special character; centerline symbol

[Kenneth C. Benson]

Martin Simon wrote:

> Does there exist in FM, or Word, if necessary, a keyboard shortcut for
> the drafting symbol for centerline. That being the letter C with the
> letter L written over it, with the L aligned slightly lower.


The centre line symbol (this is how Windows Character Map spells it) is 
available in at least Arial Unicode and Lucida Sans Unicode at position 
U+2104. That's beyond Framemaker's reach (until FM8, we hope), but you 
would be able to make yourself a graphic in Illustrator or some other 
Unicode-aware drawing application by copying the character from 
Character Map and saving it as a drawing.

Word is also Unicode-aware, so you can easily get this character in 
Word, if you have a font like Arial Unicode. Just Insert Symbol, change 
the font to Arial Unicode, and type in character code 2104.

There are also, presumably, fonts made for CAD programs that put this 
character in the ANSI range, which would make it available to Frame. A 
quick Google got me to http://www.quietdesigns.com/index.html, which 
sells a font that puts the character in both its proper Unicode position 
and at ALT 0167 (replacing the § section sign that's normally there). 
They have a free version of the font too. I didn't download it to see if 
centerline is there or not.

Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com