Asterisk period (*.) - its typography

[Stephen Tashi]

The forums editor (on my computer) displays the sequence of characters:
asterisk period
with the asterisk above the period instead of before it. Is this a standard typographical convention? - or something peculiar to the settings on my machine?

For example, to denote the Quicktime file format as $*\ .MOV$ instead of *.MOV , I'd prefer to type an asterisk and then a period and then MOV.

 

[mfb]

Can you add a screenshot? I see this both in the editor and your post:

 

[Mark44]

For example, to denote the Quicktime file format as ∗ .MOV instead of *.MOV

I don't see the asterisk as being above the period in the second example. Character spacing varies in many fonts, so that some character pairs appear closer together. I believe this is called kerning.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

I should have titled my thread "asterisk period" instead of "period asterisk" On my machine (Firefox, Fedora Linux) the "*" is shown at higher level than characters such as "+".

 

[Stephen Tashi]

I can't tell if I successfully attached an image in the previous post. The editor's interface for attaching things is confusing. The icon "image" brings up a window asking for Image URL, but I get no option to browse the filesystem. So I used the "upload" button.

 

[Mark44]

On my machine (Firefox, Fedora Linux) the "*" is shown at higher level than characters such as "+".

I'm sure that's by design, for the same reason that 'p' appears lower than 'P', and '.' appears lower than '+'. I don't think it has anything to do with your computer, browser, or operating system, but rather, the design of the font.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

I don't think it has anything to do with your computer, browser, or operating system, but rather, the design of the font.

Yes, it must be the design of the font - so, it does have something to with my browser being set to use the DejaVu Sans font.

 

[DrGreg]

You could specify a different font.

Default font: *.MOV

"Courier New" font: *.MOV
(using [font=Courier New]*.MOV[/font])

 

[berkeman]

I should have titled my thread "asterisk period" instead of "period asterisk"

Fixed. I also fixed it's --> its

 

[Vanadium 50]

There is also the LaTex _\ast "lowast" character. $_\ast$ instead of $*$.

 

[Mark44]

There is also the LaTex _\ast "lowast" character. $_\ast$ instead of $*$.

$\ast$ -- That's the lowast asterisk I've ever seen.

 

[mfb]

${}^\ast$ * $\ast~_\ast$ - choose your favorite.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

${}^\ast$ * $\ast~_\ast$ - choose your favorite.

Unfortunately, I can't do a \big \ast asterik, but \huge works: ${\huge {\ast} }$