Special punctuation marks and typographic symbols
19 symbols available - Click any symbol to copy
Last reviewed on May 7, 2026
This page collects the typographic punctuation that doesn't appear on a standard keyboard layout but shows up constantly in well-set prose: smart quotes, the proper apostrophe, em and en dashes, the ellipsis, and reference marks like the section sign, the pilcrow, and the prime marks.
The keyboard apostrophe (') and quotation mark (") are typewriter quotes — they are vertical and undirected. Typeset prose uses curly quotes that point inward: opening quote (“), closing quote (”), opening single (‘), closing single (’). The closing single quote is also the proper apostrophe (’) in contractions: “don’t,” not “don't.” Most word processors substitute these automatically; on the web you usually have to insert them or rely on a typography library.
Three dashes do different jobs:
Using a hyphen where an en dash belongs is the most common typographic mistake on the web. The visual difference is subtle but the meaning is clearer with the right character.
The horizontal ellipsis (…) is one character, U+2026. Three periods in a row (...) is a substitute that many fonts will not space correctly. In dialogue and quotation, the proper ellipsis trailing into a thought is “like this…”
The section sign (§), used to cite a section of a legal or academic document, is paired with a number: §1.3. The pilcrow (¶) marks paragraphs in editing context. The dagger (†) and double dagger (‡) are footnote markers when an article uses more than one footnote indicator on the same line. The asterism (⁂) is a three-asterisk ornament used as a section break.
Copyright (©), registered trademark (®), and the unregistered trademark (™) sit on most pages. Use the registered mark only when the trademark is actually registered in the relevant jurisdiction; the unregistered mark is fine in any context.
The prime (′) and double prime (″) mark feet/inches and minutes/seconds in technical writing: 5′9″ for height, 40°42′46″ for latitude. They are not the same as the apostrophe and the straight quote, although they are often substituted by editors who don't know the dedicated characters exist.
The Unicode converter is useful if you have a U+ code from a style guide and need the glyph it refers to.
Most of these characters have memorable HTML named entities; see the HTML entities reference for the full list. To type them without copy-paste, see the keyboard shortcuts guide.