smileghost

smileghost provides a smiling ghost symbol for LaTeX:

\usepackage{smileghost}
...
The ghost of \(T\) is \(\smileghost T\).

The command \smileghost is a math operator. LaTeX therefore inserts the same contextual spacing that it uses for operators such as \sin. The symbol also scales in subscripts and superscripts, follows the surrounding color, and works in text via an implicit switch to math mode. A style-aware optical correction raises the mark slightly after mathematical axis centering.

The artwork is encoded as vector paths using the standard pict2e package. No external image or font file is needed at run time. The package has been tested with pdfLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX, and the traditional LaTeX-to-DVIPS workflow. It is compatible with unicode-math.

Installation

After the package is released on CTAN, install it using your TeX distribution's package manager. For a local installation, place smileghost.sty in the same directory as your document.

Build the documentation with:

latexmk -pdf smileghost-doc.tex

Run the regression tests and build a CTAN archive with:

l3build check
l3build ctan

Those two developer commands are intended for the source repository, which also contains build.lua and the testfiles directory.

License and maintenance

Copyright (C) 2026 Ben Spitz.

This material is subject to the LaTeX Project Public License, version 1.3c or later. The work has the LPPL maintenance status maintained; the Current Maintainer is Ben Spitz. See https://www.latex-project.org/lppl/lppl-1-3c/.

Issues and support: https://github.com/diracdeltafunk/smileghost/issues.