!symbol

A glyph in a run of canvas text, sitting on the line like a letter.

!symbolMicronodeExplained in Colours
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All thirty-four symbols, each above its name, in six rows: the marks (tick, cross, dash, question, star, warning, info); the arrows, rise and fall; people and places; everyday things; science and nature; and the four card suits.All thirty-four symbols, each above its name, in six rows: the marks (tick, cross, dash, question, star, warning, info); the arrows, rise and fall; people and places; everyday things; science and nature; and the four card suits.

#Attributes

nameRequiredImplicit
Which glyph is drawn: one of the thirty-four names listed below.
tickcrossdashquestionstarwarninginfoarrow-rightarrow-leftarrow-uparrow-downrisefallpersonpeoplehousebusinessschoolbookclockmoneycartreeleafdropsunboltflaskglobelightbulbspadeheartdiamondclub
Can be written as shorthand: !symbol:value
colour
The glyph's colour. neutral takes the colour of a mark's label, and the body-text colour elsewhere.
paint
Also written: color
Defaultneutral

#Examples

table{
    Suit | Cards in a deck
    !symbol:heart(colour: red) | 13
    !symbol:spade() | 13
}
point(x: 3; y: 4; label: !symbol:tick(colour: green) correct)
text(label: !symbol:house(colour: teal); x: 2; y: 1)

#Notes

  • It goes wherever canvas text does, such as a table cell, a list item or a mark's label, and fills one em square.
  • The brackets are required: !symbol:tick with no bracket after it is prose and prints as typed.
  • The thirty-four names: the marks a piece of work is marked with (tick, cross, dash, question, star, warning, info); direction and change (arrow-right, arrow-left, arrow-up, arrow-down, rise, fall); people and places (person, people, house, business, school); everyday things (book, clock, money, car); science and nature (tree, leaf, drop, sun, bolt, flask, globe, lightbulb); and the card suits (spade, heart, diamond, club). Any other name is refused with the list.
  • Canvas-only: anywhere in a scene's narrative it is a compile error (narrative/canvas-only-micronode): '!symbol' is not allowed in the narrative; colour, highlighting and symbols belong in the canvas.
  • A colour micronode around the glyph does not colour it: with colour at neutral it still takes the colour of the mark's label it sits in, or the body-text colour in a table cell or canvas paragraph.
  • Each glyph carries its name as an accessible label, so a screen reader reads a cell holding only a symbol.

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