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I am looking to have a xmark that complements the \checkmark symbol in the amsmath package. I've had a look at some in symbols-a4.pdf but can't seem to find the matching one! What symbol works well?

egreg
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Tom Deakin
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4 Answers4

356

I would think your best bet might come from pifont's dingbats:

\checkmark and (\cmark + \xmark)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb}% http://ctan.org/pkg/amssymb
\usepackage{pifont}% http://ctan.org/pkg/pifont
\newcommand{\cmark}{\ding{51}}%
\newcommand{\xmark}{\ding{55}}%
\begin{document}
\verb|\checkmark|: \checkmark \par
\verb|\cmark|: \cmark \par
\verb|\xmark|: \xmark
\end{document}

\cmark is defined as \ding{51}, while \xmark is defined as \ding{55}. Here is a list of the dingbat symbols, taken from the pifont quick reference guide:

pifont quick reference guide

Werner
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    Great, thanks.The \ding{55} looks good. Making the \xmark command is useful too! – Tom Deakin Jan 28 '12 at 22:09
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    +1 but for those of you (just) looking to use \checkmark, i'd suggest using the amsfonts package instead of the amssymb package. the amssymb package expands upon the more commonly used symbols defined in amsfonts, and includes some rare ones. you might experience a noticeable increase in compile time if you use amssymb and don't need it. – aeroNotAuto Apr 05 '12 at 17:52
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    Just tried this and \ding{51} and \ding{55} get evaluated to the numbers 3 and 7, respectively... anyone else have this issue? – A.Wan Jan 29 '15 at 06:58
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    Answer to A. Wan's question: you need to escape math mode for these characters to show correctly – ash May 16 '15 at 13:46
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    A way to use it in math mode (or textmode) would be \newcommand{\xmark}{\text{\ding{55}}} for example. –  Jun 25 '15 at 16:24
  • @A.Wan I had the same problem as you, because I was using then inside dollar signs. I removed the signs and now it's good, maybe yours would be fine this way, too. – Amir Naseri Apr 08 '22 at 15:58
  • Using \cmarkafter setting it with the \newcommand doesn't add a space after in between text. My solution was to add \ding{51} directly. – Nuno Lopes Nov 08 '23 at 16:40
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    @NunoLopes: See Space after LaTeX commands – Werner Nov 08 '23 at 16:48
16

I thought drawing an xmark in tikz might be an elegant option. Here is my best attempt, together with a drawing of a checkmark.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb}

\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand{\tikzxmark}{%
\tikz[scale=0.23] {
    \draw[line width=0.7,line cap=round] (0,0) to [bend left=6] (1,1);
    \draw[line width=0.7,line cap=round] (0.2,0.95) to [bend right=3] (0.8,0.05);
}}
\newcommand{\tikzcmark}{%
\tikz[scale=0.23] {
    \draw[line width=0.7,line cap=round] (0.25,0) to [bend left=10] (1,1);
    \draw[line width=0.8,line cap=round] (0,0.35) to [bend right=1] (0.23,0);
}}


\begin{document}
[
    \checkmark
    \tikzxmark
    \tikzcmark
]
\end{document}
Dominik Peters
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10

If using XeLaTex is an option, then you could use one of Unicode's X mark (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_mark for a complete list). All characters may not be available in your favorite font, but, as noted in this answer, DejaVu Sans has a pretty good support.

On my installation, when I compile the following with XeLaTeX, 

% !TeX TXS-program:compile = txs:///xelatex/
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xltxtra,xunicode}
\setmainfont{DejaVu Sans}
\begin{document}
    \begin{tabular}{c c c}
        Symbol & Unicode Codepoint (Hex) & Name\\
        ☐ & U+2610 & BALLOT BOX (checkbox)\\
        ☒ & U+2612 & BALLOT BOX WITH X (square with cross)\\
        ✗ & U+2717 & BALLOT X (cross)\\
        ✘ & U+2718 & HEAVY BALLOT X (bold cross)\\
        × & U+00D7 & MULTIPLICATION SIGN (z notation Cartesian product)\\
        ╳ & U+2573 & BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DIAGONAL CROSS\\
        ☓ & U+2613 & SALTIRE (St Andrew's Cross)\\
        ✕ & U+2715 & MULTIPLICATION X\\
        ✖ & U+2716 & HEAVY MULTIPLICATION X\\
        ❌ & U+274C & CROSS MARK\\
        ❎ & U+274E & NEGATIVE SQUARED CROSS MARK\\
        ⨉ & U+2A09 & N-ARY TIMES OPERATOR\\
        ⨯ & U+2A2F & VECTOR OR CROSS PRODUCT\\
         & U+1F5D9 & CANCELLATION X\\
         & U+1F5F4 & BALLOT SCRIPT X\\
         & U+1F7A9 & LIGHT SALTIRE
    \end{tabular}
\end{document}

I obtain:

enter image description here

Note that it is possible to set the font to DejaVu Sans only for those symbols: again, follow the explanations at https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/291955/34551.

Clément
  • 5,591
0

Following @Werner's answer, try

\usepackage{pifont}
\newcommand{\cxmark}{\ding{51}\hspace{-1.75mm}\ding{55}}
PSTN
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