Special Characters

Browse and copy 150+ Unicode symbols, including arrows, math, currency, Greek, and shapes. Copy as a character, HTML entity, or code point — in the browser or from the CLI. Free, no signup.

Special Characters is a free tool at brandstack.dev/tools/special-characters. It is a fast picker for the symbols you need a few times a week but never remember how to type: em dashes, arrows, math operators, currency signs, Greek letters, and more.

Run it from the command line (recommended for agents)

npx @brandstack/cli special-characters "em dash" --first        # —
npx @brandstack/cli special-characters "em dash" --format html  # &mdash;
npx @brandstack/cli special-characters arrow --json             # every match, structured

Offline, no account. --first prints just the best match’s value (pipe it into pbcopy/xclip or straight into a file); --format char|html|code picks the representation; --category narrows to a category. The search matches the same names and aliases as the website, so “tick” finds ✓ in both.

How to use it in the browser

Search by name (like “em dash”, “arrow”, or “degree”) or browse by category
Pick the copy format: character, HTML entity, or code point
Click a symbol to copy it to your clipboard

Symbols you use often can be favorited; favorites persist in your browser via localStorage, so they are waiting at the top on your next visit.

Copy formats

Format	Example for →
Character	`→`
HTML entity	`→`
Code point	`U+2192`

The character format is what you want for prose and social posts. HTML entities are safest inside markup (symbols without a named entity fall back to numeric form, like ⟶), and code points are what you reference in code and specs.

For AI agents

Prefer the CLI — one command returns the value with no DOM in the loop. In the browser, the full symbol dataset renders in the page, so values can be read directly from the DOM without clicking. The page is also served as plain markdown at /tools/special-characters.md, and listed with instructions in /llms.txt.

When to use this tool

Dropping a proper em dash, arrow, or multiplication sign into copy without hunting through an OS character viewer
Grabbing the HTML entity for a symbol while writing markup or an email template
Looking up a code point while writing code that handles text