This is the complete reference list, in searchable table format, of the original set of Microsoft Windows ALT Codes for special characters, signs, symbols and emoji such as ™ © ♥ Ñ € ¢ £ ½ ♂ ♀ ¥ ☻ ♪. In computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems, ALT codes are keyboard shortcuts used to quickly enter or input non-ASCII special characters that are not present in the repertoire of character keys on a normal QWERTY computer keyboard.
These ALT keyboard shortcuts are called ALT codes because the computer user needs to press and hold the ALT (Alternate) key while typing a sequence of numbers (the codes) on the numeric keypad to insert a special character, sign, symbol or emoji. Therefore, ALT Codes are also called ALT Key Codes, ALT Numeric Pad Codes or ALT Numpad Codes.
Additional groups of special characters that can be quickly entered using ALT codes are: accented Latin letters, non-Latin letters (like Chinese, Cyrillic or Greek letters), infrequently used or uncommon punctuation marks and mathematical symbols, currency symbols, emojis, letter-like symbols, and other miscellaneous graphical symbols and signs.
When using Windows-based software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, the ALT code keyboard shortcuts are extremely useful when users of these software occasionally need to quickly enter or insert special characters on the document files they are working on.
A Quick Guide to the Table List of 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.
Character | ALT Code | Character Name | Unicode Code Point | Character | ALT Code | Character Name | Unicode Code Point |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
␀ | ALT 0 | Control character - null (NUL) | U+0000 | ␀ | ALT 0 | Control character - null (NUL) | U+0000 |
☺ | ALT 1 | White smiling face, smiley face | U+263A | ␁ | ALT 01 | Control character - start of heading (SOH) | U+0001 |
☻ | ALT 2 | Black smiling face | U+263B | ␂ | ALT 02 | Control character - start of text (STX) | U+0002 |
♥ | ALT 3 | Black heart suit | U+2665 | ␃ | ALT 03 | Control character - end of text (ETX) | U+0003 |
♦ | ALT 4 | Black diamond suit | U+2666 | ␄ | ALT 04 | Control character - end of transmission (EOT) | U+0004 |
♣ | ALT 5 | Black club suit | U+2663 | ␅ | ALT 05 | Control character - enquiry (ENG) | U+0005 |
♠ | ALT 6 | Black spade suit | U+2660 | ␆ | ALT 06 | Control character - acknowledge (ACK) | U+0006 |
• | ALT 7 | Bullet | U+2022 | ␇ | ALT 07 | Control character - bell (BEL) | U+0007 |
◘ | ALT 8 | Inverse bullet | U+25D8 | ␈ | ALT 08 | Control character - backspace (BS) | U+0008 |
○ | ALT 9 | White circle | U+25CB | ␉ | ALT 09 | Control character - horizontal tabulation (HT) | U+0009 |
◙ | ALT 10 | Inverse white circle | U+25D9 | ␊ | ALT 010 | Control character - line feed (LF) | U+000A |
♂ | ALT 11 | Male sign, mars, alchemical symbol for iron | U+2642 | ␋ | ALT 011 | Control character - vertical tabulation (VT) | U+000B |
♀ | ALT 12 | Female sign, venus, alchemical symbol for copper | U+2640 | ␌ | ALT 012 | Control character - form feed (FF) | U+000C |
♪ | ALT 13 | Eighth note, quaver | U+266A | ␍ | ALT 013 | Control character - carriage return (CR) | U+000D |
♫ | ALT 14 | Beamed eighth notes, barred eighth notes, beamed quavers | U+266B | ␎ | ALT 014 | Control character - shift out (SO) | U+000E |
☼ | ALT 15 | White sun with rays | U+263C | ␏ | ALT 015 | Control character - shift in (SI) | U+000F |
► | ALT 16 | Black right-pointing pointer | U+25BA | ␐ | ALT 016 | Control character - data link escape (DLE) | U+0010 |
◄ | ALT 17 | Black left-pointing pointer | U+25C4 | ␑ | ALT 017 | Control character - device control one (DC1) | U+0011 |
↕ | ALT 18 | Up down arrow | U+2195 | ␒ | ALT 018 | Control character - device control two (DC2) | U+0012 |
‼ | ALT 19 | Double exclamation mark | U+203C | ␓ | ALT 019 | Control character - device control three (DC3) | U+0013 |
¶ | ALT 20 | Pilcrow sign, paragraph sign | U+00B6 | ␔ | ALT 020 | Control character - device control four (DC4) | U+0014 |
§ | ALT 21 | Section sign | U+00A7 | ␕ | ALT 021 | Control character - negative acknowledge (NAK) | U+0015 |
▬ | ALT 22 | Black rectangle | U+25AC | ␖ | ALT 022 | Control character - synchronous idle (SYN) | U+0016 |
↨ | ALT 23 | Up down arrow with base | U+21A8 | ␗ | ALT 023 | Control character - end of transmission block (ETB) | U+0017 |
↑ | ALT 24 | Upwards arrow | U+2191 | ␘ | ALT 024 | Control character - cancel (CAN) | U+0018 |
↓ | ALT 25 | Downwards arrow | U+2193 | ␙ | ALT 025 | Control character - end of medium (EM) | U+0019 |
→ | ALT 26 | Rightwards arrow, Z notation total function | U+2192 | ␚ | ALT 026 | Control character - substitute (SUB) | U+001A |
← | ALT 27 | Leftwards arrow | U+2190 | ␛ | ALT 027 | Control character - escape (ESC) | U+001B |
∟ | ALT 28 | Right angle | U+221F | ␜ | ALT 028 | Control character - file separator (FS) | U+001C |
↔ | ALT 29 | Left right arrow, Z notation relation | U+2194 | ␝ | ALT 029 | Control character - group separator (GS) | U+001D |
▲ | ALT 30 | Black up-pointing triangle | U+25B2 | ␞ | ALT 030 | Control character - record separator (RS) | U+001E |
▼ | ALT 31 | Black down-pointing triangle | U+25BC | ␟ | ALT 031 | Control character - unit separator (US) | U+001F |
ALT 32 | Space | U+0020 | ALT 032 | Space | U+0020 | ||
! | ALT 33 | Exclamation mark, factorial | U+0021 | ! | ALT 033 | Exclamation mark, factorial | U+0021 |
" | ALT 34 | Quotation mark | U+0022 | " | ALT 034 | Quotation mark | U+0022 |
# | ALT 35 | Number sign, pound sign, hash, crosshatch, octothorpe | U+0023 | # | ALT 035 | Number sign, pound sign, hash, crosshatch, octothorpe | U+0023 |
$ | ALT 36 | Dollar sign, milréis, escudo | U+0024 | $ | ALT 036 | Dollar sign, milréis, escudo | U+0024 |
% | ALT 37 | Percent sign | U+0025 | % | ALT 037 | Percent sign | U+0025 |
& | ALT 38 | Ampersand | U+0026 | & | ALT 038 | Ampersand | U+0026 |
' | ALT 39 | Apostrophe | U+0027 | ' | ALT 039 | Apostrophe | U+0027 |
( | ALT 40 | Left parenthesis, opening parenthesis | U+0028 | ( | ALT 040 | Left parenthesis, opening parenthesis | U+0028 |
) | ALT 41 | Right parenthesis, closing parenthesis | U+0029 | ) | ALT 041 | Right parenthesis, closing parenthesis | U+0029 |
* | ALT 42 | Asterisk, star | U+002A | * | ALT 042 | Asterisk, star | U+002A |
+ | ALT 43 | Plus sign | U+002B | + | ALT 043 | Plus sign | U+002B |
, | ALT 44 | Comma, decimal separator | U+002C | , | ALT 044 | Comma, decimal separator | U+002C |
- | ALT 45 | Hyphen, minus sign | U+002D | - | ALT 045 | Hyphen, minus sign | U+002D |
. | ALT 46 | Full stop, period, dot, decimal point | U+002E | . | ALT 046 | Full stop, period, dot, decimal point | U+002E |
/ | ALT 47 | Solidus, slash, forward slash, virgule | U+002F | / | ALT 047 | Solidus, slash, forward slash, virgule | U+002F |
0 | ALT 48 | Digit zero | U+0030 | 0 | ALT 048 | Digit zero | U+0030 |
1 | ALT 49 | Digit one | U+0031 | 1 | ALT 049 | Digit one | U+0031 |
2 | ALT 50 | Digit two | U+0032 | 2 | ALT 050 | Digit two | U+0032 |
3 | ALT 51 | Digit three | U+0033 | 3 | ALT 051 | Digit three | U+0033 |
4 | ALT 52 | Digit four | U+0034 | 4 | ALT 052 | Digit four | U+0034 |
5 | ALT 53 | Digit five | U+0035 | 5 | ALT 053 | Digit five | U+0035 |
6 | ALT 54 | Digit six | U+0036 | 6 | ALT 054 | Digit six | U+0036 |
7 | ALT 55 | Digit seven | U+0037 | 7 | ALT 055 | Digit seven | U+0037 |
8 | ALT 56 | Digit eight | U+0038 | 8 | ALT 056 | Digit eight | U+0038 |
9 | ALT 57 | Digit nine | U+0039 | 9 | ALT 057 | Digit nine | U+0039 |
: | ALT 58 | Colon | U+003A | : | ALT 058 | Colon | U+003A |
; | ALT 59 | Semicolon | U+003B | ; | ALT 059 | Semicolon | U+003B |
< | ALT 60 | Less-than sign | U+003C | < | ALT 060 | Less-than sign | U+003C |
= | ALT 61 | Equals sign | U+003D | = | ALT 061 | Equals sign | U+003D |
> | ALT 62 | Greater-than sign | U+003E | > | ALT 062 | Greater-than sign | U+003E |
? | ALT 63 | Question mark | U+003F | ? | ALT 063 | Question mark | U+003F |
@ | ALT 64 | Commercial at, at sign | U+0040 | @ | ALT 064 | Commercial at, at sign | U+0040 |
A | ALT 65 | Latin capital letter A | U+0041 | A | ALT 065 | Latin capital letter A | U+0041 |
B | ALT 66 | Latin capital letter B | U+0042 | B | ALT 066 | Latin capital letter B | U+0042 |
C | ALT 67 | Latin capital letter C | U+0043 | C | ALT 067 | Latin capital letter C | U+0043 |
D | ALT 68 | Latin capital letter D | U+0044 | D | ALT 068 | Latin capital letter D | U+0044 |
E | ALT 69 | Latin capital letter E | U+0045 | E | ALT 069 | Latin capital letter E | U+0045 |
F | ALT 70 | Latin capital letter F | U+0046 | F | ALT 070 | Latin capital letter F | U+0046 |
G | ALT 71 | Latin capital letter G | U+0047 | G | ALT 071 | Latin capital letter G | U+0047 |
H | ALT 72 | Latin capital letter H | U+0048 | H | ALT 072 | Latin capital letter H | U+0048 |
I | ALT 73 | Latin capital letter I | U+0049 | I | ALT 073 | Latin capital letter I | U+0049 |
J | ALT 74 | Latin capital letter J | U+004A | J | ALT 074 | Latin capital letter J | U+004A |
K | ALT 75 | Latin capital letter K | U+004B | K | ALT 075 | Latin capital letter K | U+004B |
L | ALT 76 | Latin capital letter L | U+004C | L | ALT 076 | Latin capital letter L | U+004C |
M | ALT 77 | Latin capital letter M | U+004D | M | ALT 077 | Latin capital letter M | U+004D |
N | ALT 78 | Latin capital letter N | U+004E | N | ALT 078 | Latin capital letter N | U+004E |
O | ALT 79 | Latin capital letter O | U+004F | O | ALT 079 | Latin capital letter O | U+004F |
P | ALT 80 | Latin capital letter P | U+0050 | P | ALT 080 | Latin capital letter P | U+0050 |
Q | ALT 81 | Latin capital letter Q | U+0051 | Q | ALT 081 | Latin capital letter Q | U+0051 |
R | ALT 82 | Latin capital letter R | U+0052 | R | ALT 082 | Latin capital letter R | U+0052 |
S | ALT 83 | Latin capital letter S | U+0053 | S | ALT 083 | Latin capital letter S | U+0053 |
T | ALT 84 | Latin capital letter T | U+0054 | T | ALT 084 | Latin capital letter T | U+0054 |
U | ALT 85 | Latin capital letter U | U+0055 | U | ALT 085 | Latin capital letter U | U+0055 |
V | ALT 86 | Latin capital letter V | U+0056 | V | ALT 086 | Latin capital letter V | U+0056 |
W | ALT 87 | Latin capital letter W | U+0057 | W | ALT 087 | Latin capital letter W | U+0057 |
X | ALT 88 | Latin capital letter X | U+0058 | X | ALT 088 | Latin capital letter X | U+0058 |
Y | ALT 89 | Latin capital letter Y | U+0059 | Y | ALT 089 | Latin capital letter Y | U+0059 |
Z | ALT 90 | Latin capital letter Z | U+005A | Z | ALT 090 | Latin capital letter Z | U+005A |
[ | ALT 91 | Left square bracket, opening square bracket | U+005B | [ | ALT 091 | Left square bracket, opening square bracket | U+005B |
] | ALT 93 | Right square bracket, closing square bracket | U+005D | ] | ALT 093 | Right square bracket, closing square bracket | U+005D |
^ | ALT 94 | Circumflex accent | U+005E | ^ | ALT 094 | Circumflex accent | U+005E |
_ | ALT 95 | Low line, underscore | U+005F | _ | ALT 095 | Low line, underscore | U+005F |
` | ALT 96 | Grave accent | U+0060 | ` | ALT 096 | Grave accent | U+0060 |
a | ALT 97 | Latin small letter a | U+0061 | a | ALT 097 | Latin small letter a | U+0061 |
b | ALT 98 | Latin small letter b | U+0062 | b | ALT 098 | Latin small letter b | U+0062 |
c | ALT 99 | Latin small letter c | U+0063 | c | ALT 099 | Latin small letter c | U+0063 |
d | ALT 100 | Latin small letter d | U+0064 | d | ALT 0100 | Latin small letter d | U+0064 |
e | ALT 101 | Latin small letter e | U+0065 | e | ALT 0101 | Latin small letter e | U+0065 |
f | ALT 102 | Latin small letter f | U+0066 | f | ALT 0102 | Latin small letter f | U+0066 |
g | ALT 103 | Latin small letter g | U+0067 | g | ALT 0103 | Latin small letter g | U+0067 |
h | ALT 104 | Latin small letter h | U+0068 | h | ALT 0104 | Latin small letter h | U+0068 |
i | ALT 105 | Latin small letter i | U+0069 | i | ALT 0105 | Latin small letter i | U+0069 |
j | ALT 106 | Latin small letter j | U+006A | j | ALT 0106 | Latin small letter j | U+006A |
k | ALT 107 | Latin small letter k | U+006B | k | ALT 0107 | Latin small letter k | U+006B |
l | ALT 108 | Latin small letter l | U+006C | l | ALT 0108 | Latin small letter l | U+006C |
m | ALT 109 | Latin small letter m | U+006D | m | ALT 0109 | Latin small letter m | U+006D |
n | ALT 110 | Latin small letter n | U+006E | n | ALT 0110 | Latin small letter n | U+006E |
o | ALT 111 | Latin small letter o | U+006F | o | ALT 0111 | Latin small letter o | U+006F |
p | ALT 112 | Latin small letter p | U+0070 | p | ALT 0112 | Latin small letter p | U+0070 |
q | ALT 113 | Latin small letter q | U+0071 | q | ALT 0113 | Latin small letter q | U+0071 |
r | ALT 114 | Latin small letter r | U+0072 | r | ALT 0114 | Latin small letter r | U+0072 |
s | ALT 115 | Latin small letter s | U+0073 | s | ALT 0115 | Latin small letter s | U+0073 |
t | ALT 116 | Latin small letter t | U+0074 | t | ALT 0116 | Latin small letter t | U+0074 |
u | ALT 117 | Latin small letter u | U+0075 | u | ALT 0117 | Latin small letter u | U+0075 |
v | ALT 118 | Latin small letter v | U+0076 | v | ALT 0118 | Latin small letter v | U+0076 |
w | ALT 119 | Latin small letter w | U+0077 | w | ALT 0119 | Latin small letter w | U+0077 |
x | ALT 120 | Latin small letter x | U+0078 | x | ALT 0120 | Latin small letter x | U+0078 |
y | ALT 121 | Latin small letter y | U+0079 | y | ALT 0121 | Latin small letter y | U+0079 |
z | ALT 122 | Latin small letter z | U+007A | z | ALT 0122 | Latin small letter z | U+007A |
{ | ALT 123 | Left curly bracket, opening curly bracket, left brace | U+007B | { | ALT 0123 | Left curly bracket, opening curly bracket, left brace | U+007B |
| | ALT 124 | Vertical line, vertical bar | U+007C | | | ALT 0124 | Vertical line, vertical bar | U+007C |
} | ALT 125 | Right curly bracket, closing curly bracket, right brace | U+007D | } | ALT 0125 | Right curly bracket, closing curly bracket, right brace | U+007D |
~ | ALT 126 | Tilde | U+007E | ~ | ALT 0126 | Tilde | U+007E |
⌂ | ALT 127 | House | U+2302 | ␡ | ALT 0127 | Control character - delete (DEL) | U+007F |
Ç | ALT 128 | Latin capital letter C with cedilla | U+00C7 | € | ALT 0128 | Euro sign | U+20AC |
ü | ALT 129 | Latin small letter u with diaeresis | U+00FC | ␦ | ALT 0129 | Control character - high octet preset (HOP) | U+0081 |
é | ALT 130 | Latin small letter e with acute | U+00E9 | ‚ | ALT 0130 | Single low-9 quotation mark | U+201A |
â | ALT 131 | Latin small letter a with circumflex | U+00E2 | ƒ | ALT 0131 | Latin small letter f with hook, florin currency symbol, function symbol | U+0192 |
ä | ALT 132 | Latin small letter a with diaeresis | U+00E4 | „ | ALT 0132 | Double low-9 quotation mark | U+201E |
à | ALT 133 | Latin small letter a with grave | U+00E0 | … | ALT 0133 | Horizontal ellipsis, three dot leader | U+2026 |
å | ALT 134 | Latin small letter a with ring above | U+00E5 | † | ALT 0134 | Dagger, obelisk, cross | U+2020 |
ç | ALT 135 | Latin small letter c with cedilla | U+00E7 | ‡ | ALT 0135 | Double dagger, double obelisk, diesis | U+2021 |
ê | ALT 136 | Latin small letter e with circumflex | U+00EA | ˆ | ALT 0136 | Modifier Letter Circumflex Accent | U+02C6 |
ë | ALT 137 | Latin small letter e with diaeresis | U+00EB | ‰ | ALT 0137 | Per mille sign, per thousand | U+2030 |
è | ALT 138 | Latin small letter e with grave | U+00E8 | Š | ALT 0138 | Latin capital letter S with caron, S hacek | U+0160 |
ï | ALT 139 | Latin small letter i with diaeresis | U+00EF | ‹ | ALT 0139 | Single left-pointing angle quotation mark, left guillemet | U+2039 |
î | ALT 140 | Latin small letter i with circumflex | U+00EE | Œ | ALT 0140 | Latin capital ligature OE | U+0152 |
ì | ALT 141 | Latin small letter i with grave | U+00EC | ␦ | ALT 0141 | Control character - reverse line feed (RI) | U+008D |
Ä | ALT 142 | Latin capital letter A with diaeresis | U+00C4 | Ž | ALT 0142 | Latin capital letter Z with caron, Z hacek | U+017D |
Å | ALT 143 | Latin capital letter A with ring above | U+00C5 | ␦ | ALT 0143 | Control character - single shift three (SS3) | U+008F |
É | ALT 144 | Latin capital letter E with acute | U+00C9 | ␦ | ALT 0144 | Control character - device control string (DCS) | U+0090 |
æ | ALT 145 | Latin small letter ae, ash (from Old English æsc) | U+00E6 | ‘ | ALT 0145 | Left single quotation mark | U+2018 |
Æ | ALT 146 | Latin capital letter AE | U+00C6 | ’ | ALT 0146 | Right single quotation mark | U+2019 |
ô | ALT 147 | Latin small letter o with circumflex | U+00F4 | “ | ALT 0147 | Left double quotation mark | U+201C |
ö | ALT 148 | Latin small letter o with diaeresis | U+00F6 | ” | ALT 0148 | Right double quotation mark | U+201D |
ò | ALT 149 | Latin small letter o with grave | U+00F2 | • | ALT 0149 | Bullet | U+2022 |
û | ALT 150 | Latin small letter u with circumflex | U+00FB | – | ALT 0150 | En dash | U+2013 |
ù | ALT 151 | Latin small letter u with grave | U+00F9 | — | ALT 0151 | Em dash | U+2014 |
ÿ | ALT 152 | Latin small letter y with diaeresis | U+00FF | ˜ | ALT 0152 | Small tilde | U+02DC |
Ö | ALT 153 | Latin capital letter O with diaeresis | U+00D6 | ™ | ALT 0153 | Trade mark sign | U+2122 |
Ü | ALT 154 | Latin capital letter U with diaeresis | U+00DC | š | ALT 0154 | Latin small letter s with caron, s hacek | U+0161 |
¢ | ALT 155 | Cent sign | U+00A2 | › | ALT 0155 | Single right-pointing angle quotation mark, right guillemet | U+203A |
£ | ALT 156 | Pound sign, pound sterling, Irish punt, lira sign | U+00A3 | œ | ALT 0156 | Latin small ligature oe | U+0153 |
¥ | ALT 157 | Yen sign, yuan sign | U+00A5 | ␦ | ALT 0157 | Control character - operating system command (OSC) | U+009D |
₧ | ALT 158 | Peseta sign | U+20A7 | ž | ALT 0158 | Latin small letter z with caron, z hacek | U+017E |
ƒ | ALT 159 | Latin small letter f with hook, florin currency symbol, function symbol | U+0192 | Ÿ | ALT 0159 | Latin capital letter Y with diaeresis | U+0178 |
á | ALT 160 | Latin small letter a with acute | U+00E1 | ALT 0160 | No-break space, non-breaking space, nbsp | U+00A0 | |
í | ALT 161 | Latin small letter i with acute | U+00ED | ¡ | ALT 0161 | Inverted exclamation mark | U+00A1 |
ó | ALT 162 | Latin small letter o with acute | U+00F3 | ¢ | ALT 0162 | Cent sign | U+00A2 |
ú | ALT 163 | Latin small letter u with acute | U+00FA | £ | ALT 0163 | Pound sign, pound sterling, Irish punt, lira sign | U+00A3 |
ñ | ALT 164 | Latin small letter n with tilde, small letter enye | U+00F1 | ¤ | ALT 0164 | Currency sign | U+00A4 |
Ñ | ALT 165 | Latin capital letter N with tilde, capital letter enye | U+00D1 | ¥ | ALT 0165 | Yen sign, yuan sign | U+00A5 |
ª | ALT 166 | Feminine ordinal indicator | U+00AA | ¦ | ALT 0166 | Broken bar, parted rule (in typography) | U+00A6 |
º | ALT 167 | Masculine ordinal indicator | U+00BA | § | ALT 0167 | Section sign | U+00A7 |
¿ | ALT 168 | Inverted question mark, turned question mark | U+00BF | ¨ | ALT 0168 | Diaeresis | U+00A8 |
⌐ | ALT 169 | Reversed not sign, beginning of line | U+2310 | © | ALT 0169 | Copyright sign | U+00A9 |
¬ | ALT 170 | Not sign, angled dash | U+00AC | ª | ALT 0170 | Feminine ordinal indicator | U+00AA |
½ | ALT 171 | Vulgar fraction one half | U+00BD | « | ALT 0171 | Left-pointing double angle quotation mark, left guillemet, chevrons (in typography) | U+00AB |
¼ | ALT 172 | Vulgar fraction one quarter | U+00BC | ¬ | ALT 0172 | Not sign, angled dash | U+00AC |
¡ | ALT 173 | Inverted exclamation mark | U+00A1 | | ALT 0173 | Soft hyphen, discretionary hyphen | U+00AD |
« | ALT 174 | Left-pointing double angle quotation mark, left guillemet, chevrons (in typography) | U+00AB | ® | ALT 0174 | Registered sign | U+00AE |
» | ALT 175 | Right-pointing double angle quotation mark, right guillemet | U+00BB | ¯ | ALT 0175 | Macron, overline, overbar | U+00AF |
░ | ALT 176 | Light shade | U+2591 | ° | ALT 0176 | Degree sign | U+00B0 |
▒ | ALT 177 | Medium shade, speckles fill, dotted fill | U+2592 | ± | ALT 0177 | Plus-minus sign | U+00B1 |
▓ | ALT 178 | Dark shade | U+2593 | ² | ALT 0178 | Superscript two, squared | U+00B2 |
│ | ALT 179 | Box drawings light vertical | U+2502 | ³ | ALT 0179 | Superscript three, cubed | U+00B3 |
┤ | ALT 180 | Box drawings light vertical and left | U+2524 | ´ | ALT 0180 | Acute accent | U+00B4 |
╡ | ALT 181 | Box drawings vertical single and left double | U+2561 | µ | ALT 0181 | Micro sign | U+00B5 |
╢ | ALT 182 | Box drawings vertical double and left single | U+2562 | ¶ | ALT 0182 | Pilcrow sign, paragraph sign | U+00B6 |
╖ | ALT 183 | Box drawings down double and left single | U+2556 | · | ALT 0183 | Middle dot, midpoint (in typography), Georgian comma, Greek ano teleia | U+00B7 |
╕ | ALT 184 | Box drawings down single and left double | U+2555 | ¸ | ALT 0184 | Cedilla | U+00B8 |
╣ | ALT 185 | Box drawings double vertical and left | U+2563 | ¹ | ALT 0185 | Superscript one | U+00B9 |
║ | ALT 186 | Box drawings double vertical | U+2551 | º | ALT 0186 | Masculine ordinal indicator | U+00BA |
╗ | ALT 187 | Box drawings double down and left | U+2557 | » | ALT 0187 | Right-pointing double angle quotation mark, right guillemet | U+00BB |
╝ | ALT 188 | Box drawings double up and left | U+255D | ¼ | ALT 0188 | Vulgar fraction one quarter | U+00BC |
╜ | ALT 189 | Box drawings up double and left single | U+255C | ½ | ALT 0189 | Vulgar fraction one half | U+00BD |
╛ | ALT 190 | Box drawings up single and left double | U+255B | ¾ | ALT 0190 | Vulgar fraction three quarters | U+00BE |
┐ | ALT 191 | Box drawings light down and left | U+2510 | ¿ | ALT 0191 | Inverted question mark, turned question mark | U+00BF |
└ | ALT 192 | Box drawings light up and right | U+2514 | À | ALT 0192 | Latin capital letter A with grave | U+00C0 |
┴ | ALT 193 | Box drawings light up and horizontal | U+2534 | Á | ALT 0193 | Latin capital letter A with acute | U+00C1 |
┬ | ALT 194 | Box drawings light down and horizontal | U+252C | Â | ALT 0194 | Latin capital letter A with circumflex | U+00C2 |
├ | ALT 195 | Box drawings light vertical and right | U+251C | Ã | ALT 0195 | Latin capital letter A with tilde | U+00C3 |
─ | ALT 196 | Box drawings light horizontal | U+2500 | Ä | ALT 0196 | Latin capital letter A with diaeresis | U+00C4 |
┼ | ALT 197 | Box drawings light vertical and horizontal | U+253C | Å | ALT 0197 | Latin capital letter A with ring above | U+00C5 |
╞ | ALT 198 | Box drawings vertical single and right double | U+255E | Æ | ALT 0198 | Latin capital letter AE | U+00C6 |
╟ | ALT 199 | Box drawings vertical double and right single | U+255F | Ç | ALT 0199 | Latin capital letter C with cedilla | U+00C7 |
╚ | ALT 200 | Box drawings double up and right | U+255A | È | ALT 0200 | Latin capital letter E with grave | U+00C8 |
╔ | ALT 201 | Box drawings double down and right | U+2554 | É | ALT 0201 | Latin capital letter E with acute | U+00C9 |
╩ | ALT 202 | Box drawings double up and horizontal | U+2569 | Ê | ALT 0202 | Latin capital letter E with circumflex | U+00CA |
╦ | ALT 203 | Box drawings double down and horizontal | U+2566 | Ë | ALT 0203 | Latin capital letter E with diaeresis | U+00CB |
╠ | ALT 204 | Box drawings double vertical and right | U+2560 | Ì | ALT 0204 | Latin capital letter I with grave | U+00CC |
═ | ALT 205 | Box drawings double horizontal | U+2550 | Í | ALT 0205 | Latin capital letter I with acute | U+00CD |
╬ | ALT 206 | Box drawings double vertical and horizontal | U+256C | Î | ALT 0206 | Latin capital letter I with circumflex | U+00CE |
╧ | ALT 207 | Box drawings up single and horizontal double | U+2567 | Ï | ALT 0207 | Latin capital letter I with diaeresis | U+00CF |
╨ | ALT 208 | Box drawings up double and horizontal single | U+2568 | Ð | ALT 0208 | Latin capital letter eth | U+00D0 |
╤ | ALT 209 | Box drawings down single and horizontal double | U+2564 | Ñ | ALT 0209 | Latin capital letter N with tilde, capital letter enye | U+00D1 |
╥ | ALT 210 | Box drawings down double and horizontal single | U+2565 | Ò | ALT 0210 | Latin capital letter O with grave | U+00D2 |
╙ | ALT 211 | Box drawings up double and right single | U+2559 | Ó | ALT 0211 | Latin capital letter O with acute | U+00D3 |
╘ | ALT 212 | Box drawings up single and right double | U+2558 | Ô | ALT 0212 | Latin capital letter O with circumflex | U+00D4 |
╒ | ALT 213 | Box drawings down single and right double | U+2552 | Õ | ALT 0213 | Latin capital letter O with tilde | U+00D5 |
╓ | ALT 214 | Box drawings down double and right single | U+2553 | Ö | ALT 0214 | Latin capital letter O with diaeresis | U+00D6 |
╫ | ALT 215 | Box drawings vertical double and horizontal single | U+256B | × | ALT 0215 | Multiplication sign, z notation cartesian product | U+00D7 |
╪ | ALT 216 | Box drawings vertical single and horizontal double | U+256A | Ø | ALT 0216 | Latin capital letter O with stroke | U+00D8 |
┘ | ALT 217 | Box drawings light up and left | U+2518 | Ù | ALT 0217 | Latin capital letter U with grave | U+00D9 |
┌ | ALT 218 | Box drawings light down and right | U+250C | Ú | ALT 0218 | Latin capital letter U with acute | U+00DA |
█ | ALT 219 | Full block, solid block | U+2588 | Û | ALT 0219 | Latin capital letter U with circumflex | U+00DB |
▄ | ALT 220 | Lower half block | U+2584 | Ü | ALT 0220 | Latin capital letter U with diaeresis | U+00DC |
▌ | ALT 221 | Left half block | U+258C | Ý | ALT 0221 | Latin capital letter Y with acute | U+00DD |
▐ | ALT 222 | Right half block | U+2590 | Þ | ALT 0222 | Latin capital letter thorn | U+00DE |
▀ | ALT 223 | Upper half block | U+2580 | ß | ALT 0223 | Latin small letter sharp s, eszett | U+00DF |
α | ALT 224 | Greek small letter alpha | U+03B1 | à | ALT 0224 | Latin small letter a with grave | U+00E0 |
ß | ALT 225 | Latin small letter sharp s, eszett | U+00DF | á | ALT 0225 | Latin small letter a with acute | U+00E1 |
Γ | ALT 226 | Greek capital letter gamma | U+0393 | â | ALT 0226 | Latin small letter a with circumflex | U+00E2 |
π | ALT 227 | Greek small letter pi | U+03C0 | ã | ALT 0227 | Latin small letter a with tilde | U+00E3 |
Σ | ALT 228 | Greek capital letter sigma | U+03A3 | ä | ALT 0228 | Latin small letter a with diaeresis | U+00E4 |
σ | ALT 229 | Greek small letter sigma | U+03C3 | å | ALT 0229 | Latin small letter a with ring above | U+00E5 |
µ | ALT 230 | Micro sign | U+00B5 | æ | ALT 0230 | Latin small letter ae, ash (from Old English æsc) | U+00E6 |
τ | ALT 231 | Greek capital letter tau | U+03A4 | ç | ALT 0231 | Latin small letter c with cedilla | U+00E7 |
Φ | ALT 232 | Greek capital letter phi | U+03A6 | è | ALT 0232 | Latin small letter e with grave | U+00E8 |
Θ | ALT 233 | Greek capital letter theta | U+0398 | é | ALT 0233 | Latin small letter e with acute | U+00E9 |
Ω | ALT 234 | Greek capital letter omega | U+03A9 | ê | ALT 0234 | Latin small letter e with circumflex | U+00EA |
δ | ALT 235 | Greek small letter delta | U+03B4 | ë | ALT 0235 | Latin small letter e with diaeresis | U+00EB |
∞ | ALT 236 | Infinity | U+221E | ì | ALT 0236 | Latin small letter i with grave | U+00EC |
φ | ALT 237 | Greek small letter phi | U+03C6 | í | ALT 0237 | Latin small letter i with acute | U+00ED |
ε | ALT 238 | Greek small letter epsilon | U+03B5 | î | ALT 0238 | Latin small letter i with circumflex | U+00EE |
∩ | ALT 239 | Intersection | U+2229 | ï | ALT 0239 | Latin small letter i with diaeresis | U+00EF |
≡ | ALT 240 | Identical to | U+2261 | ð | ALT 0240 | Latin small letter eth | U+00F0 |
± | ALT 241 | Plus-minus sign | U+00B1 | ñ | ALT 0241 | Latin small letter n with tilde, small letter enye | U+00F1 |
≥ | ALT 242 | Greater-than or equal to | U+2265 | ò | ALT 0242 | Latin small letter o with grave | U+00F2 |
≤ | ALT 243 | Less-than or equal to | U+2264 | ó | ALT 0243 | Latin small letter o with acute | U+00F3 |
⌠ | ALT 244 | Top half integral | U+2320 | ô | ALT 0244 | Latin small letter o with circumflex | U+00F4 |
⌡ | ALT 245 | Bottom half integral | U+2321 | õ | ALT 0245 | Latin small letter o with tilde | U+00F5 |
÷ | ALT 246 | Division sign, obelus | U+00F7 | ö | ALT 0246 | Latin small letter o with diaeresis | U+00F6 |
≈ | ALT 247 | Almost equal to, asymptotic to | U+2248 | ÷ | ALT 0247 | Division sign, obelus | U+00F7 |
° | ALT 248 | Degree sign | U+00B0 | ø | ALT 0248 | Latin small letter o with stroke | U+00F8 |
∙ | ALT 249 | Bullet operator | U+2219 | ù | ALT 0249 | Latin small letter u with grave | U+00F9 |
· | ALT 250 | Middle dot, midpoint (in typography), interpunct, Georgian comma, Greek ano teleia | U+00B7 | ú | ALT 0250 | Latin small letter u with acute | U+00FA |
√ | ALT 251 | Square root, radical sign | U+221A | û | ALT 0251 | Latin small letter u with circumflex | U+00FB |
ⁿ | ALT 252 | Superscript Latin small letter n | U+207F | ü | ALT 0252 | Latin small letter u with diaeresis | U+00FC |
² | ALT 253 | Superscript two, squared | U+00B2 | ý | ALT 0253 | Latin small letter y with acute | U+00FD |
■ | ALT 254 | Black square | U+25A0 | þ | ALT 0254 | Latin small letter thorn | U+00FE |
ALT 255 | No-break space, non-breaking space, nbsp | U+00A0 | ÿ | ALT 0255 | Latin small letter y with diaeresis | U+00FF |
What are ALT Codes? A More Technical Description
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).
History of Windows Alt Codes
Windows ALT codes based on Code Page 437
ALT Codes without leading zeroes (ALT 1 – ALT 255) produce special characters and symbol based on IBM’s Code Page 437 / DOS.
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.
Windows 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.
For instructions on how to use ALT codes to enter special characters and symbols, please read How to Use ALT Codes to Enter Special Characters.
For ALT codes for special characters and symbols beyond those listed here, see ALT Codes for Miscellaneous Symbols and for Math Symbols.
References and Sources:
Windows code page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_code_page)
ISO/IEC 8859-1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_8859-1)
Code Pages (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/intl/code-pages)
A brief introduction to code pages and Unicode (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-codepages/index.html)
Published on March 1, 2018 · Last Updated on February 27, 2023