Special Text Characters — Copy and Paste Special Characters

February 16, 2026·9 min read

You know those characters that don't live on your keyboard? The ones you can never remember how to type — like © or ™ or ÷ or ñ? There are thousands of them hiding in Unicode, and most people only know how to get to maybe five.

This page is your reference sheet. I've organized the most useful special text characters by category so you can find what you need and copy it in seconds. No keyboard shortcuts to memorize, no Alt codes to fumble through.

Punctuation and Typographic Characters

Beyond the basic period and comma, there's a whole world of punctuation most people never use:

— — Em dash (longer dash, used for interruptions or asides)
– — En dash (medium dash, used for ranges like "2–5")
… — Ellipsis (proper three-dot character, not three periods)
• — Bullet point
· — Middle dot (interpunct)
† — Dagger (used for footnotes)
‡ — Double dagger
§ — Section sign
¶ — Pilcrow (paragraph mark)
※ — Reference mark
‽ — Interrobang (question mark + exclamation mark combined)
⁂ — Asterism (three asterisks in a triangle)
«» — Guillemets (French quotation marks)
"" — Curly double quotes
'' — Curly single quotes

The em dash — is probably the most underrated character here. Most people use two hyphens (--) instead, but the real em dash looks way cleaner in documents, emails, and social media posts.

Currency Symbols

Beyond the dollar sign on your keyboard, here are currency symbols from around the world:

$ — Dollar (US, Canada, Australia, etc.)
€ — Euro
£ — British pound
¥ — Japanese yen / Chinese yuan
₹ — Indian rupee
₩ — Korean won
₿ — Bitcoin
₽ — Russian ruble
₱ — Philippine peso
₺ — Turkish lira
₫ — Vietnamese dong
₵ — Ghana cedi
₡ — Costa Rican colon
¢ — Cent sign
₮ — Mongolian tugrik

The euro symbol € is probably the one people search for most after the dollar. On Windows you can type it with Alt+0128, but honestly, just copy it from here.

Math and Science Characters

If you write anything technical, you'll need these at some point:

± — Plus-minus
× — Multiplication sign (not the letter x)
÷ — Division sign
≠ — Not equal to
≈ — Approximately equal
≤ — Less than or equal
≥ — Greater than or equal
∞ — Infinity
π — Pi
√ — Square root
∑ — Summation (sigma)
∫ — Integral
∂ — Partial derivative
Δ — Delta (change)
° — Degree sign
µ — Micro sign
Ω — Ohm / Omega
∅ — Empty set
∈ — Element of
∉ — Not element of
⊂ — Subset
∪ — Union
∩ — Intersection

The multiplication sign × is one that trips people up. Everyone uses "x" instead, but × is the real deal. Same with ÷ vs "/" for division — using the actual symbol makes your writing look professional.

Check out our full math symbols collection for even more.

Accented Letters

Writing in a foreign language or using a borrowed word? Here are the most common accented characters:

Spanish

á é í ó ú — Vowels with accent
ñ — N with tilde
¿ — Inverted question mark
¡ — Inverted exclamation mark
ü — U with diaeresis

French

à â ä — A with accents
è é ê ë — E with accents
î ï — I with accents
ô ö — O with accents
ù û ü — U with accents
ç — C with cedilla
œ — OE ligature

German

ä ö ü — Umlauts
ß — Eszett (sharp S)

Other Common Ones

ø — Scandinavian O
å — Scandinavian A with ring
æ — AE ligature
ð — Eth (Icelandic)
þ — Thorn (Icelandic)

If you're writing someone's name that has an accent — like José or François — it's worth the effort to get the accented character right. It's a sign of respect.

Legal and Business Symbols

You probably know at least some of these:

© — Copyright
® — Registered trademark
™ — Trademark
℠ — Service mark
℗ — Sound recording copyright
§ — Section sign (used in legal references)

The copyright symbol © is one that businesses need all the time. You'll see it at the bottom of websites ("© 2026 Company Name"). The trademark ™ and registered ® symbols are equally common — and using the wrong one can actually matter legally.

Quick rule: ™ means you're claiming a trademark. ® means it's officially registered with a trademark office. Using ® when you haven't registered can get you in trouble.

Fractions

Instead of writing "1/2" you can use the proper fraction character:

½ — One half
⅓ — One third
⅔ — Two thirds
¼ — One quarter
¾ — Three quarters
⅕ — One fifth
⅖ — Two fifths
⅗ — Three fifths
⅘ — Four fifths
⅙ — One sixth
⅚ — Five sixths
⅛ — One eighth
⅜ — Three eighths
⅝ — Five eighths
⅞ — Seven eighths

These look way better than "1/2" in documents and recipes. "Add ½ cup of flour" reads cleaner than "Add 1/2 cup of flour."

Superscript and Subscript Numbers

These are useful for math, chemistry, and footnotes:

Superscript

⁰ ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹

Subscript

₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉

So instead of writing "H2O" you can write "H₂O" and it looks like actual chemistry. Or "x²" instead of "x^2" for math. Small difference, big impact on readability.

Arrows and Pointers

Arrows show up everywhere — menus, instructions, directions. Here are some common ones:

→ — Right arrow
← — Left arrow
↑ — Up arrow
↓ — Down arrow
↔ — Left-right arrow
↕ — Up-down arrow
⇒ — Double right arrow (implies)
⇐ — Double left arrow
▶ — Play / right-pointing triangle
◀ — Left-pointing triangle
▲ — Up-pointing triangle
▼ — Down-pointing triangle

Check our full arrow symbols collection for even more options.

Box Drawing Characters

These are for making tables and borders in plain text:

┌ ┐ └ ┘ — Single-line corners
─ │ — Horizontal and vertical lines
├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼ — T-junctions and cross
╔ ╗ ╚ ╝ — Double-line corners
═ ║ — Double horizontal and vertical
█ ▓ ▒ ░ — Shade blocks (full to light)

These are popular for ASCII art and text-based design. They look great in code comments and README files too.

How to Find Any Special Character

When you need a character that's not on this page:

Windows

Press Win + . to open the emoji picker — it has symbols too
Open Character Map (search "character map" in Start)
Use Alt codes: hold Alt and type the number on the numpad

Mac

Press Control + Command + Space for the Character Viewer
Or go to Edit → Emoji & Symbols in most apps

Mobile

Long-press letters on your keyboard to see accent variations
Switch to the symbols keyboard (usually tap "123" or "#+=)"
Some keyboards have a special characters section — Gboard is good for this

Or Just Use iLoveSymbols

Browse our symbol collections and copy anything you need with one tap. That's what we're here for.

Final Thoughts

Special characters aren't hard to use — the hard part is knowing they exist. Now you do. Bookmark this page, copy what you need, and your text will look more polished and professional.