Copy and paste: works everywhere
Every symbol is a Unicode character, just like a letter. That means a symbol copied from one place can be pasted into almost any other place: a document, a spreadsheet, an email, a chat, a social profile or source code. A symbol list such as the one on this page is the quickest option when you need a symbol only now and then, or when you are on a device you do not know.
The look of a pasted symbol depends on the font of the app. An arrow or a star keeps its meaning but may be drawn thicker, thinner or slightly different. If you see an empty box, that font has no drawing for the symbol; a more common symbol from the same category usually solves it.
Try it here: Copy and Paste Symbols
Open the full tool pageWindows
Windows 10 and 11 have a built-in panel: press the Windows key and the period key together, then switch to the symbols tab. It contains punctuation, currency, Latin letters, Greek letters, math and arrows, and remembers what you used last.
Alt codes are the classic method on a keyboard with a number pad: hold Alt, type the code on the number pad and release Alt. They do not work with the number row above the letters. Character Map, a program included in Windows, lists every character of every font and lets you copy it.
| Symbol | Alt code |
|---|---|
| ° degree | Alt+0176 |
| © copyright | Alt+0169 |
| ® registered | Alt+0174 |
| ™ trademark | Alt+0153 |
| € euro | Alt+0128 |
| £ pound | Alt+0163 |
| ± plus minus | Alt+0177 |
| × multiplication | Alt+0215 |
| ÷ division | Alt+0247 |
| • bullet | Alt+0149 |
Mac
On a Mac, press Control, Command and Space to open the Character Viewer, then search by name, for example arrow or degree. Many symbols also have Option shortcuts on the US keyboard layout: Option+G for the copyright sign, Option+2 for the trademark sign, Option+Shift+8 for the degree sign, Option+8 for the bullet and Option+Shift+2 for the euro sign. Other keyboard layouts use different shortcuts; the Keyboard Viewer in the input menu shows them while you hold Option.
iPhone, iPad and Android
Phone keyboards hide many symbols behind long presses. Hold the zero key for the degree sign, the dollar key for other currency signs, the hyphen for dashes and the period for the ellipsis. Hold a letter to get its accented versions. Symbols that are not on the keyboard at all, such as arrows, check marks or box drawing lines, are easiest to copy from a symbol list and paste.
On iPhone you can also create a text replacement in Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement: for example, type ->> and have it replaced with a real arrow. Many Android keyboards offer the same under their dictionary or shortcuts settings.
Word, Google Docs and spreadsheets
In Microsoft Word on Windows, type the Unicode code of a symbol and press Alt+X: 2192 followed by Alt+X becomes a right arrow, 2713 becomes a check mark. Insert, Symbol opens a searchable list. Google Docs has Insert, Special characters, where you can search by name or even draw the symbol. In Excel and Google Sheets, copying the symbol into a cell is the simplest way; the UNICHAR function in both programs also returns a symbol from its number, such as UNICHAR(10003) for a check mark.
HTML and CSS
On a web page written in UTF-8 you can paste symbols directly into the HTML. Where that is not possible, use a numeric character reference with the decimal or hexadecimal code: → or → for the right arrow. Some symbols also have names, such as ©, °, € and →. In CSS, generated content uses a backslash and the hexadecimal code: content: "\2192". The symbol list on this page shows the code point, the HTML code and the CSS escape of every symbol you hover over.
- Right arrow: U+2192, →, \2192
- Check mark: U+2713, ✓, \2713
- Degree: U+00B0, ° or °, \B0
- Euro: U+20AC, € or €, \20AC