Character set and special characters

Description

<Related pages>
Answer www.unicode.org
HTML uses the character set called the Universal Character Set (UCS), defined in the ISO-10646 specifiation. This standard defines a repertoire of thousands of characters used by communities all over the world. This character set is equivalent to Unicode 2.0.

Table of printable Latin-1 Character codes
Characters of the iso-latin1 character set
© Copyright W3C out=>

Special characters

If you need a to use a special character, like an accented character or a currency sign, you have to use a special notation. There are two ways to use these special characters:
  1. Use the decimal representation, in the format &#nnn;, where nnn is the decimal code of the character.
  2. Use a character entity, in the format &ccc;, where ccc is the character string that represents the specific character.
HTML 4.0 supports three sets of special characters:

ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters

ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
&#160;&nbsp;  no-break space
&#161;&iexcl; ¡inverted exclamation mark
&#162;&cent; ¢cent sign
&#163;&pound; £pound sign
&#164;&curren;¤currency sign
&#165;&yen; ¥yen sign = yuan sign
&#166;&brvbar;¦broken bar = brolen vertical bar
&#167;&sect; §section sign
&#168;&uml; ¨diaeresis = spacing diaeresis
&#169;&copy; ©copyright sign
&#170;&ordf; ªfeminine ordinal indicator
&#171;&laquo; «left-pointing double angle quotation mark = left pointing guillemet
&#172;&not; ¬not sign = discretionary hyphen
&#173;&shy; ­soft hyphen = discretionary hyphen
&#174;&reg; ®registered sign = registered trade mark sign
&#175;&macr; ¯macron = spacing macron = overline = APL overbar
&#176;&deg; °degree sign
&#177;&plusmn;±plus-minus sign = plus-or-minus sign
&#178;&sup2; ²superscript two = superscript digit two = squared
&#179;&sup3; ³superscript three = superscript digit three = cubed
&#180;&acute; ´acute accent = spacing acute
&#181;&micro; µmicro sign
&#182;&para; pilcrow sign = paragraph sign
&#183;&middot;·middle dot = Georgian comma = Greek middle dot
&#184;&ccedil;¸cedilla = spacing cedilla
&#185;&sup1; ¹superscript one = superscript digit one
&#186;&ordm; ºmasculine ordinal indicator
&#187;&raquo; »right-pointing double angle quotation mark = right pointing guillemet
&#188;&frac14;¼vulgar fraction one quarter = fraction one quarter
&#189;&frac12;½vulgar fraction one half = fraction one half
&#190;&frac34;¾vulgar fraction three quarters = fraction three quarters
&#191;&iquest;¿inverted question mark = turned question mark
&#192;&Agrave;Àlatin capital letter A with grave = latin capital letter A grave
&#193;&Aacute;Álatin capital letter A with acute
&#194;&Acirc; Âlatin capital letter A with circumflex
&#195;&Atilde;Ãlatin capital letter A with tilde
&#196;&Auml; Älatin capital letter A with diaeresis
&#197;&Aring; Ålatin capital letter A with ring above = latin capital letter A ring
&#198;&AElig; Ælatin capital letter AE = latin capital ligature AE
&#199;&Ccedil;Çlatin capital letter C with cedilla
&#200;&Egrave;Èlatin capital letter E with grave
&#201;&Eacute;Élatin capital letter E with acute
&#202;&Ecirc; Êlatin capital letter E with circumflex
&#203;&Euml; Ëlatin capital letter E with diaeresis
&#204;&Igrave;Ìlatin capital letter I with grave
&#205;&Iacute;Ílatin capital letter I with acute
&#206;&Icirc; Îlatin capital letter I with circumflex
&#207;&Iuml; Ïlatin capital letter I with diaeresis
&#208;&ETH; Ðlatin capital letter ETH
&#209;&Ntilde;Ñlatin capital letter N with tilde
&#210;&Ograve;Òlatin capital letter O with grave
&#211;&Oacute;Ólatin capital letter O with acute
&#212;&Ocirc; Ôlatin capital letter O with circumflex
&#213;&Otilde;Õlatin capital letter O with tilde
&#214;&Ouml; Ölatin capital letter O with diaeresis
&#215;&times; ×multiplication sign
&#216;&Oslash;Ølatin capital letter O with stroke = latin capital letter O slash
&#217;&Ugrave;Ùlatin capital letter U with grave
&#218;&Uacute;Úlatin capital letter U with acute
&#219;&Ucirc; Ûlatin capital letter U with circumflex
&#220;&Uuml; Ülatin capital letter U with diaeresis
&#221;&Yacute;Ýlatin capital letter Y with acute
&#222;&THORN; Þlatin capital letter THORN
&#223;&szlig; ßlatin small letter sharp s = ess-zed
&#224;&agrave;àlatin small letter a with grave = latin small letter a grave
&#225;&aacute;álatin small letter a with acute
&#226;&acirc; âlatin small letter a with circumflex
&#227;&atilde;ãlatin small letter a with tilde
&#228;&auml; älatin small letter a with diaeresis
&#229;&aring; ålatin small letter a with ring above = latin small letter a ring
&#230;&aelig; ælatin small letter ae = latin small ligature ae
&#231;&ccedil;çlatin small letter c with cedilla
&#232;&egrave;èlatin small letter e with grave
&#233;&eacute;élatin small letter e with acute
&#234;&ecirc; êlatin small letter e with circumflex
&#235;&euml; ëlatin small letter e with diaeresis
&#236;&igrave;ìlatin small letter i with grave
&#237;&iacute;ílatin small letter i with acute
&#238;&icirc; îlatin small letter i with circumflex
&#239;&iuml; ïlatin small letter i with diaeresis
&#240;&eth; ðlatin small letter eth
&#241;&ntilde;ñlatin small letter n with tilde
&#242;&ograve;òlatin small letter o with grave
&#243;&oacute;ólatin small letter o with acute
&#244;&ocirc; ôlatin small letter o with circumflex
&#245;&otilde;õlatin small letter o with tilde
&#246;&ouml; ölatin small letter o with diaeresis
&#247;&divide;÷division sign
&#248;&oslash;ølatin small letter o with stroke = latin small letter o slash
&#249;&ugrave;ùlatin small letter u with grave
&#250;&uacute;úlatin small letter u with acute
&#251;&ucirc; ûlatin small letter u with circumflex
&#252;&uuml; ülatin small letter u with diaeresis
&#253;&yacute;ýlatin small letter y with acute
&#254;&thorn; þlatin small letter thorn with
&#255;&yuml; ÿlatin small letter y with diaeresis

Symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters

The character entity references in this section produce characters that may be represented by glyphs in the widely available Adobe Symbol font, including Greek characters, various bracketing symbols, and a selection of mathematical operators such as gradient, product, and summation symbols.

Note from HTML 4.0 :

This entity set contains all the letters used in modern Greek. However, it does not include Greek punctuation, precomposed accented characters nor the non-spacing accents (tonos, dialytika) required to compose them. There are no archaic letters, Coptic-unique letters, or precomposed letters for Polytonic Greek. The entities defined here are not intended for the representation of modern Greek text and would not be an efficient representation; rather, they are intended for occasional Greek letters used in technical and mathematical works.

Symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
&#402; &fnof; ƒ latin small f with hook = function = florin
&#913; &Alpha; Α greek capital letter alpha
&#914; &Beta; Β greek capital letter beta
&#915; &Gamma; Γ greek capital letter gamma
&#916; &Delta; Δ greek capital letter delta
&#917; &Epsilon; Ε greek capital letter epsilon
&#918; &Zeta; Ζ greek capital letter zeta
&#919; &Eta; Η greek capital letter eta
&#920; &Theta; Θ greek capital letter theta
&#921; &Iota; Ι greek capital letter iota
&#922; &Kappa; Κ greek capital letter kappa
&#923; &Lambda; Λ greek capital letter lambda
&#924; &Mu; Μ greek capital letter mu
&#925; &Nu; Ν greek capital letter nu
&#926; &Xi; Ξ greek capital letter xi
&#927; &Omicron; Ο greek capital letter omicron
&#928; &Pi; Π greek capital letter pi
&#929; &Rho; Ρ greek capital letter rho
&#931; &Sigma; Σ greek capital letter sigma
&#932; &Tau; Τ greek capital letter tau
&#933; &Upsilon; Υ greek capital letter upsilon
&#934; &Phi; Φ greek capital letter phi
&#935; &Chi; Χ greek capital letter chi
&#936; &Psi; Ψ greek capital letter psi
&#937; &Omega; Ω greek capital letter omega
&#945; &alpha; α greek small letter alpha
&#946; &beta; β greek small letter beta
&#947; &gamma; γ greek small letter gamma
&#948; &delta; δ greek small letter delta
&#949; &epsilon; ε greek small letter epsilon
&#950; &zeta; ζ greek small letter zeta
&#951; &eta; η greek small letter eta
&#952; &theta; θ greek small letter theta
&#953; &iota; ι greek small letter iota
&#954; &kappa; κ greek small letter kappa
&#955; &lambda; λ greek small letter lambda
&#956; &mu; μ greek small letter mu
&#957; &nu; ν greek small letter nu
&#958; &xi; ξ greek small letter xi
&#959; &omicron; ο greek small letter omicron
&#960; &pi; π greek small letter pi
&#961; &rho; ρ greek small letter rho
&#962; &sigmaf; ς greek small letter final sigma
&#963; &sigma; σ greek small letter sigma
&#964; &tau; τ greek small letter tau
&#965; &upsilon; υ greek small letter upsilon
&#966; &phi; φ greek small letter phi
&#967; &chi; χ greek small letter chi
&#968; &psi; ψ greek small letter psi
&#969; &omega; ω greek small letter omega
&#977; &thetasym; ϑ greek small letter theta symbol
&#978; &upsih; ϒ greek upsilon with hook symbol
&#982; &piv; ϖ greek pi symbol
&#8226;&bull; bullet = black small circle
&#8230;&hellip; horizontal ellipsis = three dot leader
&#8242;&prime; prime = minutes = feet
&#8243;&Prime; double prime = seconds = inches
&#8254;&oline; overline = spacing overscore
&#8260;&frasl; fraction slash
&#8472;&weierp; script capital P = power set = Weierstrass p
&#8465;&image; blackletter capital I = imaginary part
&#8476;&real; blackletter capital R = real part symbol
&#8482;&trade; trade mark sign
&#8501;&alefsym; alef symbol = first transfinite cardinal
&#8592;&larr; leftwards arrow
&#8593;&uarr; upwards arrow
&#8594;&rarr; rightwards arrow
&#8595;&darr; downwards arrow
&#8596;&harr; left right arrow
&#8629;&crarr; downwards arrow with corner leftwards = carriage return
&#8656;&lArr; leftwards double arrow
&#8657;&uArr; upwards double arrow
&#8658;&rArr; rightwards double arrow
&#8659;&dArr; downwards double arrow
&#8660;&hArr; left right double arrow
&#8704;&forall; for all
&#8706;&part; partial differential
&#8707;&exist; there exists
&#8709;&empty; empty set = null set = diameter
&#8711;&nabla; nabla = backward difference
&#8712;&isin; element of
&#8713;&notin; not an element of
&#8715;&ni; contains as member
&#8719;&prod; n-ary product = product sign
&#8721;&sum; n-ary sumation
&#8722;&minus; minus sign
&#8727;&lowast; asterisk operator
&#8730;&radic; square root = radical sign
&#8733;&prop; proportional to
&#8734;&infin; infinity
&#8736;&ang; angle
&#8743;&and; logical and = wedge
&#8744;&or; logical or = vee
&#8745;&cap; intersection = cap
&#8746;&cup; union = cup
&#8747;&int; integral
&#8756;&there4; therefore
&#8764;&sim; tilde operator = varies with = similar to
&#8773;&cong; approximately equal to
&#8776;&asymp; almost equal to = asymptotic to
&#8800;&ne; not equal to
&#8801;&equiv; identical to
&#8804;&le; less-than or equal to
&#8805;&ge; greater-than or equal to
&#8834;&sub; subset of
&#8835;&sup; superset of
&#8836;&nsub; not a subset of
&#8838;&sube; subset of or equal to
&#8839;&supe; superset of or equal to
&#8853;&oplus; circled plus = direct sum
&#8855;&otimes; circled times = vector product
&#8869;&perp; up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular
&#8901;&sdot; dot operator
&#8968;&lceil; left ceiling = apl upstile
&#8969;&rceil; right ceiling
&#8970;&lfloor; left floor = apl downstile
&#8971;&rfloor; right floor
&#9001;&lang; left-pointing angle bracket = bra
&#9002;&rang; right-pointing angle bracket = ket
&#9674;&loz; lozenge
&#9824;&spades; black spade suit
&#9827;&clubs; black club suit = shamrock
&#9829;&hearts; black heart suit = valentine
&#9830;&diams; black diamond suit

Markup-significant and internationalization characters

The character entity references in this section are for escaping markup-significant characters, for denoting spaces and dashes. Other characters in this section apply to internationalization issues such as the disambiguation of bidirectional text.

Markup-significant and internationalization characters
Decimal Character Example Explanation
&#34; &quot; " quotation mark = APL quote
&#38; &amp; & ampersand
&#60; &lt; < less-than sign
&#62; &gt; > greater-than sign
&#338; &OElig; Πlatin capital ligature OE
&#339; &oelig; œ latin small ligature oe
&#352; &Scaron; Š latin capital letter S with caron
&#353; &scaron; š latin small letter s with caron
&#376; &Yuml; Ÿ latin capital letter Y with diaeresis
&#710; &circ; ˆ modifier letter circumflex accent
&#732; &tilde; ˜ small tilde
&#8194;&ensp; en space
&#8195;&emsp; em space
&#8201;&thinsp; thin space
&#8204;&zwnj; zero width non-joiner
&#8205;&zwj; zero width joiner
&#8206;&lrm; left-to-right mark
&#8207;&rlm; right-to-left mark
&#8211;&ndash; en dash
&#8212;&mdash; em dash
&#8216;&lsquo; left single quotation mark
&#8217;&rsquo; right single quotation mark
&#8218;&sbquo; single low-9 quotation mark
&#8220;&ldquo; left double quotation mark
&#8221;&rdquo; right double quotation mark
&#8222;&bdquo; double low-9 quotation mark
&#8224;&dagger; dagger
&#8225;&Dagger; double dagger
&#8240;&permil; per mille sign
&#8249;&lsaquo; single left-pointing angle quotation mark
&#8250;&rsaquo; single right-pointing angle quotation mark
&#8364;&euro; euro sign
Statistics

  Copyright © 1996 - 2000 Rob Schlüter,   schluter@knoware.nl   (last updated 1998/12/13)