A character set defines the way a sequence of bytes is converted into a sequence of characters. The character set we are using for our documents is the Latin-1 character set, which is also known as ISO-8859-1. This means our documents can contain any of the valid printable characters from the 8-bit Latin-1 character set. Of the 256 characters in the Latin-1 character set, 128 are the characters in the ASCII character set, the characters that typically appear on a standard U.S. English keyboard. The remaining 128 consist of special characters and accented characters that are used regularly in the Western European languages.
To specify these characters, you can enter the character entity (if one is defined) or the numeric entity. For example, to cause Æ to appear in a document, you could enter either Æ or Æ. Note that the case of character entities is significant. Specifying æ causes æ to be displayed.
Characters whose use constitutes a violation of our Editorial Guidelines are grayed out, but included for completeness. The first 32 characters in the character set are defined as control characters. For that reason they are not included in the following table.
| Numeric Entity | Character Entity | Displays as | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ! | ! | exclamation point | |
| " | " | " | quotation mark |
| # | # | number sign | |
| $ | $ | dollar sign | |
| % | % | percent sign | |
| & | & | & | ampersand |
| ' | ' | apostrophe | |
| ( | ( | left parenthesis | |
| ) | ) | right parenthesis | |
| * | * | asterisk | |
| + | + | plus sign | |
| , | , | comma | |
| - | - | hyphen | |
| . | . | period | |
| / | / | forward slash | |
| 0 to 9 | 0-9 | numerals 0-9 | |
| : | : | colon | |
| ; | ; | semicolon | |
| < | < | < | less-than sign |
| = | = | equals sign | |
| > | > | > | greater-than sign |
| ? | ? | question mark | |
| @ | @ | "At" sign | |
| A to Z | A to Z | uppercase letters "A" to "Z" | |
| [ | [ | left bracket | |
| \ | \ | backwards slash | |
| ] | ] | right bracket | |
| ^ | ^ | caret | |
| _ | _ | underscore | |
| ` | ` | accent grave | |
| a to z | a to z | lowercase letters "a" to "z" | |
| { | { | left curly brace | |
| | | | | vertical bar | |
| } | } | right curly brace | |
| ~ | ~ | tilde | |
|  | | tilde | |
| € | € | tilde | |
|  | | ||
| ‚ | ‚ | ||
| ƒ | ƒ | florin | |
| „ | „ | right double quote | |
| … | … | ellipsis | |
| † | † | dagger | |
| ‡ | ‡ | double dagger | |
| ˆ | ˆ | circumflex | |
| ‰ | ‰ | permil | |
| Š | Š | ||
| ‹ | ‹ | less-than sign | |
| Π| Π| capital OE ligature | |
|  | | ||
| Ž | Ž | ||
|  | | ||
|  | | ||
| ‘ | ‘ | left single quote | |
| ’ | ’ | right single quote | |
| “ | “ | left double quote | |
| ” | ” | right double quote | |
| • | • | bullet | |
| – | – | en dash | |
| — | — | em dash | |
| ˜ | ˜ | tilde | |
| ™ | ™ | trademark sign | |
| š | š | ||
| › | › | greater-than sign | |
| œ | œ | small oe ligature | |
|  | | ||
| ž | ž | ||
| Ÿ | Ÿ | capital Y, umlaut | |
|   | | non-breaking space | |
| ¡ | ¡ | ¡ | inverted exclamation point |
| ¢ | ¢ | ¢ | cent sign |
| £ | £ | £ | pound sign |
| ¤ | ¤ | ¤ | currency sign |
| ¥ | ¥ | ¥ | yen sign |
| ¦ | ¦ | ¦ | broken vertical bar |
| § | § | § | section sign |
| ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | diaeresis |
| © | © | © | copyright sign |
| ª | ª | ª | feminine ordinal |
| « | &lasquo; | « | left-pointing double angle quotation mark |
| ¬ | ¬ | ¬ | not sign |
| ­ | ­ | | soft hyphen |
| ® | ® | ® | registered trademark |
| ¯ | ¯ | ¯ | macron (overline) |
| ° | ° | ° | degree sign |
| ± | ± | ± | plus or minus |
| ² | ² | ² | superscript two |
| ³ | ³ | ³ | superscript three |
| ´ | ´ | ´ | acute accent |
| µ | µ | µ | micro sign (Greek mu) |
| ¶ | ¶ | ¶ | paragraph sign |
| · | · | · | middle dot |
| ¸ | ¸ | ¸ | cedilla |
| ¹ | ¹ | ¹ | superscript one |
| º | º | º | masculine ordinal |
| » | » | » | right-pointing double angle quotation mark |
| ¼ | ¼ | ¼ | fraction one-fourth |
| ½ | ½ | ½ | fraction one-half |
| ¾ | ¾ | ¾ | fraction three-fourths |
| ¿ | ¿ | ¿ | inverted question mark |
| À | À | À | capital A, grave accent |
| Á | Á | Á | capital A, acute accent |
| Â | Â | Â | capital A, circumflex accent |
| Ã | Ã | Ã | capital A, tilde |
| Ä | Ä | Ä | capital A, umlaut |
| Å | Å | Å | capital A, ring |
| Æ | Æ | Æ | capital AE ligature |
| Ç | Ç | Ç | capital C, cedilla |
| È | È | È | capital E, grave accent |
| É | É | É | capital E, acute accent |
| Ê | Ê | Ê | capital E, circumflex accent |
| Ë | Ë | Ë | capital E, umlaut |
| Ì | Ì | Ì | capital I, grave accent |
| Í | Í | Í | capital I, acute accent |
| Î | Î | Î | capital I, circumflex accent |
| Ï | Ï | Ï | capital I, umlaut |
| Ð | Ð | Ð | capital ETH |
| Ñ | Ñ | Ñ | capital N, tilde |
| Ò | Ò | Ò | capital O, grave accent |
| Ó | Ó | Ó | capital O, acute accent |
| Ô | Ô | Ô | capital O, circumflex accent |
| Õ | Õ | Õ | capital O, tilde |
| Ö | Ö | Ö | capital O, umlaut |
| × | × | × | multiplication sign |
| Ø | Ø | Ø | capital O, slash |
| Ù | Ù | Ù | capital U, grave accent |
| Ú | Ú | Ú | capital U, acute accent |
| Û | Û | Û | capital U, circumflex accent |
| Ü | Ü | Ü | capital U, umlaut |
| Ý | Ý | Ý | capital Y, acute accent |
| Þ | Þ | Þ | capital THORN |
| ß | ß | ß | small sz ligature, German |
| à | à | à | lowercase a, grave accent |
| á | á | á | lowercase a, acute accent |
| â | â | â | lowercase a, circumflex accent |
| ã | ã | ã | lowercase a, tilde |
| ä | ä | ä | lowercase a, umlaut |
| å | å | å | lowercase a, ring |
| æ | æ | æ | lowercase ae ligature |
| ç | ç | ç | lowercase c, cedilla |
| è | è | è | lowercase e, grave accent |
| é | é | é | lowercase e, acute accent |
| ê | ê | ê | lowercase e, circumflex accent |
| ë | ë | ë | lowercase e, umlaut |
| ì | ì | ì | lowercase i, grave accent |
| í | í | í | lowercase i, acute accent |
| î | î | î | lowercase i, circumflex accent |
| ï | ï | ï | lowercase i, umlaut |
| ð | ð | ð | small letter eth |
| ñ | ñ | ñ | lowercase n, tilde |
| ò | ò | ò | lowercase o, grave accent |
| ó | ó | ó | lowercase o, acute accent |
| ô | ô | ô | lowercase o, circumflex accent |
| õ | õ | õ | lowercase o, tilde |
| ö | ö | ö | lowercase o, umlaut |
| ÷ | ÷ | ÷ | division sign |
| ø | ø | ø | lowercase o, slash |
| ù | ù | ù | lowercase u, grave accent |
| ú | ú | ú | lowercase u, acute accent |
| û | û | û | lowercase u, circumflex accent |
| ü | ü | ü | lowercase u, umlaut |
| ý | ý | ý | lowercase y, acute accent |
| þ | þ | þ | lowercase thorn |
| ÿ | ÿ | ÿ | lowercase y, umlaut |