Cfrgtkky

Is there a text-mode vertical ellipsis that I can use directly in LaTeX, e.g., named textvdots, texvellipsis or similar?

I don't mean the unicode engines, but LaTeX, since in {Xe/Lua}LaTeX we could probably type in the vertical ellipsis ⋮ directly. Moreover, I don't wish to switch to math mode, such as in (vdots): it produces some undesirable vertical space above the symbol. I've already tried Detexify and symbols-a4.pdf.

The default vdots is defined as

DeclareRobustCommand{vdots}{%

  vbox{%

    baselineskip 4p@

    lineskiplimit z@

    kern 6p@

    hbox{.}hbox{.}hbox{.}%

  }%

}

with no indication of using math mode. So you can just use vdots within the text, or define textvdots for using in text as needed:

documentclass{article}



lettextvdotsvdots



begin{document}



This is verb|textvdots| textvdots{} or verb|vdots| vdots{} in text mode.



end{document}

If the command did not have the above construction that allowed for using within text/math mode, then you can use (for example, when considering alpha that only works in math mode):

newcommand{textalpha}{$alpha$}

or something more intricate

newcommand{textalpha}{ifmmode alphaelse $alpha$fi}

the works in both text and math mode.

For reducing the vertical stretch, redefine textvdots to be similar to vdots only with a smaller baselineskip:

documentclass{article}



makeatletter

DeclareRobustCommand{textalpha}{%

  vbox{%

    baselineskip 3p@

    lineskiplimit z@

    kern 6p@

    hbox{.}hbox{.}hbox{.}%

  }%

}

makeatother



begin{document}



This is verb|$textalpha$| textalpha{} and vdots{} in text mode, for comparison.



end{document}