Special HTML Characters

 When writing web pages in HTML, it soon becomes useful to know how to produce unusual characters (such as é or ü or ™).

 The trick here is to use a specific tag that tells the browser you are inserting a special character. This tag consists of the & character followed by a character name and a semicolon (such as: é for é).

 There are plenty of references describing the code for each special character, and many are easy to remember. Yet there’s also another way of producing the same characters and then some! This alternate method is similar because it uses an & prefix and a ; suffix, but here the code for the character is a number from one to 255. These numbers are the ASCII character numbers, and they are pretty much universal across the globe. This system allows you to code for special characters that may be missing from the HTML name encoding system. (In fact, it’s possible to code every letter of text in a web page using these number codes, but who would bother?)

 Take for example, the idea of curly quotes. Most WYSIWYG HTML editors produce straight quotes, and for the most part, that’s all one sees on the web. However, using the code “ and ”, we can produce “curly” quotes (just like all professional typesetter’s use).

Following is a table of HTML special character codes. (For an interactive code translator, try The Character Coder...)

desired character number codes name codes








	























 
!!
"""
##
$$
%%
&&&
''
((
))
**
++
,,
--
..
//
00
11
22
33
44
55
66
77
88
99
::
;&#59;
<&#60;&lt;
=&#61;
>&#62;&gt;
?&#63;
@&#64;
A&#65;
B&#66;
C&#67;
D&#68;
E&#69;
F&#70;
G&#71;
H&#72;
I&#73;
J&#74;
K&#75;
L&#76;
M&#77;
N&#78;
O&#79;
P&#80;
Q&#81;
R&#82;
S&#83;
T&#84;
U&#85;
V&#86;
W&#87;
X&#88;
Y&#89;
Z&#90;
[&#91;
\&#92;
]&#93;
^&#94;
_&#95;
`&#96;
a&#97;
b&#98;
c&#99;
d&#100;
e&#101;
f&#102;
g&#103;
h&#104;
i&#105;
j&#106;
k&#107;
l&#108;
m&#109;
n&#110;
o&#111;
p&#112;
q&#113;
r&#114;
s&#115;
t&#116;
u&#117;
v&#118;
w&#119;
x&#120;
y&#121;
z&#122;
{&#123;
|&#124;
}&#125;
~&#126;
&#127;
€&#128;
&#129;
‚&#130;
ƒ&#131;
„&#132;
…&#133;
†&#134;
‡&#135;
ˆ&#136;
‰&#137;
Š&#138;
‹&#139;
Œ&#140;
&#141;
Ž&#142;
&#143;
&#144;
‘&#145;
’&#146;
“&#147;
”&#148;
•&#149;
–&#150;
—&#151;
˜&#152;
™&#153;
š&#154;
›&#155;
œ&#156;
&#157;
ž&#158;
Ÿ&#159;
 &#160;
¡&#161;
¢&#162;&cent;
£&#163;&pound;
¤&#164;
¥&#165;
¦&#166;&brvbar; or &brkbar;
§&#167;&sect;
¨&#168;&reg; (??)
©&#169;&copy;
ª&#170;
«&#171;
¬&#172;
­&#173;
®&#174;&reg;
¯&#175;
°&#176;&deg;
±&#177;&plusmn;
²&#178;&sup2;
³&#179;&sup3;
´&#180;
µ&#181;
&#182;
·&#183;&middot;
¸&#184;
¹&#185;&sup1;
º&#186;
»&#187;
¼&#188;&frac14;
½&#189;&frac12;
¾&#190;&frac34;
¿&#191;
À&#192;&Agrave;
Á&#193;&Aacute;
Â&#194;&Acirc;
Ã&#195;&Atilde;
Ä&#196;&Auml;
Å&#197;&Aring;
Æ&#198;&AElig;
Ç&#199;&Ccedil;
È&#200;&Egrave;
É&#201;&Eacute;
Ê&#202;&Ecirc;
Ë&#203;&Euml;
Ì&#204;&Igrave;
Í&#205;&Iacute;
Î&#206;&Icirc;
Ï&#207;&Iuml;
Ð&#208;
Ñ&#209;&Ntilde;
Ò&#210;&Ograve;
Ó&#211;&Oacute;
Ô&#212;&Ocirc;
Õ&#213;&Otilde;
Ö&#214;&Ouml;
×&#215;
Ø&#216;&Oslash;
Ù&#217;&Ugrave;
Ú&#218;&Uacute;
Û&#219;&Ucirc;
Ü&#220;&Uuml;
Ý&#221;&Yacute;
Þ&#222;&THORN;
ß&#223;&szlig;
à&#224;&agrave;
á&#225;&aacute;
â&#226;&acirc;
ã&#227;&atilde;
ä&#228;&auml;
å&#229;&aring;
æ&#230;&aelig;
ç&#231;&ccedil;
è&#232;&egrave;
é&#233;&eacute;
ê&#234;&ecirc;
ë&#235;&euml;
ì&#236;&igrave;
í&#237;&iacute;
î&#238;&icirc;
ï&#239;&iuml;
ð&#240;&eth;
ñ&#241;&ntilde;
ò&#242;&ograve;
ó&#243;&oacute;
ô&#244;&ocirc;
õ&#245;&otilde;
ö&#246;&ouml;
÷&#247;
ø&#248;&oslash;
ù&#249;&ugrave;
ú&#250;&uacute;
û&#251;&ucirc;
ü&#252;&uuml;
ý&#253;&yacute;
þ&#254;&thorn;
ÿ&#255;&yuml;

PLEASE NOTE: that some of the name codes may not work the same across all systems (see especially the code for the registered character, number 168). Also, some of these characters may appear different for keyboards that are mapped-out differently than yours. Therefore, use these codes at your own risk. Most of them (especially the vowels with diacritical markings) are standardized, so try the ones you really need on a few different machines. You’ll quickly learn which ones work best for your web pages.

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