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## Text commands: all encodings

One of the main differences between LATEX2e and LATEX 2.09 is that LATEX2e can deal with fonts in arbitrary encodings. (A font encoding is the sequence of characters in the font--for example a Cyrillic font would have a different encoding from a Greek font.)

The two major font encodings that are used for Latin languages such as English or German are `OT1` (Donald Knuth's 7-bit encoding, which has been used during most of TEX's lifetime) and `T1` (the new 8-bit `Cork' encoding).

LATEX 2.09 only supported the `OT1` encoding, whereas LATEX2e has support for both `OT1` and `T1` built-in. The next section will cover the new commands which are available if you have `T1`-encoded fonts. This section describes new commands which are available in all encodings.

Most of these commands provide characters which were available in LATEX 2.09 already. For example `\textemdash` gives an `em dash', which was available in LATEX 2.09 by typing `---`. However, some fonts (for example a Greek font) may not have the `---` ligature, but you will still be able to access an em dash by typing `\textemdash`.

`\r{<text>}`

This command gives a `ring' accent, for example `o' can be typed `\r{o}`.

`\SS`

This command produces a German `SS', that is a capital `ß'. This letter can hyphenate differently from `SS', so is needed for entering all-caps German.

`\textcircled{<text>}`

This command is used to build `circled characters' such as `\copyright`. For example `\textcircled{a}` produces .

`\textcompwordmark`

This command is used to separate letters which would normally ligature. For example `fi' is produced with `f\textcompwordmark i`. Note that the `f' and `i' have not ligatured to produce `fi'. This is rarely useful in English (`shelfful' is a rare example of where it might be used) but is used in languages such as German.

`\textvisiblespace`

This command produces a `visible space' character ` '. This is sometimes used in computer listings, for example `type hello world'.

`\textemdash` `\textendash` `\textexclamdown` `\textquestiondown`
`\textquotedblleft` `\textquotedblright` `\textquoteleft` `\textquoteright`

These commands produce characters which would otherwise be accessed via ligatures:

ligature | character | command
`---` | -- | `\textemdash`
`--` | - | `\textendash`
`!`` | ¡ | `\textexclamdown`
`?`` | ¿ | `\textquestiondown`
```` | `` | `\textquotedblleft`
`''` | '' | `\textquotedblright`
``` | ` | `\textquoteleft`
`'` | ' | `\textquoteright`

The reason for making these characters directly accessible is so that they will work in encodings which do not have these characters.

`\textbullet` `\textperiodcentered`

These commands allow access to characters which were previously only available in math mode:

math command | character | text command
`\bullet` |  | `\textbullet`
`\cdot` |  | `\textperiodcentered`

`\textbackslash` `\textbar` `\textless` `\textgreater`

These commands allow access to ASCII characters which were only available in verbatim or math mode:

math command | character | text command
`\backslash` |  | `\textbackslash`
`\mid` |  | `\textbar`
`<` | < | `\textless`
`>` | > | `\textgreater`

`\textasciicircum` `\textasciitilde`

These commands allow access to ASCII characters which were previously only available in verbatim:

verbatim | text command
`^` | `\textasciicircum`
`~` | `\textasciitilde`

`\textregistered` `\texttrademark`

These commands provide the `registered trademark' (R) and `trademark' (TM) symbols.

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