11

Where do I find a symbol that looks like a slightly smaller version of a 90 degrees rotated \Bowtie from the wasysym package?

Something like alt text.

I couldn't find anything in the usual tables. The detexify site yields nothing close. I managed the following hack (which defines a binary operator):

\documentclass[12pt]{article}  
\usepackage{wasysym,graphicx}  
\newcommand{\uproduct}{\mathbin{\;{\rotatebox{90}{$\small\Bowtie$}}}}
\begin{document}  
$A \uproduct B$  
\end{document}

It produces alt text. Although it looks OK here, it looks bad when used in a subscript. This is surely not the right solution. I'd well believe that a solution using metafont exists, but would prefer something less esoteric. Perhaps there is a standard symbols package that I overlooked?

**EDIT: Geoffrey and Aditya gave admirable solutions for creating this symbol (I'm sorry for previously calling them "hacks"). And Seamus found a font package.

percusse
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Konrad Swanepoel
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  • Konrad I suggested the \scalebox, but I am very curious as to where you are using it. I presume as a relational symbol for a join? Never thought of it as a subscript! – yannisl Sep 26 '10 at 17:46
  • I'd like to use it for the join of two graphs. It would be a nice suggestive notation. And in principle something like $G_1\uproduct G_2$ could end up in a sub- or superscript somewhere. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 26 '10 at 17:58
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    Konrad, don't worry. The given solutions (well, at least mine ;) ) are not "hacks". Of course it would be nice if every conceivable symbol were natively available. However, it's quite usual to construct one when this can't be. The \mathchoice-based solution should be safe to most contingencies. \mathchoice (like \;, \[ etc) is a TeX primitive, aditya's \mathpalette comes from plain.tex, \scalebox from graphics.sty and \rotatebox from graphicx.sty have both been around for 15+ years. I.e., 99.99% of the problems that might surface have already been ironed out. Rest easy. :) – Geoffrey Jones Sep 27 '10 at 03:34
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    And you will be surprised how many of the basic math symbols are made using similar techniques :) – Aditya Sep 27 '10 at 05:14
  • @Geoffrey and Aditya: thanks for the reassurances and for providing some perspective. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 27 '10 at 08:19
  • The two solutions that modify existing symbols have the advantage that they don't need the mathdesign package, which seems as if can only be used with one of three typefaces (one, garamond, is not included in TeXLive). On the other hand, \udtimes seems to space nicely in these three fonts, something that doesn't happen with the other two solutions. Changing the spacing with \,, \;, etc., behaves differently when the font is changed. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 28 '10 at 20:54
  • The Unicode symbol is U+29D6 WHITE HOURGLASS. – Mechanical snail May 29 '12 at 08:50

5 Answers5

7

\udtimes is defined in the mathdesign package

Seamus
  • 73,242
  • 1
    But I expect it's just a macro defined more or less as the above "hacks" define it... – Seamus Sep 27 '10 at 14:44
  • Ah, this is it! But do you know how to use mathdesign If I don't want utopia, chrter or garamond? – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 27 '10 at 17:43
  • You might be able to modify this question to answer that question: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2997/changing-the-kpfonts-sum-symbol – Seamus Sep 29 '10 at 12:25
  • The symbol appears on page 8 of this document: http://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/CTAN/fonts/mathdesign/MD-adobe-utopia-doc.pdf (I don't know enough to write the code, but that should give you enough information to work it our) – Seamus Sep 30 '10 at 14:36
4

I think that judiciously combining \mathchoice, \rotatebox and scalebox should give you what you want:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx,wasysym}

\newcommand\uproduct{%
  \mathchoice{\mathbin{\;\rotatebox{90}{$\Bowtie$}}}%
             {\mathbin{\;\rotatebox{90}{$\Bowtie$}}}%
             {\mathbin{\;\rotatebox{90}{\scalebox{0.65}{$\Bowtie$}}}}%
             {\mathbin{\;\rotatebox{90}{\scalebox{0.65}{$\Bowtie$}}}}%
}

\begin{document}
  $A = B \uproduct C$, whereas $X_{B \uproduct C} > Y$
  \[
    A=\sum_{B \uproduct C}^{D \uproduct E}{F \uproduct G}
  \]
\end{document}

Of course, the spacing and the scaling are still up to you.

Geoffrey Jones
  • 14,435
  • Aha, this is what my hack should have been! And you're right: the spacing and scaling still have to be tweaked somewhat. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 26 '10 at 18:48
  • Part of the problem is that \\Bowtie itself doesn't scale when used in a subscript, which means that wasysym is not perfect. On the other hand, \\udtimes from Seamus's answer does scale. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 28 '10 at 20:23
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    @Konrad, of course. That's why \mathchoice was implemented early on in TeX. Native font characters like mathdesign's \udtimes are always the best way to go if you can. I'd definitely go for it if you're OK with using (or at least loading) mathdesign within your work. In any event, now you're aware of the TeX-general approach to cleanly solving your problem. Useful to know for those times when loading in another font package isn't the ideal way to go (e.g., if it changes your typography in ways you don't want or interferes with other code you use). – Geoffrey Jones Sep 29 '10 at 01:31
4

In modern TeX engines (XeTeX, LuaTeX), this symbol is avaiable with unicode-math as \hourglass:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{XITS Math}
\begin{document}
    \(A\hourglass B\)
\end{document}

output result

diabonas
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3

Here is an attempt with slightly better spacing:

\makeatletter
\newcommand\douproduct[1]%
  {\mathbin
  {\m@th\leavevmode\raisebox{-0.03ex}
    {\vbox{\baselineskip\z@skip \lineskip-.2ex% =0.25*0.8
     \ialign{##\cr
     \rotatebox{90}{\scalebox{0.8}{$#1\triangleleft $}}\cr
     \rotatebox{90}{\scalebox{0.8}{$#1\triangleright$}}\cr}}}}}
\makeatother

\newcommand\uproduct{\mathpalette\douproduct\relax}
Aditya
  • 62,301
1

Try it with the \scalebox command for example:

\rotatebox{90}{\scalebox{0.5}{$\Bowtie$}}

The \scalebox can virtually scale anything.

yannisl
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  • This gives the same behaviour: it doesn't scale right in a subscript. – Konrad Swanepoel Sep 26 '10 at 17:52
  • You can change the scaling factor and you can also raise it or lower it if you like. However, I agree with you a readymade symbol will always look better. Thanks for the comment on usage. – yannisl Sep 26 '10 at 18:14