Special Characters Reference

Browse and copy special characters, symbols, arrows, math operators, and currency signs organized by category.

Tested tool guide Text and writing tools Checked August 16, 2026

What Special Characters Reference does, with a checked example

This tool is a categorized character picker. Special characters, symbols, arrows, math operators, and currency signs are arranged in groups you flip through; each entry shows the glyph, its official Unicode name, and its hexadecimal code point, with a Copy button that puts the character itself on your clipboard. The thing users most often trip on: characters that look identical are not always the same character. The hyphen on your keyboard (U+002D) is a different character from the minus sign (U+2212) and from the en dash (U+2013); the code point shown beside each glyph is the only reliable way to tell them apart.

Worked example

A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.

Input

Browse to the 'Currency signs' category

Expected output

A grid of currency characters appears, including the entry: euro sign, glyph, U+20AC EURO SIGN, with a Copy button. Clicking Copy places the euro sign character on your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere.

Unicode assigns every character a fixed name and code point, so the Euro sign is always U+20AC in this reference. The copy action transfers the character itself as text, not an image or an HTML entity.

How the result is produced

Browse by category

Characters are grouped into categories such as arrows, math operators, and currency signs. Each entry shows the glyph, its official Unicode name, and its code point in hexadecimal, with a Copy button that places the character on your clipboard. The copied item is a plain text character, so it pastes into any application that accepts text.

The code point identifies the character

Unicode gives every character a fixed name and code point, and the reference displays both next to the glyph. Look-alikes are common: the middle dot (U+00B7) is not the bullet (U+2022), and Greek pi (U+03C0) is not the mathematical italic pi (U+1D70B). When a character renders oddly or behaves unexpectedly, compare its code point here against the one you intended.

Good uses

Inserting an arrow, math operator, or currency sign, such as an arrow, plus-minus, or the Euro sign, into an email or document when your keyboard or input method cannot produce it.
Writing text that needs typographically correct punctuation: en dashes in ranges, em dashes in breaks, proper quote marks, without relying on your editor's autocorrect.
Identifying a mystery glyph: finding the official name and code point of a symbol you saw elsewhere so you can reproduce it or look it up precisely.

Limits and checks

A copied character can paste correctly yet display as an empty box in the target app. That means the font lacks a glyph for the code point, not that the copy failed; paste into another font or application to confirm.
Look-alikes are distinct characters: en dash, em dash, hyphen, and minus sign are four different code points. Pasting the wrong one can fail validation, break search matching, or subtly change meaning in data.
Some characters are invisible: a no-break space (U+00A0) or zero-width space (U+200B) pastes fine but cannot be seen, so a block of text can contain characters you never intended to insert.

Common questions

I copied an arrow and pasted it into a document, but it shows as a rectangle. Did the copy fail?

No. The character copied correctly; a rectangle means the font in the target document has no glyph for that code point. Try another font or application, or compare the code point shown on this page with the character you intended. If the platform genuinely lacks the character, choose the closest supported alternative.

Why does the reference list several different dashes and hyphens?

Unicode encodes them as separate characters: the hyphen-minus on your keyboard (U+002D), the en dash used in ranges (U+2013), the em dash used for breaks (U+2014), and the minus sign used in math (U+2212). They look similar but are different code points, and some programs parse, search, and validate them differently.

References and verification

The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.