# Acute/grave accents: upper case versus low case

The acute and grave accents on capital letters are more squat and flatter than on lower case letters. Compare \'A with \'a. What is the code for the squatter acute/grave on capitals if I want it insolation?

Rationale: I need capital letters with macron and acute/grave. If I put \'{} on top of \=A, then the letter is too tall for the interline spacing, partly because \'{} produces the 45-degree accent of \'a (and partly because the default height of the macron is too high).

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\begin{document}
If the difference between the accents of \'A, \'a isn't apparent, try superimposing
them: \makebox[0pt]{\'A}\makebox[0pt]{\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}}\,\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}.
See how the character on the left has a wedge (as opposed to the acute on the
right-hand \'a)?  The two accents don't exactly overlay, because the acute on
\'A is flatter.
\end{document}


• The code depends on the font encoding you are using. In T1 encoding \'{A} is a glyph (\char193), \'{a} is \char225. The accent alone is \char1. – Ulrike Fischer Jun 5 '12 at 7:33
• @doncherry I've added code and pictures – Daniel Harbour Jun 5 '12 at 8:33
• @UlrikeFischer \char1 yields only the accent used on lower case letters (e.g., \'a, \'n). I checked Mittelbach's charts for various encodings (including T1, which I'm using). I can't see a char number for the squat acute/grave used on capitals. – Daniel Harbour Jun 5 '12 at 8:36
• @Daniel Harbour of course you don't see an accent character: t1 encoding only covers certain characters, and doesn't provide composites for characters already in its repertoir. \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} (in latex) will read the sequence \' A, and produce the t1-encoding character for A-acute-accent – wasteofspace Jun 5 '12 at 8:45
• Well there isn't. In T1 encodings there are properly designed, real glyphs with accents (Á á) and there is one "lonely" accent which can be used for chars for which accented glyphs doesn't exist. There isn't enough place in T1 to store all sort of versions of this accent in various angles. If you don't like this "lonely" accent you will have to design one. You can't extract the accent from the Á: It is attached to the glyph like the left leg of the A. – Ulrike Fischer Jun 5 '12 at 8:48

You find the isolated acute accent used for capital letters in the encoding TS1, where it's called \capitalacute:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\begin{document}
\capitalacute{A}\'{A}\\
\capitalacute{}\'{}\\
{\fontencoding{TS1}\selectfont\char 1}\char1
\end{document}


You maybe able to do minor adjustments using the slant dimension.

Here is some code I had for a similar issue:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\font \romanfont=cmr10
\font\specroman=cmr10
%% Next, the special registers
\newdimen\savedvalue
\savedvalue=\fontdimen5\romanfont
\newdimen\specialvalue
\specialvalue=4.75pt
%% Finally, definitions.

\def\specrm{%
\aftergroup\restoredimen
\fontdimen5\specroman=\specialvalue
\specroman  }
\def\restoredimen{%
\fontdimen5\romanfont=\savedvalue }

\scalebox{10}{\romanfont \'A}  {\scalebox{10}{\specrm \' A}}

\medskip
{\noindent\obeylines\specrm
the value of fontdimen1 (slant)  is \the\fontdimen1\font
the value of fontdimen2 (interword space) is \the\fontdimen2\font
the value of fontdimen3 (interword stretch) is \the\fontdimen3\font
the value of fontdimen4 (interword shrink) is \the\fontdimen4\font
the value of fontdimen5 (x-height) is \the\fontdimen5\font
the value of fontdimen6 (quad width) is \the\fontdimen6\font
the value of fontdimen7 (extra space)  is \the\fontdimen7\font
}
\medskip

\font \romanfont=cmr10
\font\specroman=cmr10
%% Next, the special registers
\newdimen\savedvalue
\savedvalue=\fontdimen1\romanfont
\newdimen\specialvalue
\specialvalue=0.15pt
%% Finally, definitions.

\def\specrm{%
\aftergroup\restoredimen
\fontdimen1\specroman=\specialvalue
\specroman  }
\def\restoredimen{%
\fontdimen1\romanfont=\savedvalue }

\scalebox{10}{\romanfont \'A}  {\scalebox{10}{\specrm \' A}}

\medskip
{\noindent\obeylines\specrm
the value of fontdimen1 (slant)  is \the\fontdimen1\font
the value of fontdimen2 (interword space) is \the\fontdimen2\font
the value of fontdimen3 (interword stretch) is \the\fontdimen3\font
the value of fontdimen4 (interword shrink) is \the\fontdimen4\font
the value of fontdimen5 (x-height) is \the\fontdimen5\font
the value of fontdimen6 (quad width) is \the\fontdimen6\font
the value of fontdimen7 (extra space)  is \the\fontdimen7\font
}
\end{document}


There is also a package you can have a look at https://github.com/zellyn/accentbx

• What a great package. Thanks for the pointer and for the code. Gives me a much neater way of lowering my macrons (in computer modern, they're too high for my taste). – Daniel Harbour Jun 5 '12 at 12:46

Your MWE does not show the issue that you show in the image. I have adjusted it so that it does:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\begin{document}
If the difference between the accents of \'A, \'a isn't apparent, try superimposing
them: \makebox[0pt]{\'A}\makebox[0pt]{\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}}\,\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}.
See how the character on the left has a wedge (as opposed to the acute on the
right-hand \'a)?  The two accents don't exactly overlay, because the acute on
\'A is flatter.

\makebox[0pt]{\'A}\makebox[0pt]{\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}}\,\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}

\fontencoding{T1}\selectfont

\makebox[0pt]{\'A}\makebox[0pt]{\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}}\,\raisebox{.6ex}{\'a}
\end{document}


As you will see in the image from the modified MWE, using the default OT1 encoding the accented characters are made by placing an accent character over the base, so the accents look the same. In the final line the T1 encoding is used this uses twice as many glyphs per font, including designed accented characters a slightly flatter accent design is used for capital letters in the EC font design.

• Thanks, but using the more upright accent for capitals gets me into trouble with interline spacing. Check out egreg's answer below. – Daniel Harbour Jun 5 '12 at 9:11
• Yes, but my point was that there is not a different accent in the encoding used by your MWE. Your example tex source and example image were not generated by the same code (or you have a non standard LaTeX installation that has changed the default encoding) – David Carlisle Jun 5 '12 at 9:17
• Ah, missed your point. Thanks for clarifying the question. – Daniel Harbour Jun 5 '12 at 12:40