad\sirdotii$
\end{document}
For the other character, perhaps one could impost this symbol from another font?
Best Answer
In most style books it is recommended that you spell it out fully. If you however insist to typeset it as per the question use as follows:
You can use the same method for typesetting time this way as well. You can create commands to suit. Even better to typeset it straight into SI units and let TeX do the conversion.
If you absolutely need to typeset it in inches, use
8.5~inor\mbox{8.5\thinspace in}. Both are acceptable ways from a typesetting point of view.Edit
Had a look at a few guides. The image is from Science and Technical Writing, a Manual of Style, 2nd Edition by Philip Rubens. (Highly recommended)
The overall consensus in the context you describe is to spell it out in full words. In tables, the inches appear as a heading and the
bysymbol used i.e.,5 x 10The abbreviated form in text can take a stop or be left out
in.; as units in my early Engineering Books always used it asini.e.,lb/inetc.