Text commands: all encodings

One of the main differences between LaTeX2e<#418#><#418#> and LaTeX~2.09 is that LaTeX2e<#419#><#419#> can deal with fonts in arbitrary <#420#>encodings<#420#>. (A font encoding is the sequence of characters in the font---for example a Cyrillic font would have a different encoding from a Greek font.) The two major font encodings that are used for Latin languages such as English or German are 240 (Donald Knuth's 7-bit encoding, which has been used during most of TeX's lifetime) and 241 (the new 8-bit `Cork' encoding). LaTeX~2.09 only supported the 242 encoding, whereas LaTeX2e<#421#><#421#> has support for both 243 and 244 built-in. The next section will cover the new commands which are available if you have 245-encoded fonts. This section describes new commands which are available in all encodings. Most of these commands provide characters which were available in LaTeX~2.09 already. For example 246 gives an `em dash', which was available in LaTeX~2.09 by typing 247. However, some fonts (for example a Greek font) may not have the 248 ligature, but you will still be able to access an em dash by typing 249.

250

This command gives a `ring' accent, for example `o' can be typed 251.


252

This command produces a German `SS', that is a capital `ß'. This letter can hyphenate differently from `SS', so is needed for entering all-caps German.


253

This command is used to build `circled characters' such as 254. For example 255 produces #tex2html_wrap1000#.


256

This command is used to separate letters which would normally ligature. For example `fi' is produced with 257. Note that the `f' and `i' have not ligatured to produce `fi'. This is rarely useful in English (`shelfful' is a rare example of where it might be used) but is used in languages such as German.


258

This command produces a `visible space' character `#tex2html_wrap1002#'. This is sometimes used in computer listings, for example `type <#434#>hello#tex2html_wrap1004# world<#434#>'.


259 260 261 262
263 264 265 266

These commands produce characters which would otherwise be accessed via ligatures:

#tabular438#

The reason for making these characters directly accessible is so that they will work in encodings which do not have these characters.


283 284

These commands allow access to characters which were previously only available in math mode:

#tabular448#


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These commands allow access to ASCII characters which were only available in verbatim or math mode:

#tabular458#


301 302

These commands allow access to ASCII characters which were previously only available in verbatim:

#tabular468#


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These commands provide the `registered trademark' (R) and `trademark' (TM) symbols.