Alt Codes for Special Characters

[dsdesigns]

I am used to seeing ALT codes for the special characters (like a bullet point = ALT0149) However I only see a bullet point with a code of 0x2022 - what is this? Basically I'm trying to get special characters of font but unable to find the ALT code for each symbol and or character. Any help would be appreciated.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

2022 is the Hexadecimal code. The Decimal code of 8226 can be shown by changing the MainType settings in Tools, Appearance, Value Formatting.

Using MainType you can copy any character to the clipboard without needing to know its Alt code or Hexidecimal code.

If you want a list of Alt Codes, there are plenty of online resources.

[Alfred]

Characters produced by Alt+0nnn numeric keypad sequences such as Alt+0149 are ANSI, or ISO-8859-1 (ISO Latin 1). U+2022 is a Unicode bullet character; just as you can use Alt+0149 for an ANSI bullet, you can use Alt+8226 (where 8226 is the decimal equivalent of 2022 hexadecimal) for a Unicode bullet.

[dsdesigns]

I am still confused as how and what to type on my keyboard in order to get certain extra font images.
Any help please? Again, I can type ALT0149 for a bullet. But when I see a latin letter, there is no Alt code in the character map in MainType. Hopefully I am explaining my problem correctly. TIA

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The ALT codes are not displayed anywhere in MainType.

Use an online source such as Alt Codes Net linked to in my earlier post to find out the Alt codes. For example, to type è you need to type Alt138.

Where are you trying to insert these characters? You can add them to the Sample Panel using MainType without knowing any Alt codes. You can also copy them to the clipboard as text or images for pasting to other applications.

Add to Sample.png (5.14 KiB) Viewed 18642 times

[dsdesigns]

I think the whole problem is my program.
I can copy and paste the symbol I need into Illustrator but I mostly use Freehand, and it wont paste properly into this program (just a ? is used). Thank you so much for your help.

[Stonyjohn]

I have been using ALT numbers for graphic characters for a very long time. The illustration shows (just a sample) that regular fonts contain graphic characters using standard ALT numbers for access, straight from the keyboard, with your usual text entry program. The procedure is to press and hold the ALT key down while entering the required numbers before releasing the ALT key. Referring to a printed code sheet, this procedure is far easier than going into another program for copying and pasting, or even Character Map for access.
The complete list of ALT codes can be viewed here: https://altcodeunicode.com/

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I still use some Alt+Code shortcuts for occasionally used symbols such as: © µ ¶ » ¼ or Æ.
Those of us who started using computers before the days of Unicode got familiar with some ASCII and ANSI codes, but MainType makes it a lot easier to insert a much wider range of characters without memorising any codes. ☎ ☃ ☑

I created my own Windows keyboard with the Microsoft keyboard Layout Creator because I need quick access to a lot of accented characters like ā, ñ, or ṇ. I added a few symbols to it too like • ‽ ¿ and ☒, but rarely use the latter shortcuts as I do not remember them when I need them.

It is also worth knowing the Windows emoji shortcut: Window Key + period: which makes it easy to insert a lot more symbols without remembering code-points.