A variety of "pseudo-Voigt" functions, i.e. a linear combination of the Lorentz and Gauss function (occasionally augmented with a correction term), have been proposed as a closed-form approximation for the convolution of the Lorentz and Gauss function known as the Voigt function. First, a compact review of several approximations using a consistent notation is presented. The comparison with accurate reference values indicates relative errors as large as some percent. (Franz Schreier) √ ln 2γ L /γ G . At the line center x = 0 the Voigt function can be expressed as the exponentially scaled complementary error function K(0, y) = exp(y 2 ) 1 − erf(y) = exp(y 2 ) erfc(y) . (2)