What Special Character in ASCII Looks Like a Checkmark?

There is no special character in ASCII or ISO-646-IRV that bears a striking resemblance to a checkmark. When you think of a checkmark, you may be considering one of the characters in specific ASCII-based codepages, such as Codepage 437. However, the visually pleasing checkmark shape is not directly found in ASCII. If you're looking to insert a checkmark into your document or webpage, it is best to turn to Unicode, which offers a specific character designed for this purpose.

ASCII and Unicode

ASCII, short for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication, which uses 7-bit numbers, the smallest of which (0) can be used for a space character. However, even within these limits, a perfect checkmark does not exist. While some symbols may approximate the shape of a checkmark, none are universally recognized as such.

For example, in the extended ASCII for IBM PCs (also known as Codepage 437), the square root symbol (FB) might be what you came across. This is a creative way to use an available character, but it is far from the perfect checkmark.

Using the Checkmark Symbol in Unicode

For precise and universally understood checkmark functionality, Unicode provides the checkmark symbol (?) with the Unicode value U 2713. You can use this character if you're working on a webpage, document, or any platform that supports Unicode. To include this symbol, follow these simple steps:

On Windows: Launch the Character Map application on Windows. This can be done quickly by pressing Windows Key R, typing charmap, and pressing Enter. Once open, select the "Dingbats" Unicode subrange, and you can find the checkmark symbol there. Highlight it and click 'Copy,' then paste it into your desired text editor or application. On a Mac: You can use theCharacter Viewer. Click on the icon in the menu bar, then go to "Edit" and select "Emoji Symbols." Alternatively, you can use the shortcut Ctrl Command Space. On Linux: Use your favorite text editor or application and look for the Unicode character. The symbol can often be copied from online sources or Unicode character viewers. For Web Development: Insert the Unicode character directly into your HTML code or CSS. For example:
font stylefont-family: monospace;#x2713;/fontorbrspan stylefont-family: monospace;#x2713;/spanbr

Other Notable Characters

While not a perfect checkmark, there are a few characters in the original ASCII set that can be creatively manipulated to resemble a checkmark to a certain extent:

The forward slash (/) and the backslash () can be combined to create a lightly approximating V shape, which might serve as a close substitute in some contexts. The square root symbol (√) is found in extended ASCII for IBM (251) and might be a good fit for some design purposes, even though it is not the checkmark you are looking for.

Ultimately, if you need to use a checkmark, Unicode offers a well-defined and universally recognized symbol, making it the best choice for clarity and consistency across platforms and audiences.