The following characters are essential for the correct typesetting of documents. Depending on the document, you may also need characters from character blocks for non-English languages. Mathematical documents will have need of characters from mathematical character blocks, and probably also the Greek character block.
| U+0020 | SPACE | Used between words and sentences. May be split over lines. |
| U+0021 | EXCLAMATION MARK | Used to end a sentence. |
| U+0025 | PERCENT SIGN | Per hundredth. Fraction expressed in hundredths. |
| U+0027 | APOSTROPHE | Indicating ownership or missing letters from a word. |
| U+002A | ASTERISK | First footnote indication. |
| U+002B | PLUS SIGN | Optional prefix for a positive number. Addition operator. |
| U+002C | COMMA | Delimiting items in a list or unconnected phrases in a sentence. |
| U+002E | FULL STOP | Used to end a sentence. |
| U+002F | SOLIDUS | Delimiting alternatives. |
| U+003A | COLON | Precedes a list or a phrase of clarification. May end a sentence. |
| U+003B | SEMICOLON | Delimiting items in a list. Delimiting unconnected phrases. |
| U+003C | LESS-THAN SIGN | Relation between unequal values. |
| U+003D | EQUALS SIGN | Relation between equal values. |
| U+003E | GREATER-THAN SIGN | Relation between unequal values. |
| U+003F | QUESTION MARK | Used to end a sentence. |
| U+00A0 | NO-BREAK SPACE | Used between words and sentences. May not be split over lines. |
| U+00A1 | INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK | (Latin) Used to begin a sentence. |
| U+00A7 | SECTION SIGN | Used to prefix a section number reference. |
| U+00A9 | COPYRIGHT SIGN | Copyright. Usually followed by year of publication or author of a work. |
| U+00AB | LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK | Alternate quotation mark. |
| U+00AD | SOFT HYPHEN | Do not use this character. Its meaning is not clear. |
| U+00AE | REGISTERED SIGN | Registered trademark. |
| U+00B0 | DEGREE SIGN | Unit of angle or temperature. |
| U+00B6 | PILCROW SIGN | Used to prefix a paragraph number reference. |
| U+00B7 | MIDDLE DOT | Correct symbol for use as a decimal point. |
| U+00BB | RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK | Alternative quotation mark. |
| U+00BF | INVERTED QUESTION MARK | (Latin) Used to begin a sentence. |
| U+00D7 | MULTIPLICATION SIGN | Delimiting volume or area. Multiplication operator. |
| U+00F7 | DIVISION SIGN | Division operator. |
| U+2010 | HYPHEN | Used to form compound words. May be split over lines. |
| U+2011 | NON-BREAKING HYPHEN | Used to form compound words. May not be split over lines. |
| U+2013 | EN DASH | Used in number ranges. Used occasionally for missing letters. |
| U+2014 | EM DASH | Sentence break or bracketed phrase. |
| U+2018 | LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK | (English) Beginning of outer quotation. |
| U+2019 | RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK | (English) End of outer quotation. |
| U+201A | SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK | (Latin) End of outer quotation. |
| U+201B | SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK | Alternate quotation mark. |
| U+201C | LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK | (English) Beginning of inner quotation. |
| U+201D | RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK | (English) End of inner quotation. |
| U+201E | DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK | (Latin) End of inner quotation. |
| U+201F | DOUBLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK | Alternate quotation mark. |
| U+2020 | DAGGER | Second footnote indication. |
| U+2021 | DOUBLE DAGGER | Third footnote indication. |
| U+2022 | BULLET | Denotes a list item. May consider using an ornament instead. |
| U+2026 | HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS | Indicates missing part. Consider using three FULL STOPs instead. |
| U+2027 | HYPHENATION POINT | A visible indication of where a word can be hyphenated. |
| U+2030 | PER MILLE SIGN | Per thousandth. Fraction expressed in thousandths. |
| U+2031 | PER TEN THOUSAND SIGN | Per ten-thousandth. Fraction expressed in ten-thousandths. |
| U+2032 | PRIME | Single prime mark. Minute. Foot. |
| U+2033 | DOUBLE PRIME | Double prime mark. Second. Inch. |
| U+2034 | TRIPLE PRIME | Triple prime mark. |
| U+2122 | TRADE MARK SIGN | Unregistered trademark. Consider superscript instead. |
| U+2190 | LEFTWARDS ARROW | Left pointing arrow. |
| U+2191 | UPWARDS ARROW | Up pointing arrow. |
| U+2192 | RIGHTWARDS ARROW | Right pointing arrow. |
| U+2193 | DOWNWARDS ARROW | Down pointing arrow. |
| U+2212 | MINUS SIGN | Correct prefix for a negative number. Subtraction operator. |
| U+221A | SQUARE ROOT | Radical sign. Square root operator. |
| U+221E | INFINITY | Representing unbounded value. |
| U+2260 | NOT EQUAL TO | Relation between unequal values. |
| U+2264 | LESS-THAN OR EQUAL TO | Relation between possibly unequal values. |
| U+2265 | GREATER-THAN OR EQUAL TO | Relation between possibly unequal values. |
See also: ASCII Gamut, SI Units and SI Unit Prefixes.
Last updated: Monday 2nd August 2U+004