Orbifold notation for wallpaper groups, advocated by John Horton Conway (Conway, 1992) (Conway 2008), is based not on crystallography, but on topology. One can fold the infinite periodic tiling of the plane into its essence, an orbifold, then describe that with a few symbols.
*A digit, n, indicates a centre of n-fold rotation corresponding to a cone point on the orbifold. By the crystallographic restriction theorem, n must be 2, 3, 4, or 6.
*An asterisk, *, indicates a mirror symmetry corresponding to a boundary of the orbifold. It interacts with the digits as follows:
*#Digits before * denote centres of pure rotation (cyclic).
*#Digits after * denote centres of rotation with mirrors through them, corresponding to "corners" on the boundary of the orbifold (dihedral).
*A cross, ×, occurs when a glide reflection is present and indicates a crosscap on the orbifold. Pure mirrors combine with lattice translation to produce glides, but those are already accounted for so need no notation.
*The "no symmetry" symbol, o, stands alone, and indicates there are only lattice translations with no other symmetry. The orbifold with this symbol is a torus; in general the symbol o denotes a handle on the orbifold.
The group denoted in crystallographic notation by cmm will, in Conway's notation, be 2*22. The 2 before the * says there is a 2-fold rotation centre with no mirror through it. The * itself says there is a mirror. The first 2 after the * says there is a 2-fold rotation centre on a mirror. The final 2 says there is an independent second 2-fold rotation centre on a mirror, one that is not a duplicate of the first one under symmetries.
The group denoted by pgg will be 22×. There are two pure 2-fold rotation centres, and a glide reflection axis. Contrast this with pmg, Conway 22*, where crystallographic notation mentions a glide, but one that is implicit in the other symmetries of the orbifold.
Coxeter's bracket notation is also included, based on reflectional Coxeter groups, and modified with plus superscripts accounting for rotations, improper rotations and translations.