Unicode subscripts and superscripts

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The difference between superscript/subscript and numerator/denominator glyphs. In many popular fonts the Unicode "superscript" and "subscript" characters are actually numerator and denominator glyphs.

Unicode has subscripted and superscripted versions of a number of characters including a full set of Arabic numerals.[1] These characters allow any polynomial, chemical and certain other equations to be represented in plain text without using any form of markup like HTML or TeX.

The World Wide Web Consortium and the Unicode Consortium have made recommendations on the choice between using markup and using superscript and subscript characters:

When used in mathematical context (MathML) it is recommended to consistently use style markup for superscripts and subscripts […] However, when super and sub-scripts are to reflect semantic distinctions, it is easier to work with these meanings encoded in text rather than markup, for example, in phonetic or phonemic transcription.[2]

  1. ^ "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  2. ^ Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag (16 May 2007). "Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages". W3C. Retrieved 13 September 2010.