indexed letters inside circles

Question

I'm currently using this code

\raisebox{.5pt}{\textcircled{\raisebox{-.9pt} {f}}}

to get

enter image description here

I'm trying to index the function f inside the box, with say $f_{n}$ but \textcircled doesn't seem to like this. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/7032/good-way-to-make-textcircled-numbers — John Wickerson, Jul 13 '13 at 21:11

score 42 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 13 '13 at 21:02

42

I'm not sure what you mean by "\textcircled doesn't seem to like this", because

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document} 
\raisebox{.5pt}{\textcircled{\raisebox{-.9pt} {$f_n$}}} 
\end{document}

compiles fine for me. That said, it does look a bit rubbish:

enter image description here

You might consider a little TikZ picture for this situation. You could put the $f_n$ inside a circular TikZ node. The node would adjust its size correctly, depending on its contents, and align correctly on the baseline of the surrounding text.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcommand\encircle[1]{%
  \tikz[baseline=(X.base)] 
    \node (X) [draw, shape=circle, inner sep=0] {\strut #1};}

\begin{document}
Lorem \encircle{$f_n$} ipsum \encircle{q} dolor \encircle{a} 
sit \encircle{A} amet \encircle{Hello}.
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Jul 13 '13 at 21:02

John Wickerson

14,559

1

If you prefer to externally control the size of the node, use : \newcommand{\circled}[2][6pt]{\raisebox{-#1}{\tikz{\node (F) at (0,0) {#2};\draw[thick](F)\circle(#1);}}} – Jhor Jul 13 '13 at 21:19
how do you do the same with dashed lines? – L F Sep 24 '15 at 21:23
1

@LuisFelipeVillavicencioLopez Replace draw, shape=circle with draw, dashed, shape=circle. – John Wickerson Oct 01 '15 at 10:13
@MCMastery Could you provide an example? – John Wickerson May 06 '16 at 09:04
@MCMastery What package or tikz library defines \circled? I get an 'undefined control sequence' error. – John Wickerson May 07 '16 at 15:22
@JohnWickerson Wow. I just made a mistake... nevermind – MCMastery May 07 '16 at 19:22
1

@JohnWickerson I attempted to use it inside a caption and it did not work. It worked well outside the caption, though. Do you know where the problem can be? – Stefano Nov 08 '18 at 15:05
For captions, adding \protect worked for me. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/56079/using-tikz-inside-a-figure-caption – xiawi Feb 02 '19 at 12:44

indexed letters inside circles

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