Fun Unicode Characters for Facebook (and Generally Anywhere).

 Here is just a sample of fun unicode characters for Facebook. You can use these pretty much anywhere (including Google+), but I’ve specifically selected a few that don’t have emoticon equivalents supported by Facebook (at least that I’m aware of), don’t get converted to graphic emoticon representations by Facebook, and do display properly on most systems.

There are several different ways you can type the characters, depending on your system. You can use the hex codes on Windows and Linux (at least GTK apps). Using hexadecimal input for unicode characters on Windows can be a little tricky, though. Older alt codes can be used for some, but not all of the characters. Although the characters you can type with alt codes is limited, they have two advantages: they don’t require any special configuration and since they are decimal numbers they don’t contain any letters that are likely to cause conflicts with program shortcuts, so I’ve included them in the chart where applicable. To use the alt codes, you simply hold the Alt key while typing the number (you don’t use the + key like you do for the hex codes). Please note the leading 0 is important, alt code 145 produces a different character (æ) from 0145.

The easiest and most convenient input method is the compose key on Linux. It doesn’t cover all unicode characters, but it covers more useful characters than alt codes and they tend to be much easier to type and remember because they tend to be mnemonic (while not on the list because Facebook provides emoticon equivalents, the compose sequence for a smiley is :), a frowney is :(, and a heart is <3). There is a caveat, however, for the compose key on GTK apps. GTK overrides the configurable behavior of the compose key, unless you specifically configure to it use the underlying configuration from X. In order to do this, you will want to add a line to your ~/.Xsession like this:

export GTK_IM_MODULE="xim"

Then log out and back in. You can also type the above line directly into a terminal and then launch the GTK app from that terminal if you want to just quickly try it. The highlighted compose key sequences below may not work in GTK apps—including Firefox and OpenOffice—without this extra configuration, however.

Of course, if you have trouble typing any of the characters, you can also copy and paste them from here. That isn’t exactly the point here, but it will work.

Description	Compose	Alt	Hex		Character
left single quote	<'	0145	2018	‘
right single quote (apostrophe)	>'	0146	2019	’
left double quote	<"	0147	201C	“
right double quote	>"	0148	201D	”
en dash	--.	0150	2013	–
em dash	---	0151	2014	—
hedera			2766	❦
side-ways hedera			2767	❧
degree symbol	oo	248	00B0	°
copyright symbol	oc	0169	00A9	©
registered trademark symbol	or	0174	00AE	®
trademark symbol	tm	0153	2122	™
bullet point	.=	7	2022	•
cross			271D	✝
outlined cross			271E	✞
check mark			2714	✔
x mark			2718	✘
snowman			2603	☃
infinity symbol	88	236	221E	∞
radiation symbol			2622	☢
skull and crossbones			2620	☠
eighth note	#e	13	266A	♪
beamed sixteenth notes	#S		266C	♬
musical sharp symbol	##		266F	♯
musical flat symbol	#b		266D	♭

Bonus: Tux

It is often asked if there is a unicode character for Tux, the penguin who serves as the Linux mascot. There is no character for Tux in the unicode standard, however there is a private area for fonts to include non-standard characters. Linux Libertine, an excellent free font, includes Tux at code point e000. You can use this character if you can specify the font, such as on a web page (better use @font-face or the browser will fallback to something else if it isn’t installed) or in a document where you select the font. If you use this on Facebook, it will only display properly for those who have the font installed and have a browser that automatically falls back to a font that has the character available if it isn't in the currently selected font.

Here is what it looks like, if you have the font installed: 

And here is what it looks like a bit larger: 

Note: I changed the font color for Tux to black and the background to white, because it does look rather odd in reverse. I also made sure to remove the text-shadow effect.

Easily Type Accented Characters, Curly Quotes, and Other Symbols in Linux with the Compose Key.

Setup

While there are a variety of ways to input special characters not found on your keyboard, the compose key provides one of the easiest. The key sequences are fairly mnemonic, making them easier to remember, and they are often shorter than equivalent hex codes and easier to use than copy and paste. But in order to use these, you may first have to make sure your system is set up to use a compose key.

KDE

In KDE, pull up your System Settings and select Input Devices. Under the Keyboard section, select the Advanced tab and check the Configure keyboard options box. Click the arrow to expand the Compose key position section, and then check the box for the key you wish to use. I’m using the right win key, which on my keyboard is actually the Tux key.

Gnome

In Gnome, pull up your System Settings and select Keyboard. Under the Typing tab, select Layout Settings. Then, under the Layouts tab select the Options... button. Under Compose key position, select the key you want to use as the compose key. Again, I’m using the right win key, which is actually the Tux key on my keyboard.

Usage

Now that your desktop environment is configured to use the compose key, all you have to do is hold down the compose key while typing the key sequence for the character you want to type. Note that some of these characters—such as the caret, tilde, and double quotes— require the shift key. You can press and release the shift key as needed while holding the compose key.

Accents and Diacritics

You don't really have to memorize the combinations for each accented character, there is generally a character for each accent, so you simply type [compose key] + [accent character] + [letter]. For instance, you use a single quote for an acute accent, so on my system Tux + ' + e gives me the accented characters for typing “résumé”.

Accent	Character	Example
acute	'	á
grave	`	à
circumflex	^	â
breve	b	ă
diaeresis or umlaut	"	ä
tilde	~	ñ
cedilla	,	ç

Punctuation

Name	Key Sequence	Characters
curly double quotes	<" and >"	“ and ”
curly single quotes	<' and >'	‘ and ’
en dash	--.	–
em dash	---	—

The right single quote character is also the preferred character for an apostrophe. The en dash is used to indicate a range of values, and for attributive compounds; the em dash is used to indicate a break in thought or interruption of speech, and to set off the attribution of a quote. Wikipedia has more information on dashes, if you are uncertain which to use.

Currency

Name	Key Sequence	Characters
cent	|c	¢
pound	-L	£
euro	=c	€

Other Symbols

Name	Key Sequence	Characters
degree	oo	°
copyright	oc	©
registered trademark	or	®
trademark	tm	™