Superscripts and Subscripts is a Unicode block containing superscript and subscript numerals, mathematical operators, and letters used in mathematics and phonetics. The use of subscripts and superscripts in Unicode allows any polynomial, chemical and certain other equations to be represented in plain text without using any form of markup like HTML or TeX. Other superscript letters can be found in the Spacing Modifier Letters, Phonetic Extensions and Phonetic Extensions Supplement blocks, while the superscript 1, 2, and 3, inherited from ISO 8859-1, were included in the Latin-1 Supplement block.

Block

Superscripts and Subscripts[1][2][3] (PDF)
0123456789ABCDEF
U+207x
U+208x
U+209x
Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 17.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points 3.^ Refer to the Latin-1 Supplement Unicode block for characters ¹ (U+00B9), ² (U+00B2) and ³ (U+00B3)

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Superscripts and Subscripts block:

VersionFinal code pointsCountL2 IDWG2 IDDocument
1.0.0U+2070, 2074..208E28(to be determined)
Moore, Lisa (2009-02-12), "General Category Change (B.14.5)", UTC #118 / L2 #215 Minutes
3.2U+20711da Cruz, Frank (2000-03-31), Supplemental Terminal Graphics for Unicode
Moore, Lisa (2000-08-08), "Motion 83-M24", Minutes Of UTC Meeting #83
Whistler, Ken (2000-09-19), Proposal for Terminal Graphic Symbols in the BMP
Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2001-01-21), "Resolution M39.20 (Terminal Graphic Symbols)", Minutes of the SC2/WG2 meeting in Athens, September 2000
Moore, Lisa (2009-02-12), "General Category Change (B.14.5)", UTC #118 / L2 #215 Minutes
4.1U+2090..20945Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (2004-02-02), Proposal to encode five Indo-Europeanist phonetic characters in the UCS
Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (2004-06-07), Proposal to encode six Indo-Europeanist phonetic characters in the UCS
Moore, Lisa (2004-08-13), "Indo-European laryngeals (A.16)", UTC #99 Minutes
6.0U+2095..209C8Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (2009-01-27), Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
Iancu, Laurențiu (2009-05-04), Proposal to reallocate eight phonetic subscripts
Moore, Lisa (2009-05-20), "Consensus 119-C28", UTC #119 / L2 #216 Minutes
Anderson, Deborah (2009-08-15), "T.4", US Position on PDAM 8
Moore, Lisa (2009-08-17), "B.1.4.4.2", UTC #120 / L2 #217 Minutes

See also