Windows ALT Codes for Special Characters, Signs & Symbols

This is the complete reference list of the original set of Microsoft Windows ALT Codes for certain special characters, signs and symbols which is based on the ASCII character encoding standard. In computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems, ALT codes are keyboard shortcuts that can be used to quickly type, enter, insert or input these special characters that are not present in the repertoire of character keys on a normal QWERTY computer keyboard. Some of these special characters are accented Latin letters such as ñ (Latin small letter n with tilde), Greek letters such as Σ (Greek capital letter sigma), mathematical symbols such as ÷ (division sign), punctuation signs such as • (bullet), currency symbols such as £ (pound sign), graphical symbols such as ░ (light shade), and emoticons/emoji such as ☺ (white smiling face).

A quick overview to the reference list of Windows ALT codes:

• ALT codes without leading zeroes (ALT nnn) and ALT codes with leading zeroes (ALT 0nnn) may produce different, or the same, characters and symbols as seen in the chart below.
• ALT codes without leading zeroes (ALT nnn) produce characters & symbols based on IBM Code Page 437 / DOS.
• ALT codes with leading zeroes (ALT 0nnn) produce characters & symbols based on Windows Code Page 1252.
• ALT codes in red are associated with non-printable and non-displayable control characters.
• If you are new to ALT codes and need detailed instructions on how to use ALT codes, please read How to Use ALT Codes to Enter Special Characters.
• You can also download for free our printable Windows ALT Codes PDF Reference Chart.
• If you’re in a hurry, just tap or click to copy and paste any of the characters below into your document.

Reference list of Windows ALT codes

What are ALT Codes?

These Windows Alt Codes are considered keyboard shortcuts because the computer user just needs to press and hold the ALT key (Alternate key) key while typing a sequence of numbers (the codes) on the numeric keypad to insert a special character. Therefore, Windows ALT Codes are also called ALT Key Codes, ALT Numeric Pad Codes or ALT Num Pad Codes. When using Windows-based software such as Microsoft Word, Notepad, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, ALT codes are extremely useful when users need to quickly input or insert special characters on the document or file they are working on. However, it is important to note that ALT codes may not work in all applications and programs, or on all operating systems. Some applications and program may have their own input methods or require different key combinations for special characters. If these ALT codes do not work as expected, it is a good idea to consult the documentation or help resources specific to the software to ensure the proper input method for special characters.

History of Windows Alt Codes

On the IBM Personal Computer, a computer user could enter a special character or symbol from IBM’s Code Page 437 / DOS by holding down the ALT key and entering the decimal code (0, 1-255) on the numeric key pad that corresponds to the special character or symbol, giving rise to the term “ALT codes”. Later on, when Microsoft introduced their new proprietary character sets in Windows, such as Windows Code Page 1252 and later Unicode, many users had grown accustomed to Code Page 437, and memorized the decimal codes for it, that Microsoft chose to retain it and their decimal codes. Microsoft added the ability to enter special characters and symbols from their new proprietary character set, Windows Code Page 1252, by typing a leading 0 (zero) before their corresponding decimal codes (0, 01-0255).

ALT codes based on Code Page 437

ALT Codes without leading zeroes (ALT 1 – ALT 255) produce special characters and symbol based on IBM/DOS’s Code Page 437. Code Page 437 is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer) and DOS. It is also known as CP437, OEM-US, OEM 437, PC-8, or DOS Latin US. In turn, Code Page 437 is based on, and is a superset of, the older character encoding standard ASCII (US-ASCII).

Description of ALT Codes character repertoire based on Code Page 437

• ALT 0 – ALT 31 and ALT 127 produces a range of whimsical graphical special characters and symbols from Code Page 437, such as the smiley face and heart symbol. In ASCII, codes 0-31 and 127 are for non-printable control characters associated with old teletype transmissions such as line feed (LF) and carriage return (CR). To make use of these codes associated with otherwise non-printable and non-displayable ASCII control characters that have gone into obsolescence, IBM re-purposed and assigned smiley face characters, musical note characters, playing card suit characters and others to these codes in Code Page 437. See the story here.
• ALT 32 – ALT 126 produces special characters and symbols from Code Page 437 that are composed of, and correspond to, ASCII codes 32–126, which are the standard ASCII printable characters composed of Latin letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols.
• ALT 128 – ALT 255 produces special characters and symbols from Code Page 437 that are composed of extended characters which include international text or accented letters (diacritics), some Greek letters, line-drawing (box-drawing) symbols, mathematical symbols and miscellaneous symbols.

ALT codes based on Windows Code Page 1252

ALT Codes with leading zeroes (ALT 01 – ALT 0255) produces special characters and symbols based on Windows Code Page 1252 (CP-1252) or Windows-1252. Code Page 1252 is based on ASCII. It is a strict superset of ASCII wherein the first 128 codes are ASCII.

Historically and erroneously, Windows Code Page 1252 was also referred to as an “ANSI Code Page”, as it was based on an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) draft. Microsoft anticipated that the draft would be an ANSI standard and implemented it before the draft was finalized, however that draft forked and became the ISO 8859-1 standard instead and is not exactly the same as Windows Code page 1252 that Microsoft implemented. So, regardless of its widespread use and popularity, Windows Code Page 1252 has never been an ANSI standard. Therefore, though it persists, it is a misnomer to refer to Windows Code Page 1252 as an “ANSI Code Page”.

Description of ALT Codes character repertoire based on Windows Code Page 1252

• ALT 0 – ALT 031 and ALT 0127 do not produce any printable or displayable characters from Windows Code Page 1252 as they are composed of, and directly correspond to, ASCII codes 0-31 and 127 which are unprintable and non-displayable control characters associated with old teletype transmissions such as line feed (LF) and carriage return (CR).
• ALT 032 – ALT 0126 produces special characters and symbols from Windows Code Page 1252 that are composed of, and correspond to, ASCII codes 32–126, which are the standard ASCII printable characters composed of Latin letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols. In this regard, IBM Code Page 437 and Windows Code Page 1252 produce the same characters in this range of ALT codes.
• ALT 0128 – ALT 0255 produces special characters and symbols from Windows Code Page 1252 that are composed of extended characters which include international text or accented letters (diacritics) designed for Latin-1 languages (Afrikaans, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish), punctuation symbols used in Europe, currency symbols (notably the Euro sign) and miscellaneous symbols. Characters produced in this range of ALT codes from IBM Code Page 437 and from Windows Code Page 1252 widely differ.

In Windows programs and applications, ALT codes starting at 256 and above produce the same characters whether they have leading zeroes or not. For example, ALT 256 and ALT 0256 will both produce the same character Ā.

Side-by-side comparison of ALT Codes based on Code Page 437 and ALT Codes based on Code Page 1252