calsymbols

A TeX font for use with astronomical calendars

calsymbols.mf is a Metafont file for use with TeX. If defines symbols for planets, the zodiac, moon phases, etc., and was assembled with astronomical calendars in mind. Most of the symbols were taken from the hun2 font (Hershey unknown 2), sent to me by Eric A. Slutz back in 1992. The Hershey fonts were originally vector fonts for plotters, and Eric converted them to a Metafont form, hun2.mf.

How to get the symbols

  1. Download calsymbols.mf
  2. Run metafont: mf '\mode=localfont; scrollmode; input calsymbols', and you will obtain the file calsymbols.300gf
  3. Run gftopk: gftopk calsymbols.300gf calsymbols.300pk (Note that in some installations you must give the full path to the input file)
  4. Download Ucalsymbols.fd, which defines font shapes at different sizes
  5. Download calsymbols.sty, which assigns TeX names to the symbols
  6. Download calsymbolsdoc.tex and run LaTeX on it
These instructions should work on a Unix system.

What symbols are included, and what do they look like?

Well, first take a look at the postscript file testfont.ps (or the pdf file testfont.pdf).

Below you will find a list of what symbols are included in the font together with their hexadecimal numbers. My intention is that they will remain at the same positions if/when the font is extended in the future (contributions are very welcome!). All symbols are from the hun2 font unless otherwise stated.

The solar system
"00. Sun [LA];   "01. Mercury;   "02. Venus;   "03. Earth [LA];   "04. Mars;   "05. Jupiter;   "06. Saturn;   "07. Uranus;   "08. Neptune;   "09. Pluto;   "0F. Moon
The zodiac
"10. Aries;   "11. Taurus;   "12. Gemini;   "13. Cancer;   "14. Leo;   "15. Virgo;   "16. Libra;   "17. Scorpio;   "18. Sagittarius;   "19. Capricornus;   "1A. Aquarius;   "1B. Pisces
Phases of the Moon [LA]
"1C. New moon;   "1D. First quarter;   "1E. Full moon;   "1F. Last quarter
Other astronomical symbols
"20. Ascending node;   "21. Descending node;   "22. Comet;   "23. Star
Auxiliary calendar symbols
"40. Star marking holy day [msam10];   "42. Swedish flag [LA]

Lars Alexandersson <info@astroalma.se>