# More Questions About Making Symbols. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 10, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074 "2003-02-10T11:08:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/1 "2003-02-10T11:08:50Z")
Actually, I need to know how to make the infinity symbol right now, which I believe is thus: &infty; Someone one told me that there is a list of these special codes to make these symbols, but I forgot how to get to the list. If someone could provide another hyperlink to the this list, I would appreciate that. Actually that is not what is most concerning me now. I have had a home computer for a year now. And I have learned quite a bit as I go along. But I never found how to make different symbols that weren’t located on my keyboard. I vaguely recall reading some place that to do that, you must go to the _“symbol font”_. But even after much trial and error, I have get to find a “symbol font” on my computer. Does anyone know where it is:confused:? Or is on a different type of computer than I have? Thanks in advance. Hey, sometimes you have to ask the silly questions:smack:. Then when someone who has the same question reads the reply, you spare them the embarassment;). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/2 "2003-02-10T11:11:21Z")
Well, that didn’t work. Let’s try this: &infinity; ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/3 "2003-02-10T11:22:38Z")
From the [FAQ at the top of the forum:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=103503) [Special Characters](http://home.earthlink.net/~awinkelried/keyboard_shortcuts.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/4 "2003-02-10T11:26:25Z")
∞ is & + infin; from [here.](http://www.natural-innovations.com/boo/doc-charset.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/5 "2003-02-10T15:06:57Z")
π ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/6 "2003-02-10T16:56:20Z")
⌘ ☯ ℗ ¿ ¥ « Ìñ†æ®ë߆ıñ˛ Why when I use some of the codes at the bottom of the [list](http://www.natural-innovations.com/boo/doc-charset.html) (for the yin yang and the command key) they just come up as squares here? Happy ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/7 "2003-02-10T17:31:08Z")
Because they aren’t represented in every charachter set (font). ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/8 "2003-02-10T19:29:27Z")
Well, browsers are supposed to supply them even if they’re absent from the font. The official list of what’s supposed to be supported can be found here: [Character entity references in HTML 4](http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html). However, several browsers do not support this complete list, including the antediluvian Netscape Navigator, the dubious Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the quirky Opera. It is considered bad form to post content which not all users can read, so I would recommend avoiding anything that’s not in extended ASCII (ie, anything which does not have an Alt code in **Ice Wolf** ’s first link). This includes the infinity symbol. I just write out “infinity” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/9 "2003-02-10T19:44:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > \*\*I just write out “infinity” instead. \*\* Doesn’t it take a long time? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/10 "2003-02-10T20:28:18Z")
Yes. Plus it doesn’t look half as stylish as the symbol that ∞ is supposed to appear as. That’s the price I pay to make my mathematics readable, though. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/11 "2003-02-10T20:47:25Z")
As far as the symbols go, I just stick to remembering how to do th’ one for the pound sterling. Everything else seems way too complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/12 "2003-02-10T23:26:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > **Yes. Plus it doesn’t look half as stylish as the symbol that ∞ is supposed to appear as.** It’s a joke, son, a poke in the ribs. Take a long time to write out infinity, ya see? Forever, that is. I say, I say, my jokes are harder to read than skywriting in a tornado. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/13 "2003-02-11T00:57:20Z")
I got the joke, daddy-o. If I didn’t, the answer would have been: No. Don’t worry; your sense of humor is not _that_ bizarre. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/14 "2003-02-11T21:22:51Z")
I’ve also seen the infinity symbol represented as oo. While this isn’t really it, it usually gets the idea across, and approximately reproduces the look of a written formula using only standard ASCII. Really, even the alt codes can be a bit flaky… There’s no official standard for any ASCII code above 127, and command-line programs generally use a completely different set. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-questions-about-making-symbols/154074/15 "2003-02-11T23:02:14Z")
There may not be an official standard for extended ASCII, but there is an official standard for Unicode 128-255, and that’s what’s usually used anyway. If you know these symbols and their Alt code, you can make them pretty easily with the escape sequence: &#NNN; Where NNN is the three-digit code. For instance, the acute lowercase e (é) is Alt+0233, so you can escape it with é. I find é easier to remember, though. 🙂