Special Characters and Symbols

HTML allows you to display a wide range of special characters and symbols in your web content. These characters serve various purposes, from mathematical notations to decorative symbols. Let's explore how to include special characters and symbols in your HTML documents.

Character Entities

Special characters and symbols are represented in HTML using character entities, which consist of an ampersand (&), followed by a character code or entity name, and closed with a semicolon (;). Here are some commonly used character entities:

• < represents < (less than)
• > represents > (greater than)
• & represents & (ampersand)
• " represents " (double quotation mark)
• ' or ' represents ' (apostrophe or single quotation mark)

For example, to display a less than sign (<) in your HTML document, you'd use <.

Numeric Character References

Numeric character references use the Unicode code point to represent special characters and symbols. They are specified using &# followed by the decimal or hexadecimal value of the code point, and then closed with a semicolon (;). For example:

• © represents © (copyright symbol)
• € represents € (Euro currency symbol)

Commonly Used Symbols

Here are some commonly used special characters and symbols along with their character entities or numeric references:

• © — © or ©
• € — € or €
• ™ — ™ or ™
• × — × or ×
• ∑ — ∑ or ∑
• ∆ — Δ or Δ
• ∞ — ∞ or ∞

Special Characters for Math and Science

HTML provides a set of character entities and numeric references for mathematical and scientific notations. These include Greek letters, mathematical operators, and symbols used in physics and chemistry.

• Σ — Σ or Σ
• ∫ — ∫ or ∫
• ∝ — ∝ or ∝
• √ — √ or √
• µ — µ or µ

Custom Symbols

You can also create custom symbols and characters by specifying their Unicode code points. This is especially useful when you need symbols not available through character entities. You can use online Unicode lookup tables or tools to find the code points for specific symbols.

Emoji

To include emojis in your HTML content, you can use their Unicode code points or character entities. For example:

• ? — 😃 or &\#x1F603;
• ? — 🚀 or &\#x1F680;

Emoji Icons

For a wide range of icons and symbols, you can use icon fonts or scalable vector graphics (SVG) images. These methods provide more flexibility and design options for adding icons and symbols to your web content.

In summary, HTML allows you to include a variety of special characters and symbols in your web documents. Whether you need mathematical notations, currency symbols, or decorative icons, you can use character entities, numeric references, and custom symbols to enhance your web content.