Special Characters

Alphabetic Arrangement of Character Codes

A much simpler chart which will print on one sheet, together with directions for finding the little pictures in decorative fonts may be found on the Symbol Fonts page.

To put a character into a document or email, copy and paste the actual character, or hold the Alt key while you key in the given number. Directions

If it doesn't work

Symbols marked KBD are already on your keyboard—and the ones marked with **** are ones for which I couldn't find the number.

Writing Complicated Equations or Formulae

In html, type the code exactly as shown.

If you'd prefer to use the entity name, type it between a “&” and a “;”
Entity names are easier to remember, but they can't be trusted to work in every situation.

If the table is blank, this much older version should work for you.

	HTML Code	Character	Entity	Keyboard
A, capital letter with acute	Á	Á	Aacute	0193
A, capital letter with circumflex	Â	Â	Acirc	0194
A, capital letter with diaeresis	Ä	Ä	Auml	0196
A, capital letter with grave	À	À	Agrave	0192
A, capital letter with ring above	Å	Å	Aring	0197
A, capital letter with tilde	Ã	Ã	Atilde	0195
a small letter with acute	á	á	aacute	0225
a, small letter with circumflex	â	â	acirc	0226
a, small letter with diaeresis	ä	ä	auml	0228
a, small letter with grave	à	à	agrave	0224
a, small letter with ring above	å	å	aring	0229
a, small letter with tilde	ã	ã	atilde	0227
acute accent	´	´	acute	0180
AE, capital letter or ligature AE	Æ	Æ	AElig	0198
ae, small letter or ligature ae	æ	æ	aelig	0230
ampersand	&	&	amp	KBD
angle quotation mark, single left-pointing	‹	‹	lsaquo	KBD
angle quotation mark, single right-pointing	›	›	rsaquo	KBD
apostrophe	’	’	rsquo	0146
broken vertical bar	¦	¦	brvbar	0166
C, capital letter with cedilla	Ç	Ç	Ccedil	0199
c, small letter with cedilla	ç	ç	ccedil	0231
capital ligature OE	Œ	Œ	OElig	0140
cedilla	¸	¸	cedil	0184
cent sign	¢	¢	cent	0162
circumflex accent	ˆ	ˆ	circ	KBD
copyright sign	©	©	copy	0169
cubed sign or superscript three	³	³	sup3	0179
currency sign	¤	¤	curren	0164
dagger	†	†	dagger	0134
decimal point	·	·	middot	0183
degree sign	°	°	deg	0176
diaeresis	¨	¨	uml	0168
division sign	÷	÷	divide	0247
double dagger	‡	‡	Dagger	0134
E, capital letter with acute	É	É	Eacute	0201
E, capital letter with circumflex	Ê	Ê	Ecirc	0202
E, capital letter with diaeresis	Ë	Ë	Euml	0203
E, capital letter with grave	È	È	Egrave	0200
e, small letter with acute	é	é	eacute	0233
e, small letter with circumflex	ê	ê	ecirc	0234
e, small letter with diaeresis	ë	ë	euml	0235
e, small letter with grave	è	è	egrave	0232
em dash	—	—	mdash	0151
em space			emsp	****
en dash	–	–	ndash	0150
en space			ensp	****
ETH, capital letter	Ð	Ð	ETH	0208
eth, small letter	ð	ð	eth	0240
euro sign	€	€	euro	0128
exclamation mark inverted	¡	¡	iexcl	0161
feminine ordinal indicator	ª	ª	ordf	0170
guillemet left pointing	«	«	laquo	0171
guillemet right	»	»	raquo	0187
greater-than sign	>	>	gt	KBD
half -vulgar fraction one half	½	½	frac12	0189
I, capital letter with acute	Í	Í	Iacute	0205
I, capital letter with circumflex	Î	Î	Icirc	0206
I, capital letter with diaeresis	Ï	Ï	Iuml	0207
I, capital letter with grave	Ì	Ì	Igrave	0204
i, small letter with acute	í	í	iacute	0237
i, small letter with circumflex	î	î	icirc	0238
i, small letter with diaeresis	ï	ï	iuml	0239
i, small letter with grave	ì	ì	igrave	0236
inverted exclamation mark	¡	¡	iexcl	0161
inverted question mark	¿	¿	iquest	0191
left-pointing double angle quotation mark	«	«	laquo	0171
left-to-right mark	‎	‎	lrm	****
less-than sign	<	<	lt	KBD
macron or overline or overbar	¯	¯	macr	0175
masculine ordinal indicator	º	º	ordm	0186
micro sign	µ	µ	micro	0181
middle dot or Georgian comma	·	·	middot	0183
multiplication sign	×	×	times	0215
N, capital letter with tilde	Ñ	Ñ	Ntilde	0209
n, small letter with tilde	ñ	ñ	ntilde	0241
non-breaking space			nbsp	****
not sign or discretionary hyphen	¬	¬	not	0172
O, capital letter with acute	Ó	Ó	Oacute	0211
O, capital letter with circumflex	Ô	Ô	Ocirc	0212
O, capital letter with diaeresis	Ö	Ö	Ouml	0214
O, capital letter with grave	Ò	Ò	Ograve	0210
O, capital letter with stroke or slash	Ø	Ø	Oslash	0216
O, capital letter with tilde	Õ	Õ	Otilde	0213
OE, capital ligature	Œ	Œ	OElig	0140
o, small letter with acute	ó	ó	oacute	0243
o, small letter with circumflex	ô	ô	ocirc	0244
o, small letter with diaeresis	ö	ö	ouml	0246
o, small letter with grave	ò	ò	ograve	0242
o, small letter with stroke or slash	ø	ø	oslash	0248
o, small letter with tilde	õ	õ	otilde	0245
oe, small ligature	œ	œ	oelig	0156
overline or overbar or macron	¯	¯	macr	0175
paragraph sign or pilcrow sign	¶	¶	para	0182
per mille sign	‰	‰	permil	0137
piping symbol	¦	¦	brvbar	0166
plus-or-minus sign	±	±	plusmn	0177
point (middle dot)	·	·	middot	0183 ·
pound sign	£	£	pound	0163
quarter, vulgar fraction one quarter	¼	¼	frac14	0188
question mark inverted	¿	¿	iquest	0191
quotation mark	"	"	quot	KBD
quotation mark, left double	“	“	ldquo	0147
quotation mark, left single	‘	‘	lsquo	0145
quotation mark, low-9 double	„	„	bdquo	****
quotation mark, low-9 single	‚	‚	sbquo	KBD
quotation mark, right double	”	”	rdquo	0148
quotation mark, right single	’	’	rsquo	0146
registered trade mark sign	®	®	reg	0174
right-pointing double angle quotation mark	»	»	raquo	0187
right-to-left mark	‏	‏	rlm	****
S, capital letter with caron	Š	Š	Scaron	0138
s, small letter sharp or ess-zed	ß	ß	szlig	0223
s, small letter with caron	š	š	scaron	0154
section sign	§	§	sect	0167
soft hyphen or discretionary hyphen			shy	0173
space thin			thinsp	****
space, non-breaking			nbsp	****
squared sign or superscript two	²	²	sup2	0178
superscript one or superscript digit one	¹	¹	sup1	****
superscript three or cubed sign	³	³	sup3	0179
superscript two or squared sign	²	²	sup2	0178
thin space			thinsp	****
THORN, capital letter	Þ	Þ	THORN	0222
thorn, small letter	þ	þ	thorn	0254
three quarters	¾	¾	frac34	0190
tilde, small	˜	˜	tilde	0152
trade mark	™	™	trade	0153
U, capital letter with acute	Ú	Ú	Uacute	0218
U, capital letter with circumflex	Û	Û	Ucirc	0219
U, capital letter with diaeresis	Ü	Ü	Uuml	0220
U, capital letter with grave	Ù	Ù	Ugrave	0217
u, small letter with acute	ú	ú	uacute	0250
u, small letter with circumflex	û	û	ucirc	0251
u, small letter with diaeresis	ü	ü	uuml	0252
u, small letter with grave	ù	ù	ugrave	0249
Y, capital letter with acute	Ý	Ý	Yacute	0221
Y, capital letter with diaeresis	Ÿ	Ÿ	Yuml	0152
y, small letter with acute	ý	ý	yacute	0221
y, small letter with diaeresis	ÿ	ÿ	yuml	152
yen sign or yuan sign	¥	¥	yen	0159
zero width joiner	‍	‍	zwj	****
zero width non-joiner	‌	‌	zwnj	****

Portions © International Organization for Standardization 1986:

Permission to copy in any form is granted for use with conforming SGML systems and applications as defined in ISO 8879, provided this notice is included in all copies.

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Keyboard Codes

Word processors generally have an "Insert Symbol" facility through which you can insert many characters not found on the keyboard, but many people prefer to use the keyboard. When writing email, there's usually no "Insert Symbol", so using the Alt numbers could be the only way.

To insert a character with the keyboard, first make sure that NumLock is turned on. Then hold down the Alt key while you tap in the numbers on the number pad. When you finish and release the Alt key, the character should appear.

If It Doesn't Work

Mayhap you have one of the new-fangled keyboards with an F Lock key. From my point of view, it's a confounded nuisance. Usually, it means that every time you boot up the normal operation of the function keys—F1 for help, F5 to refresh a window, F7 to check spelling, F11 for full screen and so on—has been disabled and the keys call all sorts of different operations.

To make all keys function normally, you only have to turn on the F Lock, which is just above NumLock. Sadly, on the next reboot you'll probably have to do it again—on some keyboards, your choice is not remembered.

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Writing Complicated Equations or Formulae

Inserting symbols by tapping in a number is fine in a text document, but of little help if you need to write some equation or formula as you would with a pen or chalk. To do that, your word processor almost certainly has an Equation Editor. Search menus under Insert > Object, or Create > Equation or similar—or type "equation" into the program's Help dialogue.

Characters that are on the Keyboard

When writing normal printable text, or when writing email, it's fine to use any and every character that's available on the keyboard, as well as those for which you have to go to special trouble.

In html, however, some characters have particular meanings—they tell the browser what to do—and to avoid confusion are reserved for use in code. The most common ones are &, < and >.

About Entities

Sometimes on a web page—usually one with user input—I'll see entity names appearing exactly as written in the code. For instance, instead of “Hurry up”, said John, I see &;ldquoHurry up&;rdquo, said John. I have no idea why this happens, but it does make me wary of using entities.

Another thing that can cause weird characters to appear on a web page is pasting text copied from a word processor. The codes used by word processors and those used in html are quite different from each other. It's a bit like hoping that a Japanese word that sounds the same as an English word will have the same meaning.

Questions or comments? I’d love to hear from you. My email address is here.

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