Adding plain text to your website is easy; just type it in and your browser will render it. But what do you do if you want to add a quote in French and you need accent signs? How about if you want to throw in some extra spaces at one point, or indicate a copyright?

For these special characters, you'll need knowledge of ASCII, otherwise known as American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It's a set of codes that allows you to communicate with your visitor's browser in its own language. ASCII codes exist for all characters, but you'll rarely if ever need to use the codes for basic letters and numbers. I've included them here anyway for the sake of completeness.

ASCII characters are also useful if you want to post sample code on your website. Simply typing in an HTML tag will cause the browser to execute that tag, not display it as written. However, you can trick the browser into displaying the tag instead by using ASCII code for the < > symbols instead of the symbols themselves.

Without further ado, here are the ASCII characters for a number of useful symbols:

ASCII Code	What You See	ASCII Code	What You See	ASCII Code	What You See	ASCII Code	What You See	ASCII Code	What You See
©	©	!	!	_	_			Û	Û
®	®	"	"	`	`	ž	ž	Ü	Ü
		#	#	a	a	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ý	Ý
"	"	$	$	b	b			Þ	Þ
&	&	%	%	c	c	¡	¡	ß	ß
<	<	&	&	d	d	¢	¢	à	à
>	>	'	'	e	e	£	£	á	á
À	À	(	(	f	f	¤	¤	â	â
Á	Á	)	)	g	g	¥	¥	ã	ã
Â	Â	*	*	h	h	¦	¦	ä	ä
Ã	Ã	+	+	i	i	§	§	å	å
Ä	Ä	,	,	j	j	¨	¨	æ	æ
Å	Å	-	-	k	k	©	©	ç	ç
Æ	Æ	.	.	l	l	ª	ª	è	è
Ç	Ç	/	/	m	m	«	«	é	é
È	È	0	0	n	n	¬	¬	ê	ê
É	É	1	1	o	o	­	­	ë	ë
Ê	Ê	2	2	p	p	®	®	ì	ì
Ë	Ë	3	3	q	q	¯	¯	í	í
Ì	Ì	4	4	r	r	°	°	î	î
Í	Í	5	5	s	s	±	±	ï	ï
Î	Î	6	6	t	t	²	²	ð	ð
Ï	Ï	7	7	u	u	³	³	ñ	ñ
Ð	Ð	8	8	v	v	´	´	ò	ò
Ñ	Ñ	9	9	w	w	µ	µ	ó	ó
Õ	Õ	:	:	x	x	¶	¶	ô	ô
Ö	Ö	;	;	y	y	·	·	õ	õ
Ø	Ø	<	<	z	z	¸	¸	ö	ö
Ù	Ù	=	=	{	{	¹	¹	÷	÷
Ú	Ú	>	>	|	|	º	º	ø	ø
Û	Û	?	?	}	}	»	»	ù	ù
Ü	Ü	@	@	~	~	¼	¼	ú	ú
Ý	Ý	A	A		?	½	½	û	û
Þ	Þ	B	B	€	€	¾	¾	ü	ü
ß	ß	C	C			¿	¿	ý	ý
à	à	D	D	‚	‚	À	À	þ	þ
á	á	E	E	ƒ	ƒ	Á	Á	ÿ	ÿ
å	å	F	F	„	„	Â	Â
æ	æ	G	G	…	…	Ã	Ã
ç	ç	H	H	†	†	Ä	Ä
è	è	I	I	‡	‡	Å	Å
é	é	J	J	ˆ	ˆ	Æ	Æ
ê	ê	K	K	‰	‰	Ç	Ç
ë	ë	L	L	Š	Š	È	È
ì	ì	M	M	‹	‹	É	É
í	í	N	N	Œ	Œ	Ê	?
î	î	O	O			Ë	Ë
ï	ï	P	P	Ž	Ž	Ì	Ì
ð	ð	Q	Q			Í	Í
ñ	ñ	R	R			Î	Î
ò	ò	S	S	‘	‘	Ï	Ï
ó	ó	T	T	’	’	Ð	Ð
ô	ô	U	U	“	“	Ñ	Ñ
õ	õ	V	V	”	”	Ò	Ò
ö	ö	W	W	•	•	Ó	Ó
ø	ø	X	X	–	–	Ô	Ô
ù	ù	Y	Y	—	—	Õ	Õ
ú	ú	Z	Z	˜	˜	Ö	Ö
û	û	[	[	™	™	×	×
ý	ý	\	\	š	š	Ø	Ø
þ	þ	]	]	›	›	Ù	Ù
ÿ	ÿ	^	^	œ	œ	Ú	Ú