UTF8.XYZ

A quick web app for fetching Unicode characters without extra fluff

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Example queries and aliases for common characters

• "utf8.xyz/latin-small-letter-a" ⟶ a
• "utf8.xyz/letter-a-with" ⟶ [á, ӑ, ӓ]
• "utf8.xyz/zwj" ⟶ Zero-width joiner
• "utf8.xyz/zwnbs" ⟶ Zero-width non-breaking space
• "utf8.xyz/nbs" ⟶ Zero width non-breaking space
• "utf8.xyz/zwnj" ⟶ Zero-width non-joiner
• "utf8.xyz/zws" ⟶ Zero-width space
• "utf8.xyz/nd" ⟶ –
• "utf8.xyz/md" ⟶ —
• "utf8.xyz/arrows" ⟶ [→, ←, ⟶, ↔, ...]
• "utf8.xyz/currency" ⟶ [£, ¥, ...]

Features

• Use the URL to build queries, will return matching results if more than one
• Click anywhere on a character page to copy quickly
• Accessible from command line, try $ curl -L utf8.xyz/en-dash
• Short, memorable, and bookmarkable URLs without having to go to Google
• No ads, quick load times, small page sizes
• Works without JavaScript if you don't want the automatic clipboard feature
• The code is open source so you can read the code and can suggest improvements

Why did you build this?

I built this service for myself and figured others would also find it useful. My biggest pet-peeve was how unfriendly similar sites are on mobile.

My workflow before utf8.xyz

• Google the name of the unicode character
• Wait for Google to load results
• Select a website from Google
• Wait for that website to load
• Find the character somewhere in the page if it's not obvious
• Copy the character and paste it.
• Sometimes the website potentially injects additional text into the clipboard (ugh) fix those issues if any

My workflow after utf8.xyz

• If in the terminal type: $ curl -L utf8.xyz/en-dash
• If on mobile search in the URL utf8.xyz/nd
• Copy and paste the character where I need it.
• That's it!

Links

• Source Code
• License (Apache-2.0)
• Author