How can I show special characters in xmgrace? I can't find a list of special symbols including the multiplication symbol or greek letters or the use of subscripts.
if you're in a text entry window then type "control-e" and you'll get a new window. It probably defaults to Helvetica. Select "Symbol". The greek characters are there.
In general \f{fontname} selects the font "fontname" and "Symbol" is the font with greek characters. As a shortcut you can enter the "\x" control followed by the keys which map to the greek characters, then "\f{}" to return to the default plot ("\x" is short for "\f{Symbol}"). For example:
"Length [\xm\f{}m]"
This prints Length followed by the symbol for micrometers in square brackets.
Note there's also a μ character in the latin fonts but it will render slightly differently. However, most greek characters are available only in the Symbol font.
It's a bit frustrating that it doesn't simply handle unicode but grace is around 20 years old now... still really good, however.