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What is a Character Map?

A Character Map is an operating system utility (or standalone application) that presents a visual grid of all available characters in a font, allowing users to browse, search, identify, and copy any character — including those with no direct keyboard equivalent. Character maps are the graphical fallback when keyboard shortcuts, dead keys, or IME are unavailable or unknown for a particular character.

Every major operating system includes a built-in character map, though they vary considerably in design and capability.

Built-in Character Map Tools

Windows: Character Map (charmap.exe)

The classic Windows utility, accessible via Start → search "Character Map" or Win+R → charmap:

• Displays all glyphs in a selected font
• Can filter by Unicode subrange (Latin, Greek, Mathematical Operators, etc.)
• Shows the character's Unicode code point, name, and Alt code in the status bar
• Copy selected characters to clipboard for pasting

Windows 11 also includes the updated Emoji & Symbols panel (Win + . or Win + ;) which provides a more modern, searchable character picker.

macOS: Character Viewer

Access via Edit → Emoji & Symbols, or the keyboard shortcut (usually Ctrl + Cmd + Space). macOS Character Viewer is significantly more capable than Windows charmap:

• Full Unicode search by name or keyword
• Category browsing (Emoji, Symbols, Arrows, Math, CJK, etc.)
• Recent and Favorites lists
• Shows multiple font variants for each character
• Displays Unicode metadata: name, code point, related characters
• Customizable to show character categories relevant to your workflow

Linux: GNOME Character Map (gnome-characters)

A modern GTK application included in GNOME desktop environments:

# Install if not present
sudo apt install gnome-characters   # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install gnome-characters   # Fedora

Also available: gucharmap (GTK Unicode character map, more technical), kcharselect (KDE equivalent).

Character Map Use Cases

1. Finding a character by appearance: browse the math symbols block to find ∑ or ∫
2. Finding a character by name: search "pilcrow" to find ¶ (U+00B6)
3. Getting the code point: select a character to see U+XXXX for use in code
4. Testing font coverage: switch fonts in charmap to see which glyphs a font provides
5. Copying unusual characters: copy ™, ©, ®, or arrows for use in documents

Keyboard Shortcut Summary

Quick Facts