How to type Black Triangle Right
To type Black Triangle Right (▶), press Alt + 9654 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+25B6 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 25b6 on Linux, or 25b6 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Black Right-Pointing Triangle
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+25B6
- Windows
- Alt + 9654 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 9654 | 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+25B6 | BLACK RIGHT-POINTING TRIANGLE |
Symbols related to Black Triangle Right
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 Right 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: $\blacktriangleright$ 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 play button and arrow. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Black Triangle Right is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches them as well as the Unicode name.
What ▶ gets confused with
Unicode's own confusables table, the one used to catch lookalike domain names, groups ▶ with ▸ (U+25B8, Black Right-Pointing Small Triangle) and ► (U+25BA, Black Right-Pointing Pointer). They are separate characters that render close enough to be mistaken for one another, so a search or a string comparison will separate them where your eye will not. If Black Triangle Right is not matching where you expect it to, one of these is the usual reason.
What Unicode says about Black Triangle Right
The code chart points from ▶ to black medium right-pointing triangle (U+23F5) and black medium right-pointing triangle centred (U+2BC8). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Black Triangle Right looks nearly right but not quite.
How Black Triangle Right 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 Right
What is the degree button on a keyboard?
▶ is BLACK RIGHT-POINTING TRIANGLE, encoded at U+25B6. It is distinct from black medium right-pointing triangle (U+23F5) and black medium right-pointing triangle centred (U+2BC8), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
Every way to write Black Triangle Right
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+25B6 |
| Decimal | 9654 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 96 B6 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 25 B6 |
| HTML entity | ▶ |
| HTML numeric | ▶ or ▶ |
| CSS | \25B6 |
| JavaScript | \u25B6 |
| Python | \u25B6 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%96%B6 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\blacktriangleright$ |
| SVG | 25B6.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ▶ arrives as â–¶
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 96 B6 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.