Unicode: Arrows → ➵ ➛ ➲ ➤

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .
Font:

Here is a complete list of arrows of Unicode, grouped by style.

Emoji Arrows

these always show as emoji.

🔙 🔚 🔛 🔜 🔝

🔁 🔂 🔃 🔄

Common Arrows

, , ,

stroked arrow
, ,

arrow to bar

arrow to dot

arrow from bar

paired arrow
,

black arrow
( ) , ,

white arrow
, ,

sans-serif arrow
🡐 🡒 🡘 , 🡑 🡓 🡙 , 🡔 🡕 🡖 🡗

open-headed head

long arrow
, ,

Double Lines Arrow

double arrow
, ,

stroked double arrow
,

double arrow from bar

triple lines arrow
,

quadruple lines arrow

Two Headed

TWO HEADED

double head with stroke
,

Fishbone Arrows

arrow with tail
, ,

double head with tail and stroke
, ,

Squiggle and Wave Arrow

squiggle arrow
,

wave arrow
, ⬿

Dashed Arrow

dashed arrow
,
dotted stem arrow
,

Harpoon Arrow

harpoon arrow
,

double sided harpoon
,

harpoon to bar
,

harpoon with bar tail

double harpoon

,
,

Sharp Turn, Bent

sharp turn arrow
, ,

bent arrow
, ,

Hook Tail, Loop Tail, Fish Tail

arrow with hook
,

slanted hook arrow

arrows with loop

arrow-tail
,

fish tail
⥿

Arrow Dingbats

feathered

cross arrow
,
,
,

Triangle Arrowhead

triangle arrowhead
,

diff size arrow head
🠀 🠂 🠁 🠃 ,
🠄 🠆 🠅 🠇 ,
🠈 🠊 🠉 🠋

triangle-headed arrow, diff shaft sizes
🠠 🠢 🠡 🠣 ,
🠤 🠦 🠥 🠧 ,
🠨 🠪 🠩 🠫 ,
🠬 🠮 🠭 🠯 ,
🠰 🠲 🠱 🠳

equilateral triangle arrowhead
🠐 🠒 🠑 🠓 ,
🠔 🠖 🠕 🠗 ,
🠘 🠚 🠙 🠛 ,
🠜 🠞 🠝 🠟

,

triangle-headed dashed

paired arrow, triangle-headed
,

triangle-headed

triangle double head

sharp turn long tip
,

wide-headed Barb Arrow
🡠 🡢 🡡 🡣 🡤 🡥 🡦 🡧 ,
🡨 🡪 🡩 🡫 🡬 🡭 🡮 🡯 ,
🡰 🡲 🡱 🡳 🡴 🡵 🡶 🡷 ,
🡸 🡺 🡹 🡻 🡼 🡽 🡾 🡿 ,
🢀 🢂 🢁 🢃 🢄 🢅 🢆 🢇

Circled Arrow
,

black arrowhead
,
black white arrowhead
,

Circular Arrow

circle arc
⤿ , ,

cycle
, , 🗘

Turning Arrow

U-turn arrow

ribbon arrow
, , ,

curved arrow
, ,

Shaded / Shadowed arrows

shaded
, 🢠 🢡 , 🢢 🢣 , 🢤 🢧 , 🢦 🢥

shadowed
,

shadowed, tilted
, 🢨 🢩 , 🢪 🢫

Fat Arrows

squared arrow
🠹 🠸 🠻 🠺

heavy arrow
🡄 🡆 🡅 🡇

compressed arrow
🠼 🠾 🠽 🠿 , 🡀 🡂 🡁 🡃

Arrow Heads, Arrow Shafts

arrow heads
🢐 🢒 🢑 🢓 , 🢔 🢖 🢕 🢗 , ,

arrow shaft
🢜 🢝 🢞 🢟 🢬 🢭

Misc

🠴 🠶 🠵 🠷

🢘 🢚 🢙 🢛

Keyboard Keys Arrows

tab ⭿ , return , newline

Triangle Pointers

pointers and triangles

Math Arrows

Pointing Fingers

Arrow to Coner

,

Unicode Arrows Screenshot

Here is a screenshot showing what they look like in my browser.

unicode arrows 2017-04-20
unicode arrows 2017-04-20

About the Arrows

There are about 611 arrows. These are from several different sections of Unicode, including:

It took me several days to collect and organize these arrows. They are scattered in different places, and are hard to find. Also, there are a lot symmetry issues, and some mirror image isn't there. Here's some details of my experience.

Scattered All Over

They are scattered in different code blocks. The most common ones are collected in “Symbols, Arrows (2190–21FF)”. In the beginning of Unicode history, there's just a right pointing arrow of a particular style, because left pointing ones are seldomly or never used. But later, it's realized the left pointing ones are important too, for one reason or another, and sometimes there's a need just for completeness because Unicode became more wide spread. So, the left pointing ones get added, in the same block but different neighborhood, or in another block. Thus you have “Supplemental Arrows-A” and “Supplemental Arrows-B”. For similar reasons, other symmetric versions of the same style such as upward and or downward versions are scattered in wildly different blocks.

For example, here's some arrows and their names:

CodepointCharNameDate Added
U+2B05LEFTWARDS BLACK ARROWUnicode 4 ()
U+2B06UPWARDS BLACK ARROWUnicode 4 ()
U+2B07DOWNWARDS BLACK ARROWUnicode 4 ()

However, there was no “RIGHTWARDS BLACK ARROW” for about 10 years. The closest is this:

CodepointCharNameDate Added
U+27A1BLACK RIGHTWARDS ARROW
(old name: BLACK RIGHT ARROW)
Unicode 1 ()

You can see that, this right pointing arrow was there first. The others are added later. The names are inconsistent.

Finally, in Unicode 7, a new one with consistent name is added.

CodepointCharNameDate Added
U+2B95RIGHTWARDS BLACK ARROW
Unicode 7 ()

Now we have a ugly situation. There are 2 of them {, }. According to Unicode, they should be rendered in the same style as the other 3 for up/left/down. But, as of 2017-10-11, only the first one is rendered in the same style.

Missing Symmetric Versions

Lots of these arrows are from math, but some are also used elsewhere. The problem is, it's hard to categorize them into one place. So, in Unicode, the arrows gets into one of these blocks: “Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols-B”, “Supplemental Mathematical Operators”, “Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows”. Often, the left/right pair and the up/down pair are in different blocks.

Here is a example: . There does not seem to have a vertical version of . The chars are in category “Symbol, other”, while are in category “Symbol, Math”.

Another example: . Note that there is no right pointing version of as of (Unicode 10) .

Many arrows do not have symmetric versions. Symmetry here can be reflection thru vertical or horizontal axes, or n*90° rotation, or combination of them. The following are some set of chars missing symmetric versions: .

Ordering Problem

Also, when trying to order them, i ran into the problem of devising a ordering scheme. For example, usually i order them by left right up down, like this:. . But now look at these: . For the vertical pair, which should come first?

Here is another example of the complexity. There are these chars:

CharacterUnicode Name
ANTICLOCKWISE TOP SEMICIRCLE ARROW
CLOCKWISE TOP SEMICIRCLE ARROW
LOWER RIGHT SEMICIRCULAR CLOCKWISE ARROW
⤿LOWER LEFT SEMICIRCULAR ANTICLOCKWISE ARROW
RIGHT-SIDE ARC CLOCKWISE ARROW
LEFT-SIDE ARC ANTICLOCKWISE ARROW
TOP ARC ANTICLOCKWISE ARROW
BOTTOM ARC ANTICLOCKWISE ARROW

If you analyze their names, you can see that a circle can be divided into 8 arcs: {left, right, top, bottom}, and 4 of the diagonal arcs. Each arc can be clockwise or anti-clockwise. 8 arcs, 2 directions, there are a combination of 16 possibilities. First of all, note that not all of them is present. (For example, there is no char named “TOP ARC CLOCKWISE ARROW”) But given these chars, how do you order them?

Font Problems

Note that some left/right pairs looks very different, even in the same font.

For example, here's how they render in your browser:

CharacterCodePointUnicode Name
U+2B3ELEFTWARDS ARROW THROUGH X
U+2947RIGHTWARDS ARROW THROUGH X
U+2B32LEFT ARROW WITH CIRCLED PLUS
U+27F4RIGHT ARROW WITH CIRCLED PLUS
U+2B33LONG LEFTWARDS SQUIGGLE ARROW
U+27FFLONG RIGHTWARDS SQUIGGLE ARROW
U+2B31THREE LEFTWARDS ARROWS
U+21F6THREE RIGHTWARDS ARROWS
unicode arrow font problem 2016-01-25
Unicode arrows inconsistent font problem, rendered on Linux, Firefox 2016-01-25
unicode arrows chrome 2017 10 11 52865
Unicode arrows inconsistent font problem, rendered on macOS Google Chrome 2017-10-11
unicode arc arrows firefox 2017 10 91911
Unicode circle arc arrows, rendered on macOS Firefox 2017-10
unicode arc arrows chrome 2017 10 35434
Unicode circle arc arrows, rendered on macOS Google Chrome 2017-10
unicode circle arc arrows on Safari 2018-07-19 20540
Unicode arc arrows on Safari 2018-07-19

How the chars shows up on your screen may be very different from another person. It depends on your operating system, web browser, your browser and OS configuration, and availability of font on your system.

Typically, the rightward versions have correctly designed fonts, because it is far more popularly used. The leftward version, or other directions, sometimes get added as afterthought or extensions.

Unicode Math Symbols