Character Entity References
Gautam Patel
Over at A List Apart [1], one of the most delectable and beautifully presented websites for webdesigners, Peter Sheerin has a now legendary article [2] titled “The Trouble With EM ’n EN (and Other Shady Characters)” on typography, typographical styles and character entity references. It’s a pity his advice isn’t followed more often throughout the Web. There’s little doubt that it makes for much easier on-screen reading. Apart from anything else, following his advice renders pages that are much more courteous to the reader.
One of the references in that article [3] is to the W3C page [4] on Character Entity References in HTML 4. There is a detailed table there of all character entity references with their HTML codes and CData numeric codes. Unfortunately, the table is difficult to decipher. I’ve taken that table and re-formatted it for easier reading. Presenting the W3C-based table of Character Entity References…
| html character entity | cdata numeric code | representation | ||
| nbsp | 160 | no-break space = non-breaking space | ||
| ¡ | ¡ | iexcl | 161 | inverted exclamation mark |
| ¢ | ¢ | cent | 162 | cent sign |
| £ | £ | pound | 163 | pound sign |
| ¤ | ¤ | curren | 164 | currency sign |
| ¥ | ¥ | yen | 165 | yen sign = yuan sign |
| ¦ | ¦ | brvbar | 166 | broken bar = broken vertical bar |
| § | § | sect | 167 | section sign |
| ¨ | ¨ | uml | 168 | diaeresis = spacing diaeresis |
| © | © | copy | 169 | copyright sign |
| ª | ª | ordf | 170 | feminine ordinal indicator |
| « | « | laquo | 171 | left-pointing double angle quotation mark = left pointing guillemet |
| ¬ | ¬ | not | 172 | not sign |
| | | shy | 173 | soft hyphen = discretionary hyphen |
| ® | ® | reg | 174 | registered sign = registered trade mark sign |
| ¯ | ¯ | macr | 175 | macron = spacing macron = overline = APL overbar |
| ° | ° | deg | 176 | degree sign |
| ± | ± | plusmn | 177 | plus-minus sign = plus-or-minus sign,U+00B1 ISOnum |
| ² | ² | sup2 | 178 | superscript two = superscript digit two = squared |
| ³ | ³ | sup3 | 179 | superscript three = superscript digit three = cubed |
| ´ | ´ | acute | 180 | acute accent = spacing acute |
| µ | µ | micro | 181 | micro sign |
| ¶ | ¶ | para | 182 | pilcrow sign = paragraph sign |
| · | · | middot | 183 | middle dot = Georgian comma = Greek middle dot |
| ¸ | ¸ | cedil | 184 | cedilla = spacing cedilla |
| ¹ | ¹ | sup1 | 185 | superscript one = superscript digit one |
| º | º | ordm | 186 | masculine ordinal indicator |
| » | » | raquo | 187 | right-pointing double angle quotation mark = right pointing guillemet |
| ¼ | ¼ | frac14 | 188 | vulgar fraction one quarter = fraction one quarter |
| ½ | ½ | frac12 | 189 | vulgar fraction one half = fraction one half |
| ¾ | ¾ | frac34 | 190 | vulgar fraction three quarters = fraction three quarters |
| ¿ | ¿ | iquest | 191 | inverted question mark = turned question mark |
| À | À | Agrave | 192 | latin capital letter A with grave = latin capital letter A grave |
| Á | Á | Aacute | 193 | latin capital letter A with acute |
| Â | Â | Acirc | 194 | latin capital letter A with circumflex |
| Ã | Ã | Atilde | 195 | latin capital letter A with tilde |
| Ä | Ä | Auml | 196 | latin capital letter A with diaeresis |
| Å | Å | Aring | 197 | latin capital letter A with ring above = latin capital letter A ring |
| Æ | Æ | AElig | 198 | latin capital letter AE = latin capital ligature AE |
| Ç | Ç | Ccedil | 199 | latin capital letter C with cedilla |
| È | È | Egrave | 200 | latin capital letter E with grave |
| É | É | Eacute | 201 | latin capital letter E with acute,U+00C9 ISOlat1 |
| Ê | Ê | Ecirc | 202 | latin capital letter E with circumflex,U+00CA ISOlat1 |
| Ë | Ë | Euml | 203 | latin capital letter E with diaeresis |
| Ì | Ì | Igrave | 204 | latin capital letter I with grave |
| Í | Í | Iacute | 205 | latin capital letter I with acute |
| Î | Î | Icirc | 206 | latin capital letter I with circumflex |
| Ï | Ï | Iuml | 207 | latin capital letter I with diaeresis |
| Ð | Ð | ETH | 208 | latin capital letter ETH |
| Ñ | Ñ | Ntilde | 209 | latin capital letter N with tilde |
| Ò | Ò | Ograve | 210 | latin capital letter O with grave |
| Ó | Ó | Oacute | 211 | latin capital letter O with acute |
| Ô | Ô | Ocirc | 212 | latin capital letter O with circumflex |
| Õ | Õ | Otilde | 213 | latin capital letter O with tilde |
| Ö | Ö | Ouml | 214 | latin capital letter O with diaeresis |
| × | × | times | 215 | multiplication sign |
| Ø | Ø | Oslash | 216 | latin capital letter O with stroke = latin capital letter O slash |
| Ù | Ù | Ugrave | 217 | latin capital letter U with grave |
| Ú | Ú | Uacute | 218 | latin capital letter U with acute |
| Û | Û | Ucirc | 219 | latin capital letter U with circumflex |
| Ü | Ü | Uuml | 220 | latin capital letter U with diaeresis |
| Ý | Ý | Yacute | 221 | latin capital letter Y with acute |
| Þ | Þ | THORN | 222 | latin capital letter THORN |
| ß | ß | szlig | 223 | latin small letter sharp s = ess-zed |
| à | à | agrave | 224 | latin small letter a with grave = latin small letter a grave |
| á | á | aacute | 225 | latin small letter a with acute,U+00E1 ISOlat1 |
| â | â | acirc | 226 | latin small letter a with circumflex |
| ã | ã | atilde | 227 | latin small letter a with tilde |
| ä | ä | auml | 228 | latin small letter a with diaeresis |
| å | å | aring | 229 | latin small letter a with ring above= latin small letter a ring,U+00E5 ISOlat1 |
| æ | æ | aelig | 230 | latin small letter ae = latin small ligature ae |
| ç | ç | ccedil | 231 | latin small letter c with cedilla |
| è | è | egrave | 232 | latin small letter e with grave |
| é | é | eacute | 233 | latin small letter e with acute |
| ê | ê | ecirc | 234 | latin small letter e with circumflex |
| ë | ë | euml | 235 | latin small letter e with diaeresis |
| ì | ì | igrave | 236 | latin small letter i with grave |
| í | í | iacute | 237 | latin small letter i with acute |
| î | î | icirc | 238 | latin small letter i with circumflex |
| ï | ï | iuml | 239 | latin small letter i with diaeresis |
| ð | ð | eth | 240 | latin small letter eth |
| ñ | ñ | ntilde | 241 | latin small letter n with tilde |
| ò | ò | ograve | 242 | latin small letter o with grave |
| ó | ó | oacute | 243 | latin small letter o with acute |
| ô | ô | ocirc | 244 | latin small letter o with circumflex |
| õ | õ | otilde | 245 | latin small letter o with tilde |
| ö | ö | ouml | 246 | latin small letter o with diaeresis |
| ÷ | ÷ | divide | 247 | division sign |
| ø | ø | oslash | 248 | latin small letter o with stroke |
| ù | ù | ugrave | 249 | latin small letter u with grave |
| ú | ú | uacute | 250 | latin small letter u with acute |
| û | û | ucirc | 251 | latin small letter u with circumflex |
| ü | ü | uuml | 252 | latin small letter u with diaeresis |
| ý | ý | yacute | 253 | latin small letter y with acute |
| þ | þ | thorn | 254 | latin small letter thorn |
| ÿ | ÿ | yuml | 255 | latin small letter y with diaeresis |
Notes:
- For HTML Entities, use ampersand & and semicolon ; before and after the given code. Thus, nbsp should be written
- For numeric data, precede the code with ampersand & and hash/pound #, and follow it with a semi-colon ; Example: ù
I hope you find this useful!