Linux Character maps

Character maps are programs you can use to find any special character and symbol from any font installed on your Linux system. You can find them and copy-paste, or you can find their Unicode codes and use those.

GNOME and Unity

GNOME Character map screenshot

Gucharmap character map is a part of GNOME desktop. So if you run a Gnome desktop - you can access it in following way:

  • Menu on the top of the screen. Click on chosen language ➢ choose Character Map.
  • Gucharmap in terminal.
  • Applications ➢ Accessories ➢ Character Map.

References

KDE Character Selector

KDE Character Selector screenshot

KCharSelect is advanced character map tool found in KDE environment on Linux OS. What's more advanced about it, is that it contains more information about symbols and that it is more customisable. Big disadvantage is that it is not that fast to use.

You can access it in following ways:

  • KCharSelect in terminal.
  • Path is likely to be /usr/bin/kcharselect

Reference

Character map on Java

Java Character map screenshot

There also is a Java charmap program you can download. It works on any platform, where Java environment is installed.

Features

Works anywhere where Java RE is installed. Can be resized. A single click adds character into text field. Text in this field is automatically copied to the system clipboard on each click. Author states that features are limited to make the application faster and simpler to learn and use.

Linux keyboard shortcuts for text symbols (and characters)
Linux keyboard shortcuts for text symbols Find out about keyboard shortcuts that you can use on Linux OS to type text symbols and Unicode special characters. Somewhat like Alt codes. ♪ ✌ ☠ 웃 ♋

Last update 11 months ago