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Forked from Zenexer/Mac Keyboard Symbols.md
Last active October 31, 2024 20:41
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List of Mac/Apple keyboard symbols

Common symbols

Modifiers

When a key combination is displayed, the modifiers are written in the order presented here. For example, Control + Option + Shift + Command + Q would be written as ⌃⌥⇧⌘Q.

Sym Key Alt
Control
Option
Shift
Command

The command key was formerly represented by an Apple logo. The Apple logo is one fo the few symbols here that can be easily typed with a typical keyboard layout: ⌥⇧K

There is also a fn modifier on modern Mac keyboards. Typically this isn't seen in keyboard shortcuts because it's only used to access keys F1 through F20. However, it can actually be combined with control plus one other key for a unique legacy key combination. Each of these fn + control combinations maps to a character in Unicode's U+F700 to U+F7FF private use range. Some programs will erroneously print these characters upon receiving such a combination. With system Mac fonts, these characters lack visible glyphs, and are for internal use only. See ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/CORPCHAR.TXT

Normal

Sym Key Alt
Escape
Eject
Delete fwd
Delete
Caps lock
Left
Right
Up
Down
Return
❘⃝ Power
Page up
Page down
Back tab
Tab
End
Home
Enter
Context menu
Clear
Space
Num lock

The alternate eject symbol is from a Unicode private use region. Apple designates it for use with mapping to/from the Mac OS Keyboard encoding. Ideally, the official Unicode variant should be used instead, as it will be compatible with fonts on other platforms. ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/CORPCHAR.TXT

The click symbol is private a Unicode private use region and is likely incompatible with other platforms.

Complete list

Reference: ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/KEYBOARD.TXT

These are the official Unicode symbol mappings published by Apple.

Sym Unicode Mac Key name Notes
U+21E7 0x05 Shift
U+2303 0x06 Control
U+2388 0x8A Control ISO
U+2325 0x07 Option
U+2387 0x8B Alt
U+2318 0x11 Command
U+F8FF 0x14 Command Old; solid Apple logo
 U+F8FF U+F87F 0x6C Command Old; outlined Apple logo
U+21E5 0x02 Tab right (LTR)
U+21E4 0x03 Tab left (RTL)
U+2324 0x04 Enter
U+2423 0x09 Space
U+21A9 0x0B Return (LTR)
U+21AA 0x0C Return (RTL)
U+232B 0x17 Delete left (LTR)
U+2326 0x0A Delete right (RTL)
U+238B 0x1B Escape
U+2327 0x1C Clear
U+2423 0x61 Blank
U+21EA 0x63 Caps lock
?⃝ U+003F U+20DD 0x67 Help
U+2192 0x65 Right
U+2190 0x64 Left
U+2191 0x68 Up
U+2193 0x6A Down
U+2196 0x66 Home
U+2198 0x69 End
U+21DE 0x62 Page up
U+21DF 0x6B Page down
U+F803 0x6D Context menu
❘⃝ U+2758 U+20DD 0x6E Power
U+23CF 0x8C Eject
英数 U+82F1 U+6570 0x8D Eisu Japanese
かな U+304B U+306A 0x8E Kana Japanese
F1 U+F860 F 1 0x6F F1
F2 U+F860 F 2 0x70 F2
F3 U+F860 F 3 0x71 F3
F4 U+F860 F 4 0x72 F4
F5 U+F860 F 5 0x73 F5
F6 U+F860 F 6 0x74 F6
F7 U+F860 F 7 0x75 F7
F8 U+F860 F 8 0x76 F8
F9 U+F860 F 9 0x77 F9
F10 U+F861 F 1 0 0x78 F10
F11 U+F861 F 1 1 0x79 F11
F12 U+F861 F 1 2 0x7A F12
F13 U+F861 F 1 3 0x87 F13
F14 U+F861 F 1 4 0x88 F14
F15 U+F861 F 1 5 0x89 F15
F16 U+F861 F 1 6 F16
F17 U+F861 F 1 7 F17
F18 U+F861 F 1 8 F18
F19 U+F861 F 1 9 F19
F20 U+F861 F 2 0 F20
U+F802 0x0F
U+2713 0x12
U+25C6 0x13
U+21E3 0x10
U+21E0 0x18
U+21E1 0x19
U+21E2 0x1A

Some entries are missing key names; these don't map to physical keys.

LTR indicates usage with left-to-right languages: that means text flows from left to right, such as in most Western languages. RTL indicates the opposite. Many keyboards have both Delete Left and Delete Right, regardless of text direction.

ISO indicates a symbol designated by an ISO standard. ISO standard symbols aren't necessarily used by Mac.

Symbols composed of multiple Unicode characters are special in that they are treated as a single character on Mac, despite appearing as multiple symbols. For most of the characters, this grouping is controlled by the first character, which is a Unicode private use character that is invisible on Mac. The others use standard Unicode combining techniques.

@ggguser
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ggguser commented Nov 17, 2023

Maybe concider use ↵ for return?

@nimeshneema
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@ggguser The Raw/Source form renders the ↵ character correctly.

@Insterstellar
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You missed the emoji key. It's very important. I find using it a lot.

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