---
title: "Symbol Picker: Copy Special Characters | Tiny Shortcuts"
description: "Copy arrows, maths, currency, Greek, box drawing and keyboard symbols with one click, with each character's Unicode code point and HTML entity."
url: https://tinyshortcuts.click/symbol-picker/
---

# Symbol picker

Click a symbol to copy it. Each one comes with its Unicode name and code point, its HTML entity, and the escapes for CSS and JavaScript.

## How to use the symbol picker

Search by name (“arrow”, “euro”, “check”), by code point (U+2192, or just 2192), or paste a character to find out what it is. Pick a category to narrow the grid. Clicking a symbol copies it at once and shows its details, where every format has its own copy button.

To collect several symbols, such as ✓ Done → Next, use Add to text and copy the result in one go. The symbols you copied last stay in the Recently copied row, saved only in this browser.

## Which format to use

Paste the character itself anywhere that accepts text. In HTML you can also write the named entity, when there is one, or the numeric reference, which works for every character. The CSS escape belongs in a `content` property, for example `content: "\2192"`, and the JavaScript escape inside a string.

## Questions

**What is the difference between a code point and an HTML entity?**

The code point, such as U+2192, is the character's number in Unicode: the same in every font and program. An HTML entity such as → is a name only HTML understands. The numeric forms → and → work for any character, named or not.

**Why does a symbol look different after I paste it?**

The character is the same, but each font draws it its own way, and a font that lacks a symbol borrows it from another one. A few symbols, such as ☀ and ✉, can also turn into colourful emoji in apps that prefer the emoji version.

**Can I type these symbols without copying them?**

Some of them. On a Mac the [Option key](https://tinyshortcuts.click/mac-option-key-characters/) types many, and on Windows [Alt codes](https://tinyshortcuts.click/alt-codes/) cover the older ones. For the rest, open the Character Viewer with Control+Cmd+Space on a Mac or the emoji panel with Win+. on Windows.