Those are not actually formatting. Those are math symbols. Math relies on formatting to convey meaning, and Unicode is expected to be able to render math corr

Those are not actually formatting. Those are math symbols. Math relies on formatting to convey meaning, and Unicode is expected to be able to render math correctly without formatting. Therefore, it must be that math symbols' formatting is actually a feature of the character. My Ubuntu box can't render the first three so I don't know what they are. "is there" is blackboard lettering, though Unicode insists on calling it double-struck lettering. You may recognize the capital R in double-struck, ℝ, as the symbol for the Reals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number Similarly, ℤ is the integers, ℂ is the complexes, et cetera. I can say this on HN, without formatting, because unicode. The word "unicode" is in Mathematical Bold Italic. The words "for different," which you probably interpret as Fraktur, are ... oh wait unicode calls them mathematical fraktur. http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/bycodes.html#U1D58C http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/bycodes.html#U1D58C 𝖆 means a ring group. ℵ is used for the cardinality of infinite sets. 𝖌 is a Lie algebra. Etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_alphanumeric_symbols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_alphanumeric_symbo... I don't know what the last set are.