font or tikz to draw tally counting symbols (///)

Question

In a book I have the following to illustrate the traditional counting symbols used for hand tallying. They were drawn using PPT and saved in a PNG image, but look ugly and when I try to use one in inline text, I can't get the image properly centered over the baseline.

Is there any font for this, or a way to do this with tikz?

Answer 1

Something like this?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand{\TCS}[2][]{\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline,#1]
\foreach \X [evaluate=\X as \Y using {int(mod(\X,5))}]in {1,...,#2}
{\ifnum\Y=0
\draw (\X*0.5ex+0.3ex,0) -- ++(-2.8ex,2ex);
\else
\draw (\X*0.5ex+0.3ex,0) -- ++(-0.3ex,2ex);
\fi}
\end{tikzpicture}}
\begin{document}
abc \TCS{3}\ def \TCS{7}
\end{document}

Or slanted to the right.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand{\TCS}[2][]{\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline,#1]
\foreach \X [evaluate=\X as \Y using {int(mod(\X,5))}]in {1,...,#2}
{\ifnum\Y=0
\draw (\X*0.5ex+0.3ex,0) -- ++(-2.2ex,1.8ex);
\else
\draw (\X*0.5ex+0.3ex,0) -- ++(0.3ex,1.8ex);
\fi}
\end{tikzpicture}}
\begin{document}
abc \TCS{3}\ def \TCS{7}
\end{document}

Answer 2

A different approach with bullcntr, that shows 'unusual' tally symbols: bullets!

But the number of symbols is limited to 9, so the symbols repeat.

\documentclass{article}


\usepackage{bullcntr}

\usepackage{pgffor}

\newcounter{bull}
\newcommand{\showbullcntr}[1]{%
  \setcounter{bull}{#1}%
  \bullcntr{bull}%
}
\begin{document}



\foreach \x in {1,...,200} {
  \pgfmathmod{\x}{5}
  \pgfmathint{\pgfmathresult}
  \edef\y{\pgfmathresult}
  \typeout{Current: \x and \y}
  \showbullcntr{\y}\ 
}

\end{document}

Answer 3

Using a macro and cancel package to definite a cut symbol. With mskip-4mu you can decrease or increase the space between the \slashs.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{cancel}
\newcommand{\thbacks}{\slash\mskip-4mu\slash\mskip-4mu\slash\mskip-4mu\slash}
\begin{document}
\[\slash, \quad \slash\slash, \quad \slash\slash\slash, \quad \bcancel{\thbacks}\]
\end{document}

Answer 4

Direct from the documentation of gmp:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[shellescape]{gmp}

\newcommand{\scratchcount}[1]{%
  \begin{mpost}
  n:=#1;
  height := 3/5\mpdim{\baselineskip} ;
  span := 1/3 * height ;
  drift := 1/10 * height ;
  pickup pencircle scaled (1/12 * height) ;
  def d = (uniformdeviate drift) enddef ;
  for i := 1 upto n :
    draw
      if (i mod 5)=0 : ((-d-4.5span,d)--(+d-0.5span,height-d))
      else : ((-d,+d)--(+d,height-d)) fi
      shifted (span*i,d-drift) ;
  endfor;
  picture cp ;
  cp := currentpicture ; %for readability
  setbounds currentpicture to
    (llcorner cp shifted (0,-ypart llcorner cp) --
     lrcorner cp shifted (0,-ypart lrcorner cp) --
     urcorner cp -- ulcorner cp -- cycle) ;
  \end{mpost}}
\makeatletter
\newenvironment{scratchenum}
 {\begin{enumerate} \@namedef{label\@enumctr}{\scratchcount{\arabic{\@enumctr}}}}
 {\end{enumerate}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{scratchenum}
\item Cinque \scratchcount{5}
\item Dieci \scratchcount{10}
\item Venti \scratchcount{20}
\item Trenta \scratchcount{30}
\item Trentasei \scratchcount{36}
\item Quarantatré \scratchcount{43}
\end{scratchenum}

\end{document}

The numbers are what Figaro sings at the beginning of Le nozze di Figaro, by Mozart and Da Ponte. Note that the tally marks are drawn with a certain degree of randomness.

Answer 5

The necessary files for the example below are available from http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/hhcount.sty and http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/hhutils0.sty

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{hhcount}

\begin{document}
\fcscore{42}
\end{document}

Answer 6

Adobe offers a free font supporting both Western and ideographic tally marks:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{TallyMarks-Regular.otf}% https://github.com/adobe-fonts/tally-marks
\begin{document}
%%% Western tally marks
 % U+1D377
% U+1D378
%%% Ideographic tally marks
 % U+1D372
% U+1D373
% U+1D374
% U+1D3785
% U+1D376
\end{document}