Lower Right Pencil
U+270E✎Symbol · decimal ✎
Writing Symbols Copy & Paste
Copy 62 writing symbols for manuscripts, lists and typeset text. Mostly drawn from the Dingbats block. 27 render as text and 35 as emoji.
Copy writing symbols
62 characters and sequences. Choose an entry and it copies straight away.
No entry on this page matches.
01
Writing Symbols with Unicode names and HTML codes
12 of the 62 entries, shown with their full detail. Where two entries look the same, the name settles it. The HTML references beside each name reproduce the code-point sequence character for character.
Memo
U+1F4DD📝Emoji or pictograph · decimal 📝
Section Sign
U+00A7§Punctuation · decimal §
Locked With Pen
U+1F50F🔏Emoji or pictograph · decimal 🔏
Grinning Face With Big Eyes
U+1F603😃Emoji or pictograph · decimal 😃
Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk
U+273C✼Symbol · decimal ✼
Clockwise Open Circle Arrow
U+21BB↻Symbol · decimal ↻
Open Box
U+2423␣Symbol · decimal ␣
Anxious Face With Sweat
U+1F630😰Emoji or pictograph · decimal 😰
Open Mailbox With Lowered Flag
U+1F4ED📭Emoji or pictograph · decimal 📭
Suspension Railway
U+1F69F🚟Emoji or pictograph · decimal 🚟
Clockwise Vertical Arrows
U+1F503🔃Emoji or pictograph · decimal 🔃
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Writing Symbols: types, meanings and practical differences
Pens, editorial marks and paragraph signs for annotating notes, bylines and documentation.
The marks that make text read properly: brackets, dashes, bullets and quotes. The page carries 62 distinct entries: 56 single characters and 6 sequences.
Representative names include Lower Right Pencil, Memo, Section Sign, Locked With Pen. The commonest name families across the whole inventory are Smiling Face With (4), Latin Small Letter (4), Variation Selector-16 (3). Single-character values span U+00A7 to U+1FA9A.
Browse writing symbols by type
Symbol
17 entries
Emoji or pictograph
32 entries
Punctuation
6 entries
Letter
1 entry
Emoji sequence
3 entries
Text sequence
3 entries
What is actually in these writing symbols
Encoded span for writing symbols
The span runs U+00A7 to U+1FA9A. By Unicode general category that is symbol 48, punctuation 7, letter 1.
Name patterns that repeat
Sorting every formal name puts Smiling Face With (4), Latin Small Letter (4), Variation Selector-16 (3) at the top.
Joiners, selectors and length
6 entries span more than one code point: 0 with a zero-width joiner, 3 with a variation selector, the longest running to 2 code points.
Narrowing it down
Two look almost the same: Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk and Open Box. They are different characters: U+273C and U+2423. Start with emoji or pictograph.
It is the biggest group, with 32. Save letter for when you mean exactly that. Want colour?
Pick one of the 35 emoji. Want it to match your text? Pick one of the 27 plain ones.
Then paste it where it will live and look at it.
The grouping here follows practical use, not Unicode's formal categories.
32Emoji or pictograph
Colour artwork, supplied by the platform. 52% here.
17Symbol
Monochrome characters you can style like text. 27% here.
6Punctuation
Characters that organise a sentence. 10% here.
3Emoji sequence
Several code points joined into one image. 5% here.
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Writing Symbols explained in plain English
Short summary
Pick from 62 writing symbols on this page. The largest set is emoji or pictograph, with 32. Unicode keeps most of them in a group called Dingbats. Watch the 35 emoji. Unlike the 27 plain ones, you cannot change how they look.
6 groups, not one list
Emoji or pictograph is the biggest at 32. The rest split between emoji or pictograph, punctuation and letter.
Which blocks they come from
They come from Dingbats (16), Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs (15) and Emoticons (9). They span U+00A7 to U+1FA9A, so no one font covers them all.
Easy to confuse
Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk and Open Box look alike. They are not the same character.
6 entries are sequences
Half-copying breaks 6 of these. Take the whole value.
Terms worth knowing
Useful terms when searching or describing writing symbols.
- Symbol
- Emoji or pictograph
- Punctuation
- Letter
- Emoji sequence
- Text sequence
- Writing
- Pen
- Pencil
- Edit
- Author
- Paragraph
The main types compared
| Type | Examples | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | ✎ ✐ ✫ | Documents, editing and publishing | Treating Lower Right Pencil and Memo as the same character |
| Emoji or pictograph | ✏ ✒ 🖋 | Lists, quotations and annotations | Thinking every one of the 62 works the same everywhere |
| Punctuation | ﹏ ﹋ ﹌ | Readable text layouts and dividers | Copying only part of one of the 6 multi-code-point sequences instead of the whole value |
| Letter | ɔ | Documents, editing and publishing | Reaching for one of the 35 emoji entries where a text mark was needed, so the colour artwork clashes with the surrounding type |
What the writing symbols inventory actually contains
Every figure below is counted from the 62 entries stored for this page rather than estimated. The characters are drawn from Dingbats (16), Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs (15) and Emoticons (9).
| Group | Entries | Examples | Code points | Usual presentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 17 | ✎ ✐ ✫ | U+270E–U+272B | Text presentation |
| Emoji or pictograph | 32 | ✏ ✒ 🖋 | U+270F–U+1F58B | Emoji presentation |
| Punctuation | 6 | ﹏ ﹋ ﹌ | U+00A7–U+FE4F | Text presentation |
| Letter | 1 | ɔ | U+0254 | Text presentation |
| Emoji sequence | 3 | ✍️ ✒️ ✏️ | sequence | Emoji presentation |
| Text sequence | 3 | ɜ: ɔ: ɔɪ | sequence | Text presentation |
Practical note: Presentation is the typical default. A variation selector, a specific font stack, or an application that overrides emoji rendering can change what you see after pasting.
Related reading
Compare these choices with punctuation symbols and office symbols. For a deeper explanation, read Using Symbols in Professional Writing. For a quick answer first, see how do i find the official name of a symbol?.
Tip: A symbol should decorate a label, not replace it — plain words keep the meaning available to search and to assistive technology.
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How to use writing symbols
One click copies the characters themselves, not a picture of them. Use Ctrl V on Windows and Linux, ⌘ V on a Mac, or long-press and Paste on a phone.
01
Documents, editing and publishing
Lower Right Pencil is the safe pick here. Let the words beside it carry the meaning.
02
Lists, quotations and annotations
Emoji or pictograph suits lists, quotations and annotations. Pick one whose stroke weight matches the text around it.
03
Readable text layouts and dividers
When creating readable text layouts and dividers, paste the complete entry — several of these are multi-code-point sequences that break if truncated.
Copy-ready writing symbols examples for documents, editing and publishing
Documents, editing and publishing
✎ Writing referenceLists, quotations and annotations
✎ ✐ ✏Readable text layouts and dividers
✏ writing ✎05
How to type these writing symbols directly
Copying is quicker, but these are typeable too. On Windows the alt code is the character's decimal code point; in Word the hexadecimal followed by Alt X does the same job without a keypad.
| Character | Name | Windows | Hex | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✎ | Lower Right Pencil | Alt 9998 | 270E | ✎ |
| 📝 | Memo | Not available | 1F4DD | 📝 |
| § | Section Sign | Alt 167 | 00A7 | § |
| 🔏 | Locked With Pen | Not available | 1F50F | 🔏 |
| 😃 | Grinning Face With Big Eyes | Not available | 1F603 | 😃 |
| ✼ | Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk | Alt 10044 | 273C | ✼ |
Two limits apply to alt codes: a physical keypad, and a ceiling at U+FFFF. 28 entries here sit above that ceiling. A further 6 are sequences, which no shortcut reproduces — copy those instead. For the Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile detail, read the keyboard guide.
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How writing symbols render across fonts, apps and devices
Unicode keeps 40% of these in Dingbats. The rest come from Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs and Emoticons. You get two behaviours here.
27 are plain text. 35 are emoji and arrive in colour you cannot change. Unicode files the emoji ones under Objects and Smileys & Emotion.
6 entries are made of several parts. Copy the whole thing, or it breaks apart. Some are as recent as Emoji 13.0, so old devices may draw an empty box.
The clipboard carries code points, not the drawing on this page, so weight, spacing and colour can all shift between iPhone, Android, Windows, macOS and an exported PDF.
56Single characters
6Sequences
35Emoji properties
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Common mistakes with writing symbols
- 1
Treating Lower Right Pencil and Memo as the same character.
- 2
Thinking every one of the 62 works the same everywhere.
- 3
Copying only part of one of the 6 multi-code-point sequences instead of the whole value.
- 4
Reaching for one of the 35 emoji entries where a text mark was needed, so the colour artwork clashes with the surrounding type.
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Writing Symbols questions and answers
What is the difference between Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk and Open Box?+
They are two distinct Unicode characters: Open Centre Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk is U+273C (HTML ✼) and Open Box is U+2423 (HTML ␣). A font may draw them almost identically, but they sort and search as separate values.
What is the HTML code for lower right pencil?+
Either reference works: ✎ or ✎. Both resolve to ✎. Pasting the raw character is fine too once the document is UTF-8.
Which writing symbols work as plain text rather than emoji?+
27 of the 62 are ordinary text characters. They take the colour and weight of the surrounding font, which suits documents, code and interface labels. The other 35 are emoji and arrive as colour artwork you cannot restyle.
Why does one of these writing symbols split apart when I paste it?+
6 entries here are sequences of more than one code point. If the destination does not support the sequence, or if the copy was truncated, the parts render individually. Copy the entry with the button rather than by selecting the characters.
Which Unicode block are these writing symbols in?+
The answer is Dingbats, covering 16 of them; the rest come from Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs and Emoticons. Coverage tends to follow the block: long-established ones render nearly everywhere, recent additions do not.
Will these writing symbols work on older phones?+
The newest entry on this page was introduced in Emoji 13.0. Devices that have not received a font update since then will show a blank rectangle instead. Test on a real older device before using a recent character where the meaning matters.
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Learn more about writing symbols
Tools that pair with writing symbols
Typographic work is exactly where an unnoticed zero-width character does damage, so the inspector belongs beside these collections.
Invisible Character InspectorReveal zero-width spaces, joiners and direction marks without changing the text you paste into the inspector.Open the text inspector →Bubble Text ConverterTurn ordinary letters and numbers into enclosed Unicode characters for short labels and profile text.Open the text converter →
Composing a finished design from these is what the Symbol Maker is for. The full set of converters, inspectors and previews sits in the Unicode tools hub.
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Sources for these figures
All counts derive from the 62 values actually stored for this collection. Rather than curating names by hand, this page reads them from the Unicode 17.0 database, and takes emoji membership from the standard's own data files.
- Unicode Character Database — UnicodeData.txt (formal names and general categories)
- Unicode emoji-test.txt (fully-qualified emoji sequences and grouping)
- The Unicode Standard, current version
- How CoolSymbol.now sources, counts and tests this data