Superscript

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This article is about the term 'superscript' as used in typography. "SuperScript" can also refer to a commercially available Reverse transcriptase.

A superscript is a number, figure, or symbol that appears above baseline, at the right or left of another symbol or text. Superscripts are often used, with various meanings, in formulas, mathematical expressions, or descriptions of chemical compounds and isotopes. Superscripts can also be used to indicate the presence of a footnote in a document. Sometimes, ordinal endings for numbers are written as superscripts (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd rather than 1st, 2nd, 3rd).

In professional typography, superscript characters usually have their baseline raised by around 50% to 65% of full letter height ascent (i.e., about 30% to 40% of the nominal font size). The superscript text normally appears in reduced font size, usually between 58% and 67% of normal size.

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In HTML, superscript text is produced by putting it inside the tags <sup> and </sup>.

In TeX's math mode, superscripts are typeset with the caret. Thus $X^{ab}$ produces $X^{ab}$ .

Unicode defines some superscript symbols, but note that in most fonts the "superscript" numerals are in fact numerator glyphs which would ordinarily be used in a diagonal fraction (such as ½), as the tops of the glyphs are aligned with the cap line of the parent font.

in Latin-1 Supplement block, the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators U+00AA ª, U+00BA º and superscript numerals U+00B9 ¹, U+00B2 ², U+00B3 ³
in the Spacing Modifier Letters block, U+02B0 to U+02B8, ʰ ʱ ʲ ʳ ʴ ʵ ʶ ʷ ʸ, U+02E2 ˢ, U+02E3 ˣ
in the Phonetic Extensions block, U+1D43 to U+1D61, ᵃ ᵄ ᵅ ᵆ ᵇ ᵈ ᵉ ᵊ ᵋ ᵌ ᵍ ᵎ ᵏ ᵐ ᵑ ᵒ ᵓ ᵔ ᵕ ᵖ ᵗ ᵘ ᵙ ᵚ ᵛ ᵜ ᵝ ᵞ ᵟ ᵠ ᵡ
in the Unicode subscripts and superscripts block, U+2070 ⁰, U+2071 ⁱ , U+2074 to U+207F ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾ ⁿ

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See also