4 Ways To Type Superscript and Subscript On a Mac

If you need to raise characters above or lower them below the baseline, you can do it one of four ways. This is typically used in mathematical equations and chemical formulas. You can use the baseline adjustments in many apps, special superscript and subscript characters, commonly-recognized symbols, and the equation editor in Pages.

Comments: 7 Responses to “4 Ways To Type Superscript and Subscript On a Mac”

    Paul Lind
    5 years ago

    Can this method be used in writing music notes i.e. B(#) sharp or D(d) flat. ?

    5 years ago

    Paul: Yes, if you want to simply use the hashtag # symbol and lowercase B for sharps and flats and then adjust their baseline. But I think people prefer to use the specific flat and sharp characters for those. Control+Command+Space and search for flat or sharp to see those.

    Bruce
    5 years ago

    Microsoft Office & OpenOffice have a Format->Font->super/subscript option that raises/lowers the baseline and reduces the size in one step (your method 1, without bold however). The appearance is not as nice as dedicated superscript characters. And when copy/pasting into other apps the results are not ideal. I use superscript for citations in technical docs and it works okay for that, but the dedicated superscript numerals look much nicer. Thanks²

    Bob
    5 years ago

    Thank^you

    I tried to insert the 'pages' version,
    but this field wouldn't accept it.

    5 years ago

    Bob: Yeah, web forms typically won't take images mixed with text.

    Norm Bradley
    5 years ago

    Help for the same subject in iOS

    5 years ago

    Norm: On iOS, in Pages, you can select text, tap the paintbrush tool, then tap the three dots next to B/I/U and adjust the baseline there. You can also tap + and choose to Insert an equation.

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