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How can I typeset the following symbol for direct current (i.e. a = symbol where the lower line is dashed)?

Direct current symbol

The image above is an enlarged version, the size I need is like =, \approx, \simeq etc.

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3 Answers 3

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19

If \Beam from marvosym is not satisfying, then you may try this solution.

\documentclass{article} \newcommand{\textdirectcurrent}{% \settowidth{\dimen0}{$=$}% \vbox to .85ex {\offinterlineskip \hbox to \dimen0{\leaders\hrule\hfill} \vskip.35ex \hbox to \dimen0{% \leaders\hrule\hskip.2\dimen0\hfill \leaders\hrule\hskip.2\dimen0\hfill \leaders\hrule\hskip.2\dimen0 } \vfill }% } \newcommand{\mathdirectcurrent}{\mathrel{\textdirectcurrent}} \begin{document} a =\textdirectcurrent{} b $a \mathdirectcurrent b$ $a = b$ \end{document}

enter image description here

A maybe better implementation, that can work also in subscripts and superscripts, is

\newcommand{\mathdirectcurrent}{\mathrel{\mathpalette\mathdirectcurrentinner\relax}} \newcommand{\mathdirectcurrentinner}[2]{% \settowidth{\dimen0}{$#1=$}% \vbox to .85ex {\offinterlineskip \hbox to \dimen0{\hss\leaders\hrule\hskip.85\dimen0\hss} \vskip.35ex \hbox to \dimen0{\hss \leaders\hrule\hskip.17\dimen0 \hskip.17\dimen0 \leaders\hrule\hskip.17\dimen0 \hskip.17\dimen0 \leaders\hrule\hskip.17\dimen0 \hss} \vfill }% } \newcommand{\textdirectcurrent}{\mathdirectcurrentinner{\textstyle}{}}

However, the spacing parameters may need to be adapted to the main font used.

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  • Absolutely awesome! :) Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 10:52
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Looking at The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbols list, I've found \Beam symbol from marvosym.

enter image description here

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  • 2
    That looks okay in the small preview, but if you look at it more closely, the top bar is thicker than the lower and it protrudes slightly to the right. Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 9:36
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Possibly you are looking for unicode U+2393 DIRECT CURRENT SYMBOL FORM TWO see

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2300.pdf

so the character will be in Unicode fonts such as stix at that position. How to access Unicode characters depends rather on whether you are using a Unicode flavoured TeX variant or not (and others here could no doubt give more up to date advice on that).

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  • We have a few questions relating to unicode characters, Ulrike's answer at tex.stackexchange.com/q/37445/86 looked quite helpful at first glance. (NB This comment prompted by your parenthetical remark and so is for the benefit of others reading your answer!) Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 13:17
  • Can I get this sign with \usepackage{stix}? If yes, how? Commented 2 days ago
  • albatrosss will tell you all the fonts that have U+2393 @cis Commented 2 days ago

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