Help:Displaying Special Characters

Displaying Special Characters

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

HTML Character Set

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Exclamation mark	!			!		Quotation mark	"		"	"
Number sign	#			#		Dollar sign	$			$
Percent sign	%			%		Ampersand	&		&	&
Apostrophe	'			'		Left parenthesis	(			(
Right parenthesis	)			)		Asterisk	*	U+002A		*
Plus sign	+			+		Comma	,			,
Hyphen	-			-		Period	.			.
Solidus (slash)	/	U+002F		/		Decimal digits	0 - 9			0 - 9
Colon	:			:		Semi-colon	;			&#59;
Less than	<			&#60;		Equals sign	=			&#61;
Greater mark	>			&#62;		Question mark	?			&#63;
Commercial at	@			&#64;		Uppercase letters	A - Z			&#65; - &#90;
Left square bracket	[			&#91;		Reverse solidus (back slash)	\			&#92;
Right square bracket	]			&#93;		Caret	^			&#94;
Horizontal bar	_			&#95;		Grave accent	`			&#96;
Lowercase letters	a - z			&#97; - &#122;		Left curly brace	{			&#123;
Vertical bar	|			&#124;		Right curly brace	}			&#125;
Tilde	~			&#126;		Nonbreaking space			&nbsp;	&#160;
Capital A, grave accent	À		&Agrave;	&#192;		Small a, grave accent	à		&agrave;	&#224;
Capital A, acute accent	Á		&Aacute;	&#193;		Small a, acute accent	á		&aacute;	&#225;
Capital A, circumflex accent	Â		&Acirc;	&#194;		Small a, circumflex accent	â		&acirc;	&#226;
Capital A, tilde	Ã		&Atilde;	&#195;		Small a, tilde	ã		&atilde;	&#227;
Capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark	Ä		&Auml;	&#196;		Small a, dieresis or umlaut mark	ä		&auml;	&#228;
Capital A, ring	Å		&Aring;	&#197;		Small a, ring	å		&aring;	&#229;
Capital AE dipthong (ligature)	Æ		&AElig;	&#198;		Small ae dipthong (ligature)	æ		&aelig;	&#230;
Capital C, cedilla	Ç		&Ccedil;	&#199;		Small c, cedilla	ç		&ccedil;	&#231;
Capital Eth, Icelandic	Ð		&ETH;	&#208;		Small eth, Icelandic	ð		&eth;	&#240;
Capital E, grave accent	È		&Egrave;	&#200;		Small e, grave accent	è		&egrave;	&#232;
Capital E, acute accent	É		&Eacute;	&#201;		Small e, acute accent	é		&eacute;	&#233;
Capital E, circumflex accent	Ê		&Ecirc;	&#202;		Small e, circumflex accent	ê		&ecirc;	&#234;
Capital E, dieresis or umlaut mark	Ë		&Euml;	&#203;		Small e, dieresis or umlaut mark	ë		&euml;	&#235;
Capital I, grave accent	Ì		&Igrave;	&#204;		Small i, grave accent	ì		&igrave;	&#236;
Capital I, acute accent	Í		&Iacute;	&#205;		Small i, acute accent	í		&iacute;	&#237;
Capital I, circumflex accent	Î		&Icirc;	&#206;		Small i, circumflex accent	î		&icirc;	&#238;
Capital I, dieresis or umlaut mark	Ï		&Iuml;	&#207;		Small i, dieresis or umlaut mark	ï		&iuml;	&#239;
Micro sign	µ		&micro;	&#181;		Capital N, tilde	Ñ		&Ntilde;	&#209;
Small n, tilde	ñ		&micro;	&#241;		Capital O, grave accent	Ò		&Ograve;	&#210;
Small o, grave accent	ò		&ograve;	&#242;		Capital O, acute accent	Ó		&Oacute;	&#211;
Small o, acute accent	ó		&oacute;	&#243;		Capital O, circumflex accent	Ô		&Ocirc;	&#212;
Small o, circumflex accent	ô		&ocirc;	&#244;		Capital O, tilde	Õ		&Otilde;	&#213;
Small o, tilde	õ		&otilde;	&#245;		Capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark	Ö		&Ouml;	&#214;
Small o, dieresis or umlaut mark	ö		&ouml;	&#246;		Capital O, slash	Ø		&Oslash;	&#216;
Small o, slash	ø		&oslash;	&#248;		Small sharp s, German (sz ligature)	ß		&szlig;	&#223;
Capital THORN, Icelandic	Þ		&THORN;	&#222;		Small thorn, Icelandic	þ		&thorn;	&#254;
Capital U, grave accent	Ù		&Ugrave;	&#217;		Small u, grave accent	ù		&ugrave;	&#249;

General Punctuation

Tick or Checkmark ✓ ✓

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Hyphen	‐	U+2010		‐		Non-breaking Hyphen	‑	U+2011		‑
Figure Dash	‒	U+2012		‒		En Dash	–	U+2013	–	–
Em Dash	—	U+2014	—	—		Horizontal Bar	―	U+2015		―
Double Vertical Line	‖	U+2016		‖		Double Low Line	‗	U+2017		‗
Left Single Quotation Mark	‘	U+2018	‘	‘		Right Single Quotation Mark	’	U+2019	’	’
Single Low-9 Quotation Mark	‚	U+201A	‚	‚		Single High-Reversed-9 Quotation Mark	‛	U+201B		‛
Left Double Quotation Mark	“	U+201C	“	“		Right Double Quotation Mark	”	U+201D	”	”
Double Low-9 Quotation Mark	„	U+201E	„	„		Double High-reversed-9 Quotation Mark	‟	U+201F		‟
Dagger	†	U+2020	†	†		Double Dagger	‡	U+2021	‡	‡
Bullet = black small circle	•	U+2022	•	•		Triangular Bullet	‣	U+2023		‣
One Dot Leader	․	U+2024		․		Two Dot Leader	‥	U+2025		‥
Horizontal ellipsis	…	U+2026	…	…		Hyphenation Point	‧	U+2027		‧
Per Mille Sign	‰	U+2030	‰	‰		Per Ten Thousand Sign	‱	U+2031		‱
Prime = minutes = feet	′	U+2032	′	′		Double prime = seconds = inches	″	U+2033	″	″
Triple Prime	‴	U+2034		‴		Reversed Prime	‵	U+2035		‵
Reversed Double Prime	‶	U+2036		‶		Reversed Triple Prime	‷	U+2037		‷
Caret	‸	U+2038		‸		Single Left-Pointing Angle Quotation Mark	‹	U+2039	‹	‹
Single Right-Pointing Angle Quotation Mark	›	U+203A	›	›		Reference Mark	※	U+203B		※
Double Exclamation Mark	‼	U+203C		‼		Interrobang	‽	U+203D		‽
Overline = spacing overscore	‾	U+203E		‾		Undertie	‿	U+203F		‿
Character Tie	⁀	U+2040		⁀		Caret Insertion Point	⁁	U+2041		⁁
Asterism	⁂	U+2042		⁂		Hyphen Bullet	⁃	U+2043		⁃
Fraction Slash	⁄	U+2044	⁄	⁄		Left Square Bracket with Quill	⁅	U+2045		⁅
Right Square Bracket with Quill	⁆	U+2046		⁆		Double Question Mark	⁇	U+2047		⁇
Question Exclamation Mark	⁈	U+2048		⁈		Exclamation Question Mark	⁉	U+2049		⁉

Greek Alphabet

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Alpha	Α		Α			alpha	α		α
Beta	Β		Β			beta	β		β
Gamma	Γ		Γ			gamma	γ		γ
Delta	Δ		Δ			delta	δ		δ
Epsilon	Ε		Ε			epsilon	ε		ε
Zeta	Ζ		Ζ			zeta	ζ		ζ
Eta	Η		Η			eta	η		η
Theta	Θ		Θ			theta	θ		θ
Iota	Ι		Ι			iota	ι		ι
Kappa	Κ		Κ			kappa	κ		κ
Lambda	Λ		Λ			lambda	λ		λ
Mu	Μ		Μ			mu	μ		μ
Nu	Ν		Ν			nu	ν		ν
Xi	Ξ		Ξ			xi	ξ		ξ
Omicron	Ο		Ο			omicron	ο		ο
Pi	Π		Π			pi	π		π
Rho	Ρ		Ρ			rho	ρ		ρ
Sigma	Σ		Σ			sigma	σ		σ
Tau	Τ		Τ			tau	τ		τ
Upsilon	Υ		Υ			upsilon	υ		υ
Phi	Φ		Φ			phi	φ		φ
Chi	Χ		Χ			chi	χ		χ
Psi	Ψ		Ψ			psi	ψ		ψ
Omega	Ω		Ω			omega	ω		ω

Arrows

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Leftwards arrow	←	U+2190	←	←		Rightwards arrow	→	U+2192	→	→;
Downwards arrow	↓	U+2193	↓	↓		Upwards arrow	↑	U+2191	↑	↑;
Left right arrow	↔	U+2194	↔	↔		Downwards arrow with corner leftwards = carriage return	↵	U+21B5	↵	↵;
Leftwards double arrow	⇐	U+21D0	⇐	⇐		Upwards double arrow	⇑	U+21D1	⇑	⇑;
Rightwards double arrow	⇒	U+21D2	⇒	⇒		Downwards double arrow	⇓	U+21D3	⇓	⇓;
Left right double arrow	⇔	U+21D4	⇔	⇔

Asterisks

	Glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Asterisk	*	U+002A		*
Small Asterisk	﹡	U+FE61		﹡
Full Width Asterisk	＊	U+FF0A		＊
Asterisk Operator (Math Asterisk)	∗	U+2217	∗	∗
Heavy Asterisk	✱	U+2731		✱
Open Centre Asterisk	✲	U+2732		✲
Eight Spoked Asterisk	✳	U+2733		✳
Sixteen Pointed Asterisk	✺	U+273A		✺
Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk	✻	U+273B		✻
Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk	✼	U+273C		✼
Heavy Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk	✽	U+273D		✽
Four Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk	✢	U+2722		✢
Four Balloon-Spoked Asterisk	✣	U+2723		✣
Heavy Four Balloon-Spoked Asterisk	✤	U+2724		✤
Four Club-Spoked Asterisk	✥	U+2725		✥
Heavy Teardrop-Spoked Pinwheel Asterisk	❃	U+2743		❃
Balloon-Spoked Asterisk	❉	U+2749		❉
Eight Teardrop-Spoked Propeller Asterisk	❊	U+274A		❊
Heavy Eight Teardrop-Spoked Propeller Asterisk	❋	U+274B		❋
Arabic star	٭	U+066D		٭
Japanese "Rice" Star	※	U+203B		※

Mathematical operators and relations

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Less than	<		&lt;	&#60;		Greater than	>		&gt;	&#62;
Division symbol	÷		&divide;	&#247;		Degree symbol	°		&deg;	&#176;
Not symbol	¬		&not;	&#172;		Plus/minus symbol	±		&plusmn;	&#177;
Micro	µ		&micro;	&#181;
For all	∀	U+2200	&forall;	&#8704;		Partial differential	∂	U+2202	&parc;	&#8706;
There exists	∃	U+2203	&exist;	&#8707;		Empty set = null set = diameter	∅	U+2205	&empty;	&#8709;
Nabla = backward difference	∇	U+2207	&nabla;	&#8711;		Element of	∈	U+2208	&isin;	&#8712;
Not an element of	∉	U+2209	&notin;	&#8713;		Contains as member = "such that"	∋	U+220B	&ni;	&#8715;
N-ary product = product sign	∏	U+220F	&prod;	&#8719;		N-ary sumation	∑	U+2211	&sum;	&#8721;
Minus sign	−	U+2212	&minus;	&#8722;		Asterisk operator	∗	U+2217	&lowast;	&#8727;
Square root = radical sign	√	U+221A	&radic;	&#8730;		Proportional to	∝	U+221D	&prop;	&#8733;
Infinity	∞	U+221E	&infin;	&#8734;		Angle	∠	U+2220	&ang;	&#8736;
Logical and = wedge	∧	U+2227	&and;	&#8743;		Logical or = vee	∨	U+2228	&or;	&#8744;
Intersection = cap	∩	U+2229	&cap;	&#8745;		Union = cup	∪	U+222A	&cup;	&#8746;
Integral	∫	U+222B	&int;	&#8747;		Therefore	∴	U+2234	&there4;	&#8756;
Tilde operator = varies with = similar to	∼	U+223C	&sim;	&#8764;		Approximately equal to = isomorphic to	≅	U+2245	&cong;	&#8773;
Almost equal to = asymptotic to	≈	U+2248	&asymp;	&#8776;		Not equal to	≠	U+2260	&ne;	&#8800;
Identical to	≡	U+2261	&equiv;	&#8801;		Less than or equal to	≤	U+2264	&le;	&#8804;
Greater than or equal to	≥	U+2265	&ge;	&#8805;		Subset of	⊂	U+2282	&sub;	&#8834;
Superset of	⊃	U+2283	&sup;	&#8835;		Not a subset of	⊄	U+2284	&nsub;	&#8836;
Subset of or equal to	⊆	U+2286	&sube;	&#8838;		Superset of or equal to	⊇	U+2287	&supe;	&#8839;
Circled plus = direct sum	⊕	U+2295	&oplus;	&#8853;		Circled times = vector product	⊗	U+2297	&otimes;	&#8855;
Up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular	⊥	U+22A5	&perp;	&#8869;		Circled times = vector product	⋅	U+22C5	&sdot;	&#8901;

Corners, Angle brackets

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Left ceiling = apl upstile	⌈	U+2308	⌈	⌈		Right ceiling	⌉	U+2309	⌉	⌉
Left floor = apl downstile	⌊	U+230A	⌊	⌊		Right floor	⌋	U+230B	⌋	⌋
Left-pointing angle bracket = bra	〈	U+2329	⟨	〈		Right-pointing angle bracket = ket	〉	U+232A	⟩	〉

Currency Symbols

	glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal			glyph	Unicode	HTML	Decimal
Colon	₡	U+20A1		₡		Cruzeiro	₢	U+20A2		₢
French Franc	₣	U+20A3		₣		Lira	₤	U+20A4		₤
Mill	₥	U+20A5		₥		Naira	₦	U+20A6		₦
Peseta	₧	U+20A7		₧		Rupee	₨	U+20A8		₨
Won	₩	U+20A9		₩		New Sheqel	₪	U+20AA		₪
Dong	₫	U+20AB		₫		Euro	€	U+20AC	€	€
Kip	₭	U+20AD		₭		Tugrik	₮	U+20AE		₮
Drachma	₯	U+20AF		₯		German Penny	₰	U+20B0		₰
Peso	₱	U+20B1		₱		Guarani	₲	U+20B2		₲
Austral	₳	U+20B3		₳		Hryvnia	₴	U+20B4		₴
Cedi	₵	U+20B5		₵		Dollar	$	U+0024		$
Cent	¢	U+00A2	¢	¢		Pound	£	U+00A3	£	£
General Currency	¤	U+00A4	¤	¤		Yen	¥	U+00A5	¥	¥
Bengali Rupee Sign	৳	U+09F3		৳		Thai Currency Symbol Baht	฿	U+0E3F		฿
Sqare Yuan	㍐	U+3350		㍐		Yuan	元	U+5143		元
Yen	円	U+5186		円		Rial	﷼	U+FDFC		﷼

HTML vs TeX

There are several forms for displaying special characters or mathematical expressions:

Code	Displayed
a³+a²b	a³+a²b
<math>a^3+a^2b</math>	[math]a^3+a^2b[/math]
<math>a^3+a^2b\,</math>	[math]a^3+a^2b\,[/math]

Before trying [math]\mathrm{T\!_{\displaystyle E} \! X} \,[/math] markup for producing special characters, it should be noted that, as this comparison table shows, sometimes similar results can be achieved in HTML.

For a comprehensive set of help pages on [math]\mathrm{T\!_{\displaystyle E} \! X} \,[/math], see Help:LaTeX Symbol Tables for Wikieducator

TeX Syntax (forcing PNG)	TeX Rendering	HTML Syntax	HTML Rendering
<math>\alpha\,\!</math>	[math]\alpha\,\![/math]	{{mathem|<VAR>&alpha;</VAR>}}	α
<math>\sqrt{2}</math>	[math]\sqrt{2}[/math]	{{mathem|{{radical|2}}}}	√2
<math>\sqrt{1-e^2}</math>	[math]\sqrt{1-e^2}\![/math]	{{mathem|{{radical|1 − ''e''²}}}}	√1 − e²

The use of HTML instead of TeX is still under discussion. The arguments either way can be summarised as follows.

Pros of HTML

1. In-line HTML formulae always align properly with the rest of the HTML text.
2. The formula’s background and font size match the rest of HTML contents and the appearance respects CSS and browser settings while the typeface is conveniently altered to help you identify formulae.
3. Pages using HTML code for formulae will load faster and they will create less clutter on your hard disk.
4. Formulae typeset with HTML code will be accessible to client-side script links (a.k.a. scriptlets).
5. The display of a formula entered using mathematical templates can be conveniently altered by modifying the templates involved; this modification will affect all relevant formulae without any manual intervention.
6. The HTML code, if entered diligently, will contain all semantic information to transform the equation back to TeX or any other code as needed. It can even contain differences TeX does not normally catch, e.g. {{mathem|''i''}} for the imaginary unit and {{mathem|<VAR>i</VAR>}} for an arbitrary index variable.

Pros of TeX

1. TeX is semantically superior to HTML. In TeX, "<math>x</math>" means "mathematical variable [math]x[/math]", whereas in HTML "x" could mean anything. Information has been irrevocably lost.
2. On the other hand, if you encode the same formula as "{{mathem|<VAR>x</VAR>}}", you get the same visual result x and no information is lost. This requires diligence and more typing that could make the formula harder to understand as you type it. However, since there are far more readers than editors, this effort is worth considering.
3. TeX has been specifically designed for typesetting formulae, so input is easier and more natural if you are accustomed to it, and output is more aesthetically pleasing if you focus on a single formula rather than on the whole containing page.
4. One consequence of point 1 is that TeX code can be transformed into HTML, but not vice-versa. This means that on the server side we can always transform a formula, based on its complexity and location within the text, user preferences, type of browser, etc. Therefore, where possible, all the benefits of HTML can be retained, together with the benefits of TeX. It is true that the current situation is not ideal, but that is not a good reason to drop information/contents. It is more a reason to help improve the situation.
5. Another consequence of point 1 is that TeX can be converted to MathML for browsers which support it, thus keeping its semantics and allowing the rendering to be better suited for the reader’s graphic device.
6. When writing in TeX, editors need not worry about whether this or that version of this or that browser supports this or that HTML entity. The burden of these decisions is put on the software. This does not hold for HTML formulae, which can easily end up being rendered wrongly or differently from the editor’s intentions on a different browser.
7. More importantly, the serif font used for rendering formulae is browser-dependent and it may be missing some important glyphs. While the browser generally capable to substitute a matching glyph from a different font family, it need not be the case for combined glyphs (compare ‘ IPA: /a̅/ ’ and ‘ a̅ ’).
8. TeX is the preferred text formatting language of most professional mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. It is easier to persuade them to contribute if they can write in TeX.