How to Find and Copy-Paste Unicode Characters, Symbols, and Emoji

Updated

Use a character reference tool such as AmpWhat to search for a symbol by name, preview, or pre-made category, then click it to copy either the character itself or a code format (Unicode, HTML decimal/hex, CSS, JSON, URL encoding). Paste the character directly when the destination accepts Unicode text; paste an entity or escape sequence when you're writing HTML, CSS, JSON, or a URL and need the code to survive encoding. AmpWhat describes itself as a quick, interactive reference of thousands of HTML character entities and common Unicode characters, including punctuation, quotation marks, accented characters, mathematical symbols, Greek letters, and icons.

What AmpWhat gives you

AmpWhat is an interaction from NDP Software. Its stated purpose is to let you explore the characters and icons underlying your browser, computer, and phone — collectively known as Unicode. The page lists these capabilities:

  • Search by typing in a search box, or click a pre-made search.
  • Select and click a character to copy it, indicated by the ⧉ and ⊕ cursor.
  • Coverage includes HTML character entities, 8859-1 characters, quotation marks, punctuation marks, accented characters, symbols, mathematical symbols, Greek letters, icons, and markup-significant and internationalization characters.
  • A Settings panel controls which code formats are shown for each character.

The site also links to Unicode Blocks, World Languages, and a Change Log, and notes support via Patreon. No pricing or login requirement is stated in the source material, so treat access terms as unconfirmed rather than assuming the tool is free or requires no account.

Step-by-step: find a character and copy it

  1. Open the tool and locate the search box. The page presents a search field alongside pre-made searches (visible examples include symbols like ☂, ♪, ☮, ♥, arrows, and flags).
  2. Enter a keyword. Search by the character's common name — for example "triangle," "peace," "telephone," "upside down caret," or "inverted exclamation mark." AmpWhat's own keyword list includes terms like triangle character, unicode triangle, peace character, telephone character, and upside down caret character, which tells you the naming style the search expects.
  3. Or click a pre-made search if you just want to browse a category rather than target one glyph.
  4. Click the character you want. The cursor changes to ⧉ / ⊕ to signal that clicking copies.
  5. Paste where you need it. What you paste depends on which format is enabled in Settings (see next section).

Expected result: the character appears at your cursor in the destination document, editor, or field.

Choose the right copy format

AmpWhat's Settings panel lets you include character codes for several formats. Match the format to where the text is going:

Format Use it when Example context
Unicode – U+0000 You're documenting or referencing the code point Specs, notes, code comments
HTML – Decimal Writing HTML and you want a numeric entity — style output
HTML – Hex Writing HTML and you prefer hex entities — style output
JSON and JavaScript Embedding the character in a JS string or JSON value Config files, scripts
CSS Property Values Using the character in content or similar CSS Pseudo-elements, icon fonts
URL Encoding – %N Putting the character in a URL Query strings, links
Windows Alt Keys Typing the character on Windows without a lookup tool Desktop data entry

The practical rule: copy the character itself when the destination is a rich-text document, chat, or any field that accepts Unicode directly. Copy the entity or escape sequence when the destination is source code, a URL, or a system that may mangle raw non-ASCII bytes. AmpWhat's keyword set explicitly covers this split — terms like html entity character, unicode symbol html entity, unicode to decimal entity conversion, and decimal entity encoder all point to the code-format side of the tool.

Find emoji, including newer ones

AmpWhat's keyword list includes emoji search, emoji finder, new emojis, and latest emojis, so the same search-and-click flow applies to emoji as to symbols. Search by the emoji's name or a related word, then click to copy. Because emoji sets are versioned, a glyph that renders on one device may show as a placeholder on an older one — check the Change Log or Unicode Blocks pages if you need to know which version introduced a character.

Troubleshooting: why a pasted character fails

  • Shows as a box, question mark, or blank. The destination font lacks a glyph for that code point. Switch to a font with broader coverage, or use an image/icon instead.
  • Shows as literal text like —. You pasted an HTML entity into a context that doesn't decode entities (plain text, a code editor, a JSON string). Either paste the raw character instead, or make sure the entity lands in HTML that gets parsed.
  • Breaks a URL or query string. Raw non-ASCII characters in URLs should be percent-encoded. Use the URL Encoding – %N format rather than the raw glyph.
  • Breaks a CSS content value. Use the CSS Property Values format so the character is properly escaped for CSS.
  • Renders differently across devices. Emoji and some symbols are drawn by the platform's font. The code point is the same; the picture is not. If visual consistency matters, prefer a symbol with stable rendering or supply your own asset.
  • Whitespace collapses. If you need a non-breaking space, search for nbsp or no-break space rather than typing repeated regular spaces — AmpWhat's keywords list both nbsp and no-break space.

Quick reference for common needs

  • Punctuation and quotes: search html quot, html apostrophe, quotation marks.
  • Math: search html mathematical symbols, less-than sign, greater-than sign.
  • Arrows and triangles: search triangle character, unicode triangle, ascii character for up down triangle arrow.
  • Whitespace: search nbsp, non-breaking space, whitespace.
  • Accents and language characters: browse World Languages or search the accented letter directly.

For anything not covered above, start from the search box, confirm the format in Settings, and click to copy.