How to type Black Triangle Left
To type Black Triangle Left (◀), press Alt + 9664 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or write ◀ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+25C0 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 25c0 on Linux, or 25c0 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Black Left-Pointing Triangle
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+25C0
- Windows
- Alt + 9664 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 9664 | Above 255, so Windows will not accept it as typed. Copy the character instead. |
| Mac | N/A | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ◀ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+25C0 | BLACK LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE |
Symbols related to Black Triangle Left
These are filed under button, triangle and arrow in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other symbols
◀ lives in the Geometric Shapes block (U+25A0-U+25FF), squares, circles, triangles and diamonds. Within Unicode it is classified as So, a symbol.
What Black Triangle Left is used for
In mathematical notation ◀ is an ordinary symbol: it carries no special spacing and sits in an expression the way a letter does, standing for a thing rather than doing something to the things around it. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\blacktriangleleft$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
Unicode publishes a second list of names for ◀ in CLDR, the keywords its own search data offers rather than the formal name, and they are reverse button and arrow. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Black Triangle Left is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches them as well as the Unicode name.
What Unicode says about Black Triangle Left
The code chart points from ◀ to black medium left-pointing triangle (U+23F4) and black medium left-pointing triangle centred (U+2BC7). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Black Triangle Left looks nearly right but not quite.
How Black Triangle Left behaves in software
◀ is East Asian Ambiguous: one column in a Western locale and two in a CJK one. That is why a table that lines up on your machine can break on somebody else's, with no change to the text at all. It carries no direction of its own, so in a line that mixes English with Arabic or Hebrew it takes the direction of the text around it rather than forcing one.
What people ask about Black Triangle Left
What is the degree button on a keyboard?
◀ is BLACK LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE, encoded at U+25C0. It is distinct from black medium left-pointing triangle (U+23F4) and black medium left-pointing triangle centred (U+2BC7), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
Every way to write Black Triangle Left
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+25C0 |
| Decimal | 9664 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 97 80 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 25 C0 |
| HTML entity | ◀ |
| HTML numeric | ◀ or ◀ |
| CSS | \25C0 |
| JavaScript | \u25C0 |
| Python | \u25C0 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%97%80 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\blacktriangleleft$ |
| SVG | 25C0.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ◀ arrives as â—€
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 97 80 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.