Fumbling with Unicode superscripts — and found some superscripted letters don’t even exist? Still want your chemical formulas, footnotes and ordinal dates to look right in Apple Notes? Find out here how to make superscript characters in Apple Notes for Mac ⤓ effortlessly.
First, Caloric Combustion
Fuel inside a combustion chamber will ignite and burn when it’s supplied with oxygen and a spark plug‘s arc.
A carefully weighed and properly positioned sample of spinach will happily combust inside the sealed steel ball of a calorimeter, for instance. The burning spinach warms the water bath that surrounds it.
The rise in water temperature tells us exactly how many calories were hidden in the spinach. In the end, calories are measured in fire.
Now, speaking of little rises — what if instead of flaming spinach, we lifted lightweight letters to float neatly above the line in Apple Notes?
How to Make Superscript Characters in Apple Notes for Mac
Time needed: 2 minutes
To apply superscript formatting to letters, numbers and other characters in Apple Notes on a Mac.
- Highlight the characters you want to format as superscript in your note in Apple Notes.
Formatting before typing: You can also choose the formatting using the following steps and then enter the characters you want to enter superscripted, of course.
- Select Format | Font | Baseline | Superscript from the menu.
Top or context: You can use both the top macOS menu bar or click with the right mouse button on a highlighted character and choose from the context menu that appears.
- Optional: Reduce the size of the selected characters further than superscripting them does automatically.
Here’s how: Select Format | Font | Show Fonts from the menu (or press Command T), then choose the desired typeface size under Size.
Notes keyboard shortcut: You can also press Command - (repeatedly, if desired) to reduce the font size.
Everything superscripted now?
Tips help fuel these email and tech how-tos.
How to Make Superscript Characters in Apple Notes: FAQ
Can I use superscript formatting in Apple Notes for iPhone and iPad?
No.
While Notes for iPhone and iPad will display existing superscript formatting just fine, but you cannot apply it with the mobile version of Notes.
Can I use superscript formatting in iCloud Notes at iCloud.com?
No.
The web-based version of Notes at iCloud.com does neither display superscript formatting nor will it let you apply it.
Can I use Unicode superscript characters instead of Notes formatting?
Yes.
In lieu of applying superscript formatting, you can also insert the Unicode superscript characters using Character Viewer or Mac Unicode Hex input.
Also:
How to Insert Superscript Characters in Apple Pages
How to Insert Superscript Characters in Google Docs
How to Make Superscript Characters in MS Word
(Tested with Notes 4.12 on macOS; first published September 2025)