The number of symbols that can be produced with TeX/LaTeX and the packages providing them is quite impressive. Often, I know the command by heart or a quick check on Google is sufficient to produce a specific symbol. However, it might happen that I don’t know the name of the symbol nor how to describe it. In that case, it’s good to know where to look.
Math symbols
Several websites have good collections of math symbols. These lists cover the most frequently used math symbols.
- University of Bergen: LaTeX Math Symbols
- LaTeX Symbols on Art of Problem Solving
- LaTeX Math Symbols (PDF)
The amssymb package provides an extended symbol collection and is part of the AMSfonts packages. The symbols provided by the amssymb package are listed here.
Comprehensive List of Symbols
The comprehensive list of symbols lists close to 6000 symbols and their commands in LaTeX. The list contains mathematical symbols, phonetic symbols, currency symbols, legal symbols, science and technology symbols, arrows, and many others. It is an overwhelming collection, which might make it difficult to find the right symbol. The table of contents or the index at the end of the document are a good place to start looking.
Link: The comprehensive list of LaTeX symbols
The collection also contains unexpected symbols. For example, a recycling symbols (\recycle) provided by the recycle package.
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{recycle}
\begin{document}
\recycle
\end{document}
Detexify
Another interesting and usefule resource is Detexify. Detexify is a service that recognises handwritten symbols and provides the command and the package to typeset them in LaTeX.
Link: Detexify