Character Map
Text ToolsBrowse and copy any Unicode character including emoji, symbols, arrows, mathematical signs, and non-Latin scripts.. Free, private — all processing in your browser.
Click to add to collection above. Double-click to copy a single character.
The Character Map is a searchable browser for every Unicode character — over 149,000 of them — letting you find and copy any character from arrows (→), mathematical symbols (∑), emojis (🚀), currency (€), Greek and Cyrillic letters (α, Ж), Chinese-Japanese-Korean ideographs (漢字), or obscure typographic and dingbat characters. Faster than scrolling through a macOS Character Viewer or Windows Character Map application, and it works in any browser without install.
Search by character name (\"right arrow\"), category (\"currency\"), codepoint (U+2192), or just paste the character itself to look up its details. Results show the character itself, its name, codepoint, category, and usage notes. HTML entity form (→ or →) is included for web use. Copy one character at a time or build a custom palette of favorites for quick access. Keyboard shortcuts let power users navigate fast. Everything runs locally in your browser — no character lookups are logged or sent to any server.
Character Map — key features
Search by name
Type "heart", "arrow", or any descriptive word to find matching characters.
Search by codepoint
Enter U+2192 or 0x2192 to jump to a specific character.
Category browsing
Browse by Latin, Greek, mathematical, arrow, currency, emoji, and other groupings.
HTML entity output
Each character shows its decimal, hex, and named HTML entity forms for web use.
One-click copy
Copy the character, codepoint, or HTML entity with a single click.
Favorites palette
Save frequently used characters for quick access.
Variation selectors
Text and emoji variants of the same codepoint shown side by side where applicable.
Client-side only
All lookup data loaded locally; your searches are not tracked.
How to use the Character Map
- 1
Search or browse
Type a character name, codepoint, or category, or click a category to browse.
- 2
Pick a character
Select the character from the results — details appear on the right.
- 3
Copy the form you need
Click to copy the character itself, its codepoint, or its HTML entity.
- 4
Save favorites
Star frequently used characters for quick access later.
- 5
Search by paste
Paste a character into the lookup field to find its name, codepoint, and related info.
Common use cases for the Character Map
Writing and design
- →Typographic symbols: Find em dashes, en dashes, smart quotes, or bullet characters for proper typography.
- →Mathematical symbols: Copy ∞, ≈, ≤, ∑ for math documents without needing LaTeX.
- →Foreign character lookup: Find accented characters, Greek letters, or Cyrillic when not on a multilingual keyboard.
Development
- →HTML entity lookup: Find the entity code for a specific symbol to use in HTML source.
- →Regex special characters: Copy Unicode boundary markers, category codes, or special classes for regex patterns.
- →String testing: Grab weird Unicode for testing how code handles non-ASCII input (combining marks, right-to-left, etc.).
Content and communication
- →Emoji in presentations: Pick emoji for slides or documents without the OS emoji picker.
- →Arrows and bullets: Use ➤, ►, ★ for emphasis or navigation in formatted text.
- →Currency symbols: Copy € £ ¥ ₹ ₽ when writing about international prices.
Character Map — examples
Right arrow
Finding a standard arrow character.
search: right arrow
→ (U+2192, RIGHTWARDS ARROW) HTML: → or → or →
Copyright symbol
Common typographic symbol.
search: copyright
© (U+00A9, COPYRIGHT SIGN) HTML: © or ©
Math infinity
Mathematical notation character.
search: infinity
∞ (U+221E, INFINITY) HTML: ∞ or ∞ category: mathematical
Heart emoji
Basic emoji with variants.
search: heart
♥ (U+2665, text) ❤️ (U+2764 FE0F, emoji) other hearts: ♡ ❥ 💖 💘 💝
Lookup by paste
Identifying an unknown character.
paste: ñ
ñ (U+00F1, LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE) HTML: ñ or ñ
Technical details
Unicode 15 defines 149,813 characters as of latest data. Each has a unique codepoint (U+0000 through U+10FFFF, though most of the range is unassigned or reserved).
Categories grouped for usability:
- Latin: basic, extended, supplemental (ASCII through various diacritic blocks)
- Greek and Cyrillic: α β γ, А Б В
- Arabic, Hebrew, other RTL scripts
- CJK (Chinese-Japanese-Korean): 漢字 仮名 한글 — 80,000+ characters total
- Mathematical: ∑ ∫ ∞ ± ≈ ≤ ≥
- Arrows: → ← ↑ ↓ ↔ ⇒ ⇐
- Currency: $ € £ ¥ ₹ ₽
- Punctuation: — – … " ' « »
- Symbols: © ® ™ § ¶ ★ ♦
- Dingbats: ✓ ✗ ❤ ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
- Emoji: 😀 🚀 🎉 (separate block but cross-indexed)
Search implementation: indexes by name, codepoint, and category. Fuzzy matching on name (typing \"right arrow\" matches \"rightwards arrow\"). Codepoint search accepts U+XXXX, 0xXXXX, or decimal form.
Codepoint to HTML entity: the character U+2192 can be written as → (decimal) or → (hex) or → (named entity). The tool shows all three.
Copy implementation: clipboard API copies the character, its codepoint, or the HTML entity depending on which you click.
Rendering: the browser must have a font that contains the target glyph. Most modern systems include fonts for common ranges but may show a placeholder for obscure characters. The tool uses a fallback font stack that maximizes coverage.
Variation selectors: some characters (especially emoji) have text (VS15, U+FE0E) and emoji (VS16, U+FE0F) variants. The tool shows both where relevant.
Combining characters: some characters (combining acute U+0301, combining grave U+0300) combine with a preceding base character. The tool renders them with a placeholder circle to make them visible.
Performance: loading 149,000 character definitions lazily, using virtual scrolling for the browse view to handle any block smoothly.
Common problems and solutions
⚠Character shows as placeholder box
The system font doesn’t contain a glyph for that codepoint. The character is valid but not renderable in your current font. Install an appropriate font or use a different character.
⚠Combining character invisible
Combining marks (acute, grave, tilde) need a base character to render. Alone they look like placeholder. The tool shows them on a dotted circle placeholder for visibility.
⚠Text vs emoji variant confusion
Some characters have text (black-and-white) and emoji (colorful) variants selected by U+FE0E or U+FE0F after them. When pasting into a system, the default may differ. Explicitly use the variant selector for consistent display.
⚠Copy-paste loses encoding
Some legacy systems strip non-ASCII characters silently or convert them to question marks. Test the destination system before relying on special characters in critical content.
⚠Bidirectional text display
Right-to-left characters (Arabic, Hebrew) embedded in left-to-right text can flip visual order unexpectedly. Use RLE/LRE/PDF Unicode marks for explicit control if this matters.
⚠Emoji rendering varies by platform
The same emoji (U+1F600 grinning face) looks different on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Designs relying on emoji appearance can differ visibly across platforms.
⚠Multi-codepoint emoji break on some systems
Flags, skin-toned emoji, and compound emoji use multiple codepoints joined by zero-width joiners. Old systems may render each codepoint separately, showing disconnected fragments instead of the intended emoji.
Character Map — comparisons and alternatives
Compared to the macOS Character Viewer (Ctrl+Cmd+Space) or Windows Character Map, this tool is faster for known characters because you search rather than scroll. The OS tools are always available; this tool is more efficient.
Compared to Google searching for a character (\"right arrow unicode\"), this tool returns all forms (character, codepoint, HTML entity) immediately with related characters. Search returns mostly blog posts; this tool returns structured data.
Compared to emoji picker apps, this tool covers all Unicode (not just emoji) with mathematical, typographic, and symbolic characters included. Emoji pickers are better if you want just emoji; this tool is the universal reference.
Frequently asked questions about the Character Map
▶What is a Unicode character?
Unicode is a standard for assigning a unique codepoint (number) to every character used in any writing system, plus symbols and emoji. There are over 149,000 assigned codepoints covering Latin, CJK ideographs, Arabic, Hebrew, mathematical symbols, emoji, and many more scripts and symbols.
▶How do I find a specific character?
Search by descriptive name (type "right arrow" or "heart"), codepoint (U+2192), or paste the character itself to look up its name. The tool fuzzy-matches names, so "arrow right" works the same as "rightwards arrow".
▶What is the HTML entity form?
HTML entities are ways to reference special characters in HTML source: → (decimal), → (hex), or → (named entity). All three refer to → (rightwards arrow). Use them when directly typing a character might be risky or when you need to preserve encoding across tools.
▶Can I paste any character into any application?
Mostly yes, but there are exceptions. Very rare codepoints may not have font coverage everywhere. Legacy systems may strip non-ASCII. Test the destination before relying on obscure characters for critical content.
▶What is the difference between ♥ and ❤️?
♥ (U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT) is a text character typically rendered as a simple black heart. ❤️ (U+2764 U+FE0F) is the emoji heart, rendered as a red colorful emoji on modern systems. Different codepoints, different defaults, different intent.
▶How are emoji encoded?
Simple emoji are single codepoints (😀 is U+1F600). Compound emoji (flags, skin-toned, family emoji) are sequences joined by zero-width joiners (U+200D). The 👨👩👧 family emoji is man + ZWJ + woman + ZWJ + girl — four codepoints rendered as one.
▶Do characters work in emails?
Standard email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) support Unicode in subject and body. Very old email clients may strip or garble non-ASCII. For reliable rendering across ancient clients, stick to ASCII with HTML entities for symbols.
▶Is my search tracked?
No. The character database is loaded once, and all search runs locally in your browser. The server never sees what characters you look up.
Additional resources
- Unicode Consortium — Official organization maintaining the Unicode standard.
- Unicode Character Database — Authoritative source for character properties, names, and categories.
- MDN HTML entities — Reference for HTML character entities.
- emojipedia.org — Comprehensive emoji reference with platform-specific rendering.
- compart.com Unicode browser — Alternative comprehensive Unicode character browser.
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