HTML Entities

Most web pages can only display a limited number of characters naturally; these tend to be standard letters, numbers, and punctuation, along with a few symbols. Often times, however, you may wish to display characters which, if typed directly into HTML, might not appear correctly on the rendered web page. In order to show these special characters, we use things called HTML Entities.

An entity might be any number of special symbols that are not found directly on the keyboard. Here are some examples of entities:

! " # $ % & ' [ \ ] ^ { | È ~  €  ‚ ƒ „ … † ‡ ˆ ‰ Š ‹ Œ  Ž   ‘ ’ “ ” • ь — ˜ ™ š › œ  ž Ÿ   ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ¨ © ª « ¬ ­ ® ь ° ± ² ³ ´ µ ¶ · ¸ ¹ º » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿ À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö × Ø Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Þ ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ࠴ û ü ý þ ÿ Ā ā Ă ă Ą ą Ć ć Ĉ ĉ Ċ ċ Č č Ď ď Đ đ Ē ࠴ Ĕ ĕ Ė ė Ę ę Ě ě Ĝ ĝ Ğ ğ Ġ ġ Ģ ģ Ĥ ĥ Ħ ħ Ĩ ĩ Ī ī Ĭ ĭ Į į İ ı IJ ij Ĵ ĵ Ķ ķ ĸ Ĺ ĺ Ļ ļ Ľ ľ Ŀ ŀ Ł ł Ń ń Ņ ņ Ň ň ʼn Ŋ ŋ Ō ō Ŏ ŏ Ő ő Œ œ Ŕ ŕ Ŗ ŗ Ř ř Ś ś Ŝ ŝ జ ş Š š Ţ ţ Ť ť Ŧ ŧ Ũ ũ Ū ū Ŭ ŭ Ů ů Ű ű Ų ų Ŵ ŵ Ŷ జ Ÿ Ź ź Ż ż Ž ž ſ ƀ Ɓ Ƃ ƃ Ƅ ƅ Ɔ Ƈ ƈ Ɖ Ɗ Ƌ ƌ ƍ Ǝ Ə Ɛ Ƒ ƒ Ɠ Ɣ ƕ Ɩ Ɨ Ƙ ƙ ƚ ƛ Ɯ Ɲ ƞ Ɵ Ơ ơ Ƣ ƣ Ƥ ƥ Ʀ Ƨ ƨ Ʃ ƪ ƫ Ƭ ƭ Ʈ Ư ư Ʊ Ʋ Ƴ ƴ Ƶ ƶ Ʒ Ƹ ƹ ƺ ƻ Ƽ ƽ ƾ ƿ ǀ ǁ င ǃ DŽ Dž dž LJ Lj lj NJ Nj

Try typing those with just your keyboard!

 

So, how do you make these? The basic rule is this: Begin with an Ampersand ( & ) and end with a semicolon ( ; ). Between them, put the code for the entity. You can either use a number code (e.g., "#165") or a special word (e.g. "yen") in the middle. The examples I chose--¥ and ¥ will both show the yen sign: ¥ and ¥.

You will find a list of many of the entities on this page in WikiPedia; the special words are shown in the "Name" column, and the number codes are in parentheses in the "Unicode code point (decimal)" column. I will display just a few of them here:

Char Code # Code Name
£ 163 pound
¤ 164 curren
¥ 165 yen
° 176 deg
± 177 plusmn
182 para
· 183 middot
¼ 188 frac14
½ 189 frac12
Ω 937 Omega
α 945 alpha
β 946 beta
γ 947 gamma
δ 948 delta
π 960 pi
• 8226 bull
… 8230 hellip
‰ 8240 permil
€ 8554 euro
→ 8604 rarr
↓ 8605 darr
↔ 8606 harr
⇒ 8658 rArr
⇓ 8660 dArr
⇔ 8660 hArr
√ 8730 radic
∞ 8734 infin
♠ 9824 spades
♣ 9827 clubs
♥ 9829 hearts
♦ 9830 diams

Go ahead and try out some entities below! Notice, by the way, that some only work in certain fonts. If you take away the Arial font, some of the later entities (e.g., the arrows and poker shapes) won't work.


 



 



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