How to change the position of a single letter/symbol (*) – gender specific typography
Raise the asterisk by 1ex minus the height.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Alegreya}
\newcommand{\gs}{\raisebox{\dimexpr1ex-\height}{*}}
\begin{document}
\makebox[0pt][l]{\vrule height\dimexpr1ex+0.05pt depth -\dimexpr1ex-0.05pt width 3cm}%
\makebox[0pt][l]{\vrule height 0.05pt depth 0.05pt width 3cm}%
x Autor\gs in
\end{document}
You may want to \renewcommand{\*}{...}
instead of \newcommand{\gs}{...}
, but this might break other (rare) uses of \*
.
I believe you're looking for the \textasteriskcentered
macro. Depending on the text font you employ, you may need to combine it with a suitable \raisebox
"wrapper" instruction -- you're obviously free to choose a snappier name than \genderstar
-- in order to get the desired vertical placement.
%% compile with either XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Adobe Jenson Pro} % optional
\newcommand\genderstar{\raisebox{-0.2ex}{\textasteriskcentered}}
\begin{document}
x Autor*in
x Autor\textasteriskcentered in
x Autor\genderstar in
\end{document}