# Infinity Sign in HTML? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 30, 1999, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503 "1999-10-30T04:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/1 "1999-10-30T04:20:00Z")
OK, how do I print an infinity sign on this board, which symbol is supposed to be encoded by &inf; or ∞ or ƥ ? Ray ---
**Author:** ![krish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@krish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krish)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/2 "1999-10-30T04:25:00Z")
Your best bet is to find an image on the infinity sign and use that. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/3 "1999-10-30T05:29:00Z")
Those types of characters probably won’t show up in older browsers. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/4 "1999-10-30T06:42:00Z")
What are “those types of characters”? Ray ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/5 "1999-10-30T09:48:00Z")
IIRC, the Infinity character was introduced in the HTML 4.0 specification. As we all well know, the two major browsers, Netscape and Internet Explorer don’t support HTML 4.0 **completely**! IE 5 comes closest, followed be IE4 and then Netscape 4. Here is a test of extended HTML characters. \ ¢ £ © Æ ø ∞ ∞ ♠ ϖ %#8240 \ You should see the following characters: cent (twice), Copyright, “AE”, an o with a slash; infinity (twice), a spade, pi, and 0/00 The cent and copyright _should_ work with most browsers. ## Some browsers use a “?” in place of the codes it couldn’t understand, others will probably leave it blank, or display the code itself. It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either. —_Mark Twain_ ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/6 "1999-10-30T09:50:00Z")
**Same as above** , except using all number format. Here is a test of extended HTML characters. \ ¢ £ © Æ ø ∞ ∞ ♠ &982; ‰ \ You should see the following characters: cent (twice), Copyright, “AE”, an o with a slash; infinity (twice), a spade, pi, and 0/00 The cent and copyright _should_ work with most browsers. Some browsers use a “?” in place of the codes it couldn’t understand, others will probably leave it blank, or display the code itself. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/7 "1999-10-30T09:51:00Z")
**Same as above** , except using all number format. (fixing #982) Here is a test of extended HTML characters. \ ¢ £ © Æ ø ∞ ∞ ♠ ϖ ‰ \ You should see the following characters: cent (twice), Copyright, “AE”, an o with a slash; infinity (twice), a spade, pi, and 0/00 ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/8 "1999-10-30T10:09:00Z")
Sorry, Tuba and Nano; this is taking longer than I thought. Anyway, using the two browsers I have on my system here are the results. IE 4 displayed all of the characters **except** the spade and the pi symbols. Netscape 4.7 couldn’t display the pi, the spade **or** the infinities. So **krish’s** suggestion would be best. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/9 "1999-10-30T15:12:00Z")
In each of your examples, my browser (IE 4.0 on Win95) showed on the first line in each case: cent, British-pound-sterling, copyright, capital ash, slashed “O” . The second line showed Ex 1: infinity, infinity, square, square, “%#8240” (stuff in quotes were run together, as shown) Ex 2: infinity, infinity, square, square, 0/00 as a single character ## Ex 3: infinity, infinity, square, “&982;”, 0/00 as a single character Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/10 "1999-10-31T05:42:00Z")
IE 5.0 showed the spade as well, in all trials. Ray ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/11 "1999-10-30T20:32:00Z")
You should probably ignore the times a number showed up. That’s when I f\*cked up the code. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 1999, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/12 "1999-10-30T21:11:00Z")
New Test to determine if your browser supports mnemonic coding or numeric coding. Line1 (C), (R), cent, AE, uppercase thorn, Line2 Delta, [lowercase] pi, [uppercase] sigma, infinity, Club Test #1 Mnemonic\ © ® ¢ Æ Þ Δ π Σ ∞ ♣ \ Test #2 Numeric\ © ® ¢ Æ ß Δ π Σ ∞ ♣ \ Hope it works. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/13 "1999-10-31T05:19:00Z")
þ þ Þ Þ ß ß þ þ ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/14 "1999-10-31T05:24:00Z")
SN, I think you goofed on cap thorn; it’s #222, not #223, which is German sharp ‘s’. [see my prior post here] Ray ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/15 "1999-10-31T05:27:00Z")
Þ Þ ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinity-sign-in-html/503/16 "1999-10-31T05:40:00Z")
Thanks, I misread my HTML book. \1500 pages of point 3 font will make you blind.\