Looking for a particular character in an ancient script or foreign language? Need a special… special character? Find reviewed here the best sites for Unicode character search to find characters and copy/paste.
First, Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate
Punching is all right. For the admonition not to fold, spindle or mutilate was printed on millions of punch cards used to distribute checks, collect statistics, and compute bills.
On this cascade of horrors that can be done to an innocent card, it is, of course, the “spindle” that sticks out.
Before we get distracted with what a tool known from fairy tales has to do with the precursor to computerized data processing, let’s turn to punched cards as precursors to computerized character encoding—which they were.
Look what it has tuned into: too many Unicode characters to count or know. You can search for the right character and codepoint in many a way, though.
Looking specifically from emojis? The best tools to search for emojis
The 6 Best Tools for Unicode Character Search
1. Codepoints.net – Most Comprehensive Unicode Character Search
If you can describe it, you can find it.
For near any Unicode code point, Codepoints.net offers a richly descriptive page. Next to the character’s representations and official name, it collects a wealth of information, including, for instance, information from Wikipedia, pronunciation, and definitions.
All that description, of course, makes it so much more likely that searching for a character will lead you to the character.
Codepoints.net has more in store than mere and wile searching for matches. Apart from free-form search, you can match a host of character attributes (from radical to script and the category, for example). Codepoints.net even offers to identify a character using these attributes with a series of questions.
So, if you can describe it, you can find it on Codepoints.net—provided the character is not very new to Unicode. Codepoints.net, alas, does not always have the latest information.
Codepoints.net Pros
- Very comprehensive Unicode characters search
- Includes detailed information for codepoints
Codepoints.net Cons
- Does not include the latest additions to Unicode
Wonder if there’s an emoji version of a symbol? How to Get the Text Version of an Emoji (and Vice Versa)
2. Shapecatcher – Search Unicode Characters by Shape
If you can draw it, you can find it.
Had no luck finding a Unicode character describing it to Codepoints.net (or another character search engine)? Show it to Shapecatcher.
Its shape matching algorithm will compare your scribbles to the Unicode characters it has learned (thousands from various scripts as well as special characters and emoji—albeit not recent additions) and present you with the most likely guesses.
These range from amusing to amazing and, in any event, are thoroughly helpful. You can rate any suggestion’s quality, but the loose and broad matching is a blessing for discovery. It’s a pity one cannot undo individual strokes when drawing in Shapecatcher, only start over.
Shapecatcher Pros
- Lets you find Unicode characters by drawing shapes
- Includes characters as well as pictograms and emoji
Shapecatcher Cons
- Shape recognition could be improved
- Latest additions to Unicode not included
- No way to undo strokes
3. FileFormat.Info – Comprehensive Search with Unicode Font Info
FileFormat.Info‘s vast Unicode section includes information both concise and comprehensive on all Unicode characters—and a quite speedy way to search for them.
When you search for Unicode characters, you can exclude Chinese characters for less overwhelming results. Other than that, simply searching the whole of FileFormat.Info is just as useful for finding characters.
Results include not only a character’s outline and description but also encoding in every format you can think of, data about the character, SVG files, information about fonts that include the character and a test page for browser support.
What is missing for some characters are alternative names, so FileFormat.Info is most helpful if you do know what you are looking for.
FileFormat.Info Pros
- Tons of helpful technical information for each Unicode codepoint
- Includes information about font support
FileFormat.Info Cons
- Search is limited to character names and encoding
4. Unicode Character Table – Emoji Lookup by Theme
The Unicode Character Table is not just a table of Unicode characters—but it is also that table: all Unicode characters in tabular form sorted by Script with a map that shows local usage to boot.
For every character, you can access the codepoint, name, technical information, and the encoding, for use in HTML for instance. Emojis get the (often crucially) helpful addition of a description and hints about their meaning and previous for many popular platforms.
Across all this information, Unicode Character Table also lets you search swiftly. If you are looking for emoji to suit an occasion, head to the Holidays list, though—emoji by theme.
Unicode Character Table Pros
- Great overview of Unicode characters in one table
- Collections of emoji by holiday and occasion
Unicode Character Table Cons
- Even more information for characters would make search more helpful
5. AmpWhat – Comprehensive Glyph Search
An amped-up way to find and copy Unicode characters, AmpWhat (&what;) is most at ease turning up emoji. For each character, AmpWhat lets you copy the character itself or an HTML representation (as a named entity or using the Unicode code point), how it would appear in an escaped URL as well as CSS and JSON variants.
What lets AmpWhat shine is getting to the characters, though: not only can you search for the usual descriptions and character names, AmpWhat also turns up characters used in specific languages (no matter the Unicode code page).
Searching is appreciably fast, though that swift, local search can also lead to slight hiccups when data is fetched or purged, it seems.
Either way, AmpWhat makes for a very handy tool to find (or even discover) characters.
AmpWhat Pros
- Fast and pretty comprehensive search
- Lets you copy quickly in various formats (HTML, CSS, JSON,…)
- Handy collections of language-specific glyphs
AmpWhat Cons
- Does not include a lot of character information
- Occasional performance hiccups
6. The UniSearcher – Unicode Character Lookup by Pronunciation
If you can pronounce it, you can find it.
The UniSearcher includes pronunciation information for Mandarin and Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese and finds characters by pronunciation—tones and all.
In general, East Asian scripts is where The UniSearcher is most useful. In addition to phonetic search, you can also find characters by description or definition and codepoint. Unfortunately, the site does not go beyond official Unicode names and definitions, so searching by either may take a few guesses.
At The UniSearcher, you can also get one long list of Unicode characters sorted by codepoint, quite an impressive, immersive, and strangely enlightening sight Do visit The UniSearcher for that list alone.
The UniSearcher Pros
- Pronunciation search for a host of East Asian languages
- Includes a clipboard that lets you collect characters
The UniSearcher Cons
- Does not include descriptions and keywords beyond Unicode’s official data
7. Compart – Unicode Lists
Visit Compart not necessarily for its search capabilities; visit it for its lists, though.
It most useful a fashion, Compart collects Unicode characters in several ways. You can see characters arranged by Unicode plane or category, for instance, you can browse all HTML entities or take a glance at all mirrored characters, and you can examine all a script’s characters, finally, or investigate “combining classes”.
All the lists and characters profit from Compart’s clean and organized layout and display.
Compart Pros
- Find Unicode characters arranged in useful lists
- Includes solid technical information and attractive outlines for each character
Compart Cons
- Compart search is limited to official descriptions
Bonus: Unicode Code Charts – The Official Character
Neatly sorted by script and arranged by codepoint, here are the official words and letters from the Unicode consortium. All charts come as individual PDFs, so searching for them is a matter of hit and miss; they do contain all names and corrections and follow a logical order, though, so finding a character is not entirely hopeless an affair either.
As a bonus, do examine the official Unicode standard documents. The history of scripts in particular make for fascinating reading.
Code Charts Pros
- The official word, letter and symbol from the Unicode consortium
- Includes the codepoint, name and outline for each character by script
Code Charts Cons
- Searching the official PDF documents is a challenge
(Best tools for Unicode character search updated April 2024)