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Superscript

by Adrian Ramon
Superscript and subscript anywhere you can type, with smart fixes for units and formulas (m3 → m³, CO2 → CO₂, x^2 → x²).
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Unlisted Extension

This extension is published on Adrian Ramon's page but is not listed in the main directory index.

Readme

Superscript

Superscript and subscript anywhere you can type, including plain-text fields, chat apps, forms and file names.

Select 177.97 m3 and click x² to get 177.97 m³. Select CO2 and click x₂ to get CO₂.

Two buttons

ButtonWhat it doesExamples
x² SuperscriptRaises powers of units, caret powers and anything else you selectm3 → m³, km2 → km², 9.81 m/s2 → 9.81 m/s², x^2 → x², 10^-6 → 10⁻⁶, 2^(n+1) → 2ⁿ⁺¹
x₂ SubscriptLowers the numbers in chemical formulas, underscore indices and anything else you selectH2O → H₂O, C6H12O6 → C₆H₁₂O₆, Ca(OH)2 → Ca(OH)₂, x_1 → x₁

How it decides what to convert

  1. Already converted? Clicking a button on text that contains its kind of character turns it back to normal, so H₂O becomes H2O again.
  2. A letter and a number selected on their own, such as x2, become x² or x₂. Only the number moves.
  3. Units, powers, formulas and indices inside a sentence are converted, and the rest of the sentence is left exactly as it was.
  4. Anything else you select is converted as a whole, so 2 becomes ² and n becomes ⁿ.

Some things are deliberately left alone: capital-letter names such as the M3 motorway, v2 in "v2 of the app", product names that look like formulas (PS5, B2B, Y2K, W3C), and counts of 1, so H1N1 stays as it is.

To keep the PopClip bar tidy, the buttons only appear when there is something to convert: a recognised pattern, text to turn back, a single character, or a short run of numbers and signs. Ordinary words don't bring them up.

What Unicode can't do

Unicode only has superscript and subscript forms for some characters:

  • Superscript: all digits, + − = ( ), every lowercase letter except q, and most capitals (not C, F, Q, S, X, Y or Z).
  • Subscript: all digits, + − = ( ), and only a e h i j k l m n o p r s t u v x. There are no subscript capitals.

If something can't be converted, you get a message naming the characters, rather than half-converted text.

Two more things to know. In some fonts, ¹ ² ³ look slightly different from ⁴ to ⁹, because they come from an older part of Unicode. And searching for m3 won't find m³, because they are different characters.

This extension doesn't apply Word or Pages-style formatting (a raised baseline). It uses real characters instead, which is what makes it work everywhere.

Options

  • Plain click: replace the selection (default), copy the result, or show it in PopClip.
  • ⌥-click always replaces the selection, and ⇧-click always shows the result, as in Number to Words and Number Formatter.

Privacy

Everything runs locally inside PopClip. No data is sent anywhere.

Author

Adrian Ramon.

Changelog

  • 1.0 (28 October 2026): first release.
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