TikZ - Circled text number in superscript - Missing $

Question

I'm using TikZ to create some circles with numbers as some sort of marker. But I want to use them as superscript.

So to generate a circle I'm using this command (suggested here: Good way to make \textcircled numbers?):

\newcommand*\circled[1]{\tikz[baseline=(char.base)]{
            \node[shape=circle,fill=blue!20,draw,inner sep=0.5pt] (char) {#1};}}

To use it within the text (as superscript) I'm using:

text^{\circled{1}}

However I get the following error:

> Description   Resource    Path    Location    Type Missing $ inserted. ... & 24 &
> 8 & 32^{\circleds{3}} & (followed by: 0      & 24    & 8
> \\)   doc.tex /doc line 287   Texlipse Build Error

Any suggestions of why is that?

Here is an small code example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\newcommand*\circled[1]{\tikz[baseline=(char.base)]{
            \node[shape=circle,fill=blue!20,draw,inner sep=0.5pt] (char) {#1};}}

\begin{document} 
This works: \circled{3}. But this^{\circled{1}} is no good.
\end{document}

The superscript character ^ is a command to be used in math mode. If you provided a minimal version of the code that fails, we could answer more definitively, but text^{anything} will fail irrespective of tikz, if it is not already in math mode. Maybe try text\textsuperscript{\circled{1}} — Steven B. Segletes, Jun 30 '16 at 18:01
^ works only in math mode, so you may try $text^{\circled{1}}$ — Cfun, Jun 30 '16 at 18:02
Just tried. It seems to ignore the \circled{1} and just place the number 1. — rph, Jun 30 '16 at 18:03
@StevenB.Segletes i didnt understnad well, the circle should include 'text' too ? — Cfun, Jun 30 '16 at 18:04
@SAM What I meant was that text & $text$ will produce different output (the former roman, the latter italic and spaced oddly). Your suggestion would make the "text" italic, whereas the context of the question makes it seem as if "text" should be roman. — Steven B. Segletes, Jun 30 '16 at 18:06
@SAM this doesn't work but it gives a different error message. *Undefined control sequence* — rph, Jun 30 '16 at 18:11
@rkioji no it works you only have to load amsmath \text is defined in that package. — Cfun, Jun 30 '16 at 18:17

Steven B. Segletes · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-30T18:13:11.607

6

As discussed in numerous comments, the underlying problem was that ^ was invoked in text, not math mode. Here are two possibilities, depending on how you want it to behave.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\newcommand*\circled[1]{\tikz[baseline=(char.base)]{
            \node[shape=circle,fill=blue!20,draw,inner sep=0.5pt] (char) {#1};}}

\begin{document} 
This works: \circled{3}. But this\textsuperscript{\circled{1}} is no good.

This works: \circled{3}. But this$^{\circled{1}}$ is no good.
\end{document}

edited Jun 30 '16 at 18:13

answered Jun 30 '16 at 18:11

Steven B. Segletes

237,551

Great!! You guys are ninja!! That works. – rph Jun 30 '16 at 18:12

TikZ - Circled text number in superscript - Missing $

1 Answers1