Copyright symbol
I'm sure lots of people know this text symbol. You can even see it on Facebook, Myspace and YouTube. Copyright is a pretty popular computer symbol that people had been texting at least since ASCII encoding was developed. And did you know you can type copyright symbol © right from your keyboard? I'll show you how to do it by using different techniques depending on your Operating System and tastes.
I will also show you how to access a Character map tool on your system. Charmaps are very handy programs for text symbols. They are installed by default on Windows and Mac systems, aswell as some Linux distributions.
Note: if you aren't interested in writing copyright text symbol with the use of keyboard - you can always just copy it. To find out how to do that and find lots more symbols to copy - view how to copy-paste symbols.
What copyright means
The copyright symbol mark, designated by © (a circled 'C'), is the symbol used to provide notice of copyright in works other than sound recordings (which are indicated with the ℗ symbol). The use of the symbol is described in United States copyright law, and, internationally, by the Universal Copyright Convention. The C stands for copyright.
A copyright notice, either as symbol or phrase, informs users of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work.
In the United States, the copyright notice consists of three elements:
- The © symbol, or the word 'Copyright' or abbreviation 'Copr.';
- The year of first publication of the copyrighted work;
- Identification of the owner of the copyright, either by name, abbreviation, or other designation by which it is generally known.
How to type copyright?
Choose where you want to type it and find out.
On Windows
Alt codes
If you're running Windows on your Desktop PC, or Laptop (not Macbook, though) then you can use Alt codes. I'm not sure about Netbooks, but I'd recommend you read and try. Alt codes are keyboard combinations (shortcuts) to type additional symbols not available on standard keyboard layout. You can type practically all frequently used symbols with this shortcut series. Read my reference for more details.
Here is an Alt code of copyright text symbol. Try it if you know how to make alt codes. You should remember it if you'll want to type copyright from your keyboard with this technique again some time later.
| Alt code | Symbol |
|---|---|
| 0169 | © |
Shift states
This is fastest and easiest to use. You can type any possible character, symbol, or sign from Unicode encoding with shift states. Just like you use Shift key to type capital (UPCASE) letters and special sign, you can assign more symbols to Alt and Ctrl keys.
The only problem is that it takes about 5-15 minutes to make and setup a custom layout with your desired symbols. But it's not a big problem, is it?..
You can easily assign copyright symbol and any other text characters to your keyboard with this technique. For example, you could make copyright by simultaneously pressing AltGr (right Alt key) and C.
Character map
There is a standard built-in program on Windows called "Character Map", or simply "CharMap". Using it, you can enter any possible symbol installed on your computer. That's a hell lot larger range than you can get with alt codes. Read the reference below to find out how to use it.
On Mac
Keyboard viewer
To make special characters with your keyboard on Mac computer you'll most likely have to use Keyboard Viewer. The character range (number of different symbols) that it gives to you is pretty wide. You can use it to see the layout of characters on keyboard for any chosen language. For example, if U.S. is selected in the Input menu, you see the characters that appear on a U.S. keyboard in Keyboard Viewer. Also, you can choose to view shortcuts for symbols and signs that are most often used, like "√ ∑ π ∞ ∆ ™ © æ £ ¢", etc.
You can use this method to type copyright text symbol on your Mac.
Character palette
If you want to insert any possible text symbol into your writings, such as copyright icon ©, a flat note sign ♭, or heart ♥ in the middle of a sentence, you can use the Mac OS X Character Palette. This utility that lets you select symbols and special characters visually from all the text symbols installed on your computer. It's a really amazing tool, so don't miss your chance and find out how to use it on Apple Mac OS Character Palette.
This applet can really help you. It has got all the symbols, so it's got all the copyright aswell.
On Linux
Keyboard codes
There actually are 3 different ways to type symbols on Linux with a keyboard. And all of them can produce a copyright symbol. So, please, read more to choose a method that is best for you.
Following are codes required to write the copyright symbol.
| Unicode hex code | Symbol | Compose key sequence | Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00a9 | © | 0c | © |
| c0 | © | ||
| oc | © | ||
| co | © |
Character map
Character map is a program that displays all possible text symbols. You can choose some, and copy them to where you want them to be. It can even help you with the keyboard codes I just wrote about, as you can also look up Unicode symbol codes with it.
Because, Linux has different interfaces, like KDE and GNOME, there are different charmap programs. And you can also download a java CharMap that works everywhere where Java RE is installed. Read about all of them.
In HTML
Copyright symbol © has a simplified HTML entity.
| HTML entity | Symbol |
|---|---|
| © | © |


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