Plain TeX
This is a help file for Plain TeX. It was derived from Anthony Starks
Plain TeX Reference.
This page was edited-in-place on 18 January 2023 to add a CSS
stylesheet and correct some missing glyphs. In the end I regenerated
the glyphs at a slightly larger size. Some of the markup was improved
along the way.
Table of Contents
Computer Modern Font Family
The standard Computer Modern family includes the following fonts:
cmr
- Roman (5--10pt)
cmmi
- Math Italic (5--10pt)
cmsy
- Math Symbols (5--10pt)
cmex
- Math Extension (10pt)
cmss
- Sans serif (10pt)
cmssqi
- Sans serif quote italic (8pt)
cmssi
- Sans serif Italic (10pt)
cmbx
- Bold Extended (10pt)
cmtt
- Typewriter (8--10pt)
cmsltt
- Slanted typewriter (10pt)
cmsl
- Slanted roman (8--10pt)
cmti
- Text italic (7--10pt)
cmu
- Unslanted text italic (10pt)
cmmib
- Bold math italic (10pt)
cmbsy
- Bold math symbols (10pt)
cmcsc
- Caps and Small caps (10pt)
cmssbx
- Sans serif bold extended (10pt)
cmdunh
- Dunhill style (10pt)
Standard Font Definitions
Plain TeX defines the following control sequences for font selection:
\rm
- Roman
\sl
- Slanted
\it
- Italic
\bf
- Bold
\tt
- Typewriter
$\oldstyle ...$
- Old Style numerals
$\cal ...$
- Caligraphic capitals
Magnifications
Plain TeX defines the following magnifications:
\magstep0
: 1000 (normal size)
\magstephalf
: 1095 (1.095 times normal size)
\magstep1
: 1200 (1.2 times normal size)
\magstep2
: 1440 (1.44 times normal size, etc.)
\magstep3
: 1440
\magstep4
: 1728
\magstep5
: 2074
\magstep6
: 2488
Dimensions
pt
: Point
pc
: pica (12 pt)
in
: inch (72.27 pt)
bp
: Big point (72 bp = 1 in)
cm
: Centimeter
mm
: Millimeter
dd
: Didot point
cc
: cicero (12 dd)
sp
: Scaled point (65,536 sp = 1 pt)
ex
: Nomimal x-height
em
: Nominal m-width
Accents
\'o |
Grave |
|
\`o |
Acute |
|
\^o |
Circumflex |
|
\"o |
Umlaut |
|
\~o |
Tilde |
|
\=o |
Macron (“bar”) |
|
\.o |
Dot |
|
\v o |
Hacek (“check”) |
|
\u o |
Breve |
|
\H o |
Long Hungarian umlaut |
|
\t oo |
Tie-after accent |
|
\c o |
Cedilla |
|
\d o |
Dot-under |
|
\b o |
Bar-under |
|
Special Letters
\oe , \OE |
French ligature OE |
, |
\ae , \AE |
Latin/Scandanavian AE |
, |
\aa , \AA |
Scandanavian A-with-circle |
, |
\o , \O |
Scandanavian slashed O |
, |
\l , \L |
Polish suppressed-L |
, |
\ss |
German sharp S |
|
\dag |
Dagger |
|
\ddag |
Double-dagger |
|
\S |
Section mark |
|
\P |
Paragraph mark |
|
\copyright |
Copyright symbol |
|
Paging and Insertions
\headline={stuff}
-
Define header
\footline={stuff}
-
Define footer
\raggedbottom
-
Variable bottom margin
\folio
-
Current page number
\nopagenumbers
-
Blank footer
\footnote{mark}{text}
-
Define footnote
\topinsert{stuff}\endinsert
-
Floating insertion
\midinsert{stuff}\endinsert
-
Insert mid-page
\pageinsert{stuff}\endinsert
-
Full page insertion
Category Codes
- 0 Escape character (\)
- 1 Beginning of group ({)
- 2 End of group (})
- 3 Math shift ($)
- 4 Alignment tab (&)
- 5 End of line (^M)
- 6 Parameter (#)
- 7 Superscript (^)
- 8 Subscript (_)
- 9 Ignored character (NUL)
- 10 Space ( )
- 11 Letter (A..Z and a..z)
- 12 Other
- 13 Active character (~)
- 14 Comment character (%)
- 15 Invalid character (DEL)
Ligatures
ff | |
fi | |
fl | |
ffi | |
ffl | |
-- | |
--- | |
`` | |
'' | |
?` | |
!` | |
Math Characters
\aleph | |
\alpha | |
\amalg | |
\angle | |
\approx | |
\ast | |
\asymp | |
\beta | |
\bigcap | |
\bigcirc | |
\bigcup | |
\bigodot | |
\bigoplus | |
\bigotimes | |
\bigsqcup | |
\bigtriangledown | |
\bigtriangleup | |
\biguplus | |
\bigvee | |
\bigwedge | |
\bot | |
\bowtie | |
\bullet | |
\cap | |
\cdot | |
\cdotp | |
\cdots | |
\chi | |
\circ | |
\clubsuit | |
\colon | |
\coprod | |
\cup | |
\dagger | |
\dashv | |
\ddagger | |
\ddots | |
\delta | |
\Delta | |
\diamond | |
\diamondsuit | |
\div | |
\ell | |
\emptyset | |
\epsilon | |
\equiv | |
\eta | |
\exists | |
\flat | |
\forall | |
\frown | |
\gamma | |
\Gamma | |
\geq | |
\gg | |
\hbar | |
\heartsuit | |
\iff | |
\Im | |
\imath | |
\in | |
\infty | |
\intop | |
\iota | |
\jmath | |
\joinrel | |
\kappa | |
\lambda | |
\Lambda | |
\ldotp | |
\ldots | |
\leftarrow | |
\Leftarrow | |
\leftharpoondown | |
\leftharpoonup | |
\leftrightarrow | |
\Leftrightarrow | |
\leq | |
\lhook | |
\ll | |
\longleftarrow | |
\Longleftarrow | |
\longleftrightarrow | |
\Longleftrightarrow | |
\longmapsto | |
\longrightarrow | |
\Longrightarrow | |
\mapstochar | |
\mid | |
\models | |
\mp | |
\mu | |
\nabla | |
\natural | |
\nearrow | |
\neg | |
\neq | |
\ni | |
\not | |
\nu | |
\nwarrow | |
\odot | |
\ointop | |
\omega | |
\Omega | |
\ominus | |
\oplus | |
\oslash | |
\otimes | |
\parallel | |
\partial | |
\perp | |
\phi | |
\Phi | |
\pi | |
\Pi | |
\pm | |
\prec | |
\preceq | |
\prime | |
\prod | |
\propto | |
\psi | |
\Psi | |
\Re | |
\relbar | |
\Relbar | |
\rho | |
\rhook | |
\rightarrow | |
\Rightarrow | |
\rightharpoondown | |
\rightharpoonup | |
\searrow | |
\setminus | |
\sharp | |
\sigma | |
\Sigma | |
\sim | |
\simeq | |
\smallint | |
\smile | |
\spadesuit | |
\sqcap | |
\sqcup | |
\sqsubseteq | |
\sqsupseteq | |
\star | |
\subset | |
\subseteq | |
\succ | |
\succeq | |
\sum | |
\supset | |
\supseteq | |
\surd | |
\swarrow | |
\tau | |
\theta | |
\Theta | |
\times | |
\top | |
\triangleleft | |
\triangleright | |
\uplus | |
\Upsilon | |
\upsilon | |
\varepsilon | |
\varphi | |
\varpi | |
\varrho | |
\varsigma | |
\vartheta | |
\vdash | |
\vdots | |
\vee | |
\wedge | |
\wp | |
\wr | |
\Xi | |
\xi | |
\zeta | |
Parameters
\maxdimen | 16383.99999pt |
\pretolerance | 100 |
\tolerance | 200 |
\hbadness | 1000 |
\vbadness | 1000 |
\linepenalty | 10 |
\hyphenpenalty | 50 |
\exhyphenpenalty | 50 |
\binoppenalty | 700 |
\relpenalty | 500 |
\clubpenalty | 150 |
\widowpenalty | 150 |
\displaywidowpenalty | 50 |
\brokenpenalty | 100 |
\predisplaypenalty | 10000 |
\doublehyphendemerits | 10000 |
\finalhyphendemerits | 5000 |
\adjdemerits | 10000 |
\looseness | 0 |
\pausing | 0 |
\holdinginserts | 0 |
\tracingonline | 0 |
\tracingmacros | 0 |
\tracingstats | 0 |
\tracingparagraphs | 0 |
\tracingpages | 0 |
\tracingoutput | 0 |
\tracinglostchars | 1 |
\tracingcommands | 0 |
\tracingrestores | 0 |
\language | 0 |
\uchyph | 1 |
\lefthyphenmin | 2 |
\righthyphenmin | 3 |
\globaldefs | 0 |
\maxdeadcycles | 25 |
\hangafter | 1 |
\fam | 0 |
\mag | 1000 |
\escapechar | \ |
\defaulthyphenchar | - |
\defaultskewchar | -1 |
\endlinechar | ^^M |
\newlinechar | -1 |
\delimiterfactor | 901 |
\time | minute of the day |
\day | day of the month |
\month | month of the year |
\year | year |
\showboxbreadth | 5 |
\showboxdepth | 3 |
\errorcontextlines | 5 |
\hfuzz | 0.1pt |
\vfuzz | 0.1pt |
\overfullrule | 5pt |
\hsize | 6.5in |
\vsize | 8.9in |
\maxdepth | 4pt |
\lineskiplimit | 0pt |
\delimitershortfall | 5pt |
\nulldelimiterspace | 1.2pt |
\scriptspace | 0.5pt |
\mathsurround | 0pt |
\predisplaysize | 0pt |
\displaywidth | 0pt |
\displayindent | 0pt |
\parindent | 20pt |
\hangindent | 0pt |
\hoffset | 0pt |
\voffset | 0pt |
\baselineskip | 0pt |
\lineskip | 0pt |
\parskip | 0pt plus 1pt |
\abovedisplayskip | 12pt plus 3pt minus 9pt |
\abovedisplayshortskip | 0pt plus 3pt |
\belowdisplayskip | 12pt plus 3pt minus 9pt |
\belowdisplayshortskip | 7pt plus 3pt minus 4pt |
\leftskip | 0pt |
\rightskip | 0pt |
\topskip | 10pt |
\splittopskip | 10pt |
\tabskip | 0pt |
\spaceskip | 0pt |
\xspaceskip | 0pt |
\parfillskip | 0pt plus 1fil |
\thinmuskip | 3mu |
\medmuskip | 4mu plus 2mu minus 4mu |
\thickmuskip | 5mu plus 5mu |
\hideskip | -1000pt plus 1fill |
\centering | 0pt plus 1000pt minus 1000pt |
\smallskipamount | 3pt plus 1pt minus 1pt |
\medskipamount | 6pt plus 2pt minus 2pt |
\bigskipamount | 12pt plus 4pt minus 4pt |
\normalbaselineskip | 12pt |
\normallineskip | 1pt |
\normallineskiplimit | 0pt |
\jot | 3pt |
\interdisplaylinepenalty | 100 |
\interfootnotelinepenalty | 100 |