Full Unicode Input utility

Instructions

This utility can be characterized as an online extended character map oriented towards writing characters. It displays a table that looks like a set of keyboard buttons, and clicking on a button you enter the character in question. The characters will be appended to the text input area on the right.

You can also type the Unicode number of a character in the box prefixed by “U+” and press Enter or click on the Add button.

To copy the text onto your clipboard, click on the “Select” button and then use a function of your browser, typically Ctrl C, to copy the selected text onto the clipboard. You can then past the text where you like (typically, with Ctrl V).

Whether you see a character properly in the table or in the input area depends on the fonts installed on your system. See e.g. Large, multi-script Unicode fonts for Windows computers.

Due to problems in font handling, Internet Explorer may fail to display a character even though some font on your system contains it. If this is a problem, consider using another browser, such as Chrome or Firefox.

You can change which set of 256 (16×16) consecutive Unicode characters is displayed, i.e. switch between character repertoires. You can select a block from a dropdown menu or enter the starting position. Note that many Unicode blocks contain less than 256 characters, or more than 256 characters. To get to characters past the first 256 in a block, use the control for starting position.

Above the table, there are some tools for changing the block or the starting position, as a Unicode number of its first character. Type the hexadecimal digits (well, you can enter four if you like) and press return (or click on the Go button).

This utility supports all of Unicode, even characters beyond the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).

This tool suitable for typing some short texts e.g. in Russian or Greek which you need to put onto a page of yours which is otherwise e.g. in English. You would type the text by clicking on the keyboard-like table on the left (changing the character repertoire if needed).

This utility is a self-contained HTML document, so if you save this page on your computer, you can use it as an offline application, too.

For other tools, see the list composed by Alan Wood: Unicode and Multilingual Editors and Word Processors. I'd especially recommend taking a look at the free BabelPad editor (for Windows), which also uses a "virtual keyboard".